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Huskers pull their weight -- and more
I wanted to see how Nebraska runs. The Cornhuskers finished last season by running the ball down Tennessee's gullet; opened this season by rushing for 505 yards against San Jose State; and are likely to pick up a few (hundred) yards on the ground against Notre Dame this weekend. To see how Nebraska runs, I board the elevator inside Memorial Stadium and descend one level. Exiting the elevator, I enter a corridor that passes the Cornhuskers training table -- sorry, the 35-member Athletic Performance Team's nine staff nutritionists prefer that we call it the Performance Buffet -- and the athletic department's academic center. A succession of televisions mounted on the wall show scenes from such great operas as La Traviata and La Boheme ... Actually, they display Nebraska athletes in moments of triumph. The chant emanating from these sets grows louder as one gets further down the hall, until, as legendary Cornhuskers strength coach Boyd Epley tells me, "It's actually pulling you along." It is pulling us toward the Nebraska University Strength Complex, the 30,000-square-foot strength training facility where Huskers get honed, buffed and ripped. Part Bat Cave, part Dexter's Laboratory, it is The House That Boyd Built. Epley, now in his 32nd year shaping Cornhuskers physiques, is the director of the Performance Team and one of the most highly regarded strength specialists in the country. It is a measure of his competence and the emphasis Nebraska puts on strength and explosiveness, that Epley is also an assistant athletic director at the school. His title may also be a measure of how telegenic the preternaturally preserved 53-year-old is. We soon find ourselves in a small theater. To my left, Epley is telling me that "about a thousand guests a day come down this hallway," while on the theater's screen he is discussing "the 10 Husker Power Principles that give Nebraska the edge over the competition." I give equal attention to each of the dueling Boyds. It would be easier to tell you what the Power Principles aren't. You don't see any of these athletes sitting while doing leg extensions. Why work just one joint? is Epley's reasoning. Sure, it might tone your quadriceps, but under what circumstances, in an actual game, does a player find himself seated, extending his leg? "Your muscles are linked -- you have to use 'em all together!" says Epley. The machines in this room, most of them designed by Epley and his staff, simulate actions and motions athletes perform in their sports. Check out the guy, for instance, standing in a sinister-looking apparatus that is part squat rack, part military press; for each repetition he performs a squat, then follows through by pushing the weight forward and up, using his arms. The machine is called the Hammer Jammer. Epley designed it six years ago; Texas and Texas A&M have purchased 20 apiece for their own weight rooms. Epley walks the rows of his weight room, pointing out machines of his own design - "This is called the Right-Left Push-Pull," he says, mounting it then proceeding to push and pull, left and right -- with the pride of a muscle-bound Willy Wonka. I call this the Everlasting Gobstopper. On a raised, red-carpeted platform -- deliberately or not, it resembles an altar -- there is a plaque bearing the names of an elite group of bodybuilders. To get your name up here, says Epley, "You have to score over 500 points on all six of our tests." A couple callow Cornhuskers are reading over the names. "Probably imagining themselves up on that platform someday," Epley chuckles. Maybe he just wants to look good for the girl in his second-period econ class, I thought. But Boyd is probably right. Weight training is a huge deal at Nebraska. After a disappointing season two years ago, the offensive line, which had underachieved in '98, decided to do its lifting at 7 every morning. "They bonded together, made incredible progress, and now we're seeing the benefit of that work," says Epley, who has worked with 20 All-American offensive linemen during his time in Lincoln. I know what you're thinking, and I'll tell you this: I've been around college and pro football for the last 17 years. I've seen guys on steroids, seen the needle marks in their buns, the acne, the bald spots, the dark moods and paranoia. Hanging out with the Cornhuskers, I don't get that kind of vibe. At all. They're big, but not implausibly so. These guys just work their asses off. In the six weeks of official winter workouts, Epley tells me, the Cornhuskers "gained 1,120 pounds of muscle." I could not shake that thought as I made my way back to the elevator and returned to the sports information office. It was time to catch the end of the Cornhuskers practice, but what I really wanted to do was get some exercise. Sports Illustrated senior writer Austin Murphy covers the college football beat and goes On Campus for CNNSI.com each week throughout the season.
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