Time to shape up

Once again, college drills need reconditioning

The college football season never ends. And I’m not talking about the coaches who spend months on recruiting and other administrative duties. I’m talking about the players. Consider: Practice officially starts around the first week of August. The season begins about a month later and runs through the end of November. Bowl teams go another month. That’s the basic season, but in fact it’s only the beginning.

After a three-week break in January, most teams commence their winter conditioning programs, which go from early February through the start of spring practice in March. Winter conditioning is generally a combination of weightlifting and puke drills conducted before the sun rises every day. In most cases, spring practice lasts until the end of April. The month of May and part of June are used for weight-training sustenance before the summer conditioning program kicks off in June and July, which leads to the start of training camp.

Earlier this week, I was on campus with a prominent Division I-A program, observing some workouts. Since I was working on a feature story on one of this team’s players for Sports Illustrated’s upcoming College Football Preview Issue and wasn’t there to write about its conditioning program in particular, I won’t name the school. But what the players at this school were doing was typical: Running stadium steps in 110-degree heat while carrying 25-pound weights on their backs. Running endless 40-yard sprints on the blacktop. And so on. It was miserable stuff. Guys were throwing up and staggering around. And rest assured: Every program in the country with serious bowl aspirations is doing the same thing right now.

OK, I’m going to tread lightly here because 18 months ago I wrote about the death of a Florida State player during winter conditioning drills and laid a small part of the blame on a system that encourages 12-month training and a philosophy of “Our guys can suffer more than your guys.” Response to this column essentially accused me of being un-American and pointed out that toughness is at the core of this country. I’m fine with that. And both as a journalist and a former athlete, I believe in the value of punishing workouts. As the coach for this college program said to me on Wednesday, “We have to get guys in shape.” That’s absolutely true. You can’t get a team fit and ready to play in three weeks.

However, there are other issues at work here. Offseason workouts strengthen and prepare players for the actual season. But because they are “voluntary” and run by strength coaches, trainers and team captains, they are largely unchecked. Athletes at this one school I visited were spending four-to-six hours a day at the football facility -- in the summertime. The reason? Somebody else might be doing the same thing. Somebody at another school. In other words, there’s a lot of overkill going on.

Also, an athlete will push himself far beyond his limits. Does anybody need to be reminded that Korey Stringer died in the heat almost a year ago?

Here’s a suggestion: The NCAA needs to take control of the “voluntary” conditioning periods by imposing reasonable limits. Let players get fit and strong on a tightly controlled calendar. How about 10-12 hours a week during the winter and summer months? If players want to do more on their own they can. But no strength coaches present, no database of schedules for “voluntary” workouts, no logging endless hours just because. Be efficient about their time.

Guys might even squeeze in a class or two.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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