New Stength Coach James Dobson looks like a good hire by Pellini. If he was an assistant to Chris Doyle at Iowa, then he knows what intensity is all about. Chris Doyle knows his stuff, and can walk the walk when he needs to. Not to bad mouth the past S&C Coach, but I had the opportunity to work with a few ex-huskers- putting them through some hybrid/CrossFit style workouts, and some did OK, one puked, and the last one paid me the ultimate compliment at the end of his workout by stating "Now I know why we were 7-7"! That made my day. Go Huskers- get back the eye of the tiger! Check out the article about Coach Dobson here-
Husker football workouts 'intense'
By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Saturday, Feb 02, 2008 - 01:17:23 am CST
He’s only been on the job a few weeks now, but already players have figured out that standing idle in the weight room is a thing of the past.
“It’s nonstop for an hour and a half,” says Husker senior quarterback Joe Ganz.
“It’s night and day,” says senior defensive end Zach Potter, comparing last year’s workouts to this year’s.
It’s winter conditioning under James Dobson, the Nebraska football team’s new strength and conditioning coach.
“Intense,” says Ganz.
“Intense,” says Potter.
He might have you in and out of the weight room in 90 minutes. But while you’re there, don’t plan on a lot of small talk.
The two players say workouts are more up-tempo than they were under Dave Kennedy, who led Nebraska football’s strength and conditioning program for the four years Bill Callahan was head coach.
Oh, don’t get it wrong. Workouts with Kennedy challenged the body and mind, too. Kennedy is a veteran in the field and is well-respected. Texas A&M hired him right after he left Nebraska. Potter still calls him “Coach K.”
But players say it’s quite evident that Dobson’s conditioning methods are different than Kennedy’s.
“I think Coach Dobson’s workouts are a lot more intense,” Potter says. “You get in, you get out. We do our work quickly. But we do it with a lot of intensity. You’re working hard in a short amount of time. Under Coach K, we’d take our time between lifts. Some people like that. Some people like it with Coach Dobson. He always wants you moving.”
Ganz says the running drills this year are similar to what the team did under Kennedy, but this year the team does a lot more flexibility work, “plyometrics stuff.”
Potter says the 34-year-old Dobson can be fiery, but also is able to joke around with the guys when the hard work’s over.
“He’s young enough to know and understand what’s going on in our lives,” Potter says.
Adds Ganz: “It’s the best of both worlds. He’s not someone you’re scared to talk to, but then again, he’s kind of a hard-nosed guy. He wants you to do your work and he wants to get everything done.”
Dobson says one of the biggest parts of the job is building relationships with the players.
“When you can relate to people, you’re going to get more from them when you ask them,” says Dobson, previously an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Iowa.
Aside from the administrative responsibilities, Dobson says his new role isn’t much different than working as an assistant.
“Coaching players is coaching players, whether you’re supposedly the head guy or you’re the head assistant or the third assistant, whatever it is,” he says.
Still, there is some major responsibility to being the “head guy.”
With coaches busy trying to fill out a recruiting class, Dobson is the face players see probably more than anyone on staff right now.
It’s the face Potter sees at 6 a.m. every Monday and Thursday, the days Potter’s position unit does its running drills.
Sprints before breakfast are hardly an enjoyable thing, but every workout comes with knowing it might pay dividends some Saturday in October.
Last year, the defensive line got pushed around during a 5-7 season. Nebraska finished 116th in the country in rushing defense.
Potter knows that isn’t how it goes around here. This year has to be different.
“It’s everything. It’s my senior year,” he says. “I think it’s going to be my best year.”
Dobson isn’t interested in talking about last year. He was hired by Husker head coach Bo Pelini to help this team move forward. You could surely knock out a few sets in the time it takes to talk about 2007, after all.
“I think preparation is the key to success: bottom line,” Dobson says. “I just look at every week as the ability to get better, the ability to prepare ourselves as football players.”
Given how last season went, Ganz says motivation has not been hard to find, even with the season seven months away.
“Guys were embarrassed,” Ganz says. “No one was more embarrassed than we were. We’re ready to get that taste out of our mouths. But it’s a long, hard process. It’s going to take time. But we’ve got the time to do it, the time to work hard, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
