There’s an old adage that says that to be the best at anything, one must work when no one else does.
The top college football programs in the country take this wisdom to heart and go to great lengths to make sure that their players are working out constantly, even during the sport’s so-called “offseason.”
UCLA may not have the recent record to merit a place among college football’s elite. But as the Bruins prepare to open fall camp on Tuesday, they’ll do so knowing that they’ve at least attacked their offseason strength and conditioning with the kind of intensity and dedication that they’ll need if they’re going to, as coach Rick Neuheisel put it, “compete for the big prizes.”
“(Neuheisel) changed the program around, and the strength and conditioning has been the biggest part of that, I believe,” defensive tackle Brigham Harwell said. “This offseason has been the animal, for me. (Of) these past four years, it’s been the best offseason, both for myself and for this team.”
Harwell, a redshirt senior who has already finished the classes necessary to graduate, has been around the program long enough to contrast the work the Bruins’ have done this past offseason with their work under former coach Karl Dorrell. Harwell credited Neuheisel and new athletic performance coach Mike Linn for bringing more accountability to the Bruins’ offseason weight-lifting and conditioning regimen.
“In the past we’d bench everyday, or squat everyday, not really working on things,” Harwell said. “Our conditioning wasn’t the best, we’d run up and down and that’s it. … (Now,) in the weight room there’s no music playing, it’s just strictly business. Before it was more, “˜do the weights, okay, good job.’
“(Linn) writes down every set, every rep, for every player. So it makes everyone do every rep. There’s no cheating in the weight room. In the past, we’ve had that problem, everyone wouldn’t finish their sets or finish their reps, and now it’s all about finishing. It’s been a total 180 turn from the past staff to this staff.”
According to Harwell, the results of the heightened attention to detail are beginning to show in other areas of the program as well.
“When you work hard in the weight room, it makes you want to work hard in the film room, it makes you want to work out hard on the field, and it carries over,” Harwell said. “How hard you work in the film room and on the field helps you out on game day. We’ve been building a lot of toughness, and more so mental toughness.
“We weren’t so mentally tough in the past, but now we’ve done a lot of things that will force you to be mentally tough.”
While Neuheisel and Linn helped reinvigorate UCLA’s offseason program, they’ve been helped by the most notable holdover from Dorrell’s staff: defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker. Harwell credited Walker for helping provide defensive continuity, and Neuheisel pointed out that the past relationship between Walker and new offensive coordinator Norm Chow has helped avoid any conflict between the two sides of the ball.
“It’s a necessary component in getting better that offenses and defenses practice against each other,” Neuheisel said. “But when they start competing against one another in terms of who gets more attention and who’s trying to out-scheme the other, it can be at the detriment to the team. I could not be any happier with the harmony that exists among the coaching staff.”
Harwell also added that the team draws motivation from Walker’s work ethic.
“He puts football first, sometimes in front of his family, I think, it’s amazing how hard he works,” Harwell said. “So when you see something like that, us players, we want to work hard too.”
The result was a rugged offseason that should send into camp a team of Bruins that, while younger than last year’s senior-laden team, may be faster, stronger and perhaps more cohesive and motivated.
“This year, what I see more is more leadership,” Harwell said. “Myself and Logan Paulsen, even the younger guys, Courtney Viney, Alterraun Verner, Reggie Carter, all those guys are stepping up and being more vocal leaders, and they show it in the weight room and during conditioning.
“It’s a total turn. We’ve lacked leadership in the past. No matter how good you are, without leadership you’re not going to be a very good team. We’ve finally realized that now. We finally get it.”