Tractor tires, chocolate milk are summer staples for The Citadel football team
By Jeff Hartsell
It was near midnight last Nov. 22 when Citadel football coach Kevin Higgins met with strength coach Donnell Boucher.
The Bulldogs had just returned from their final game of the year, a 70-19 defeat at No. 3 Florida.
The loss capped off a disappointing 4-8 season, an almost complete reversal of the 7-4 record The Citadel had put together in 2007.
"That was meeting No. 1 after the season," Boucher recalled recently.
"The first thing coach said was, 'Priority No. 1 is to get our guys bigger.' That's what we've sought to do ever since."
Higgins' conviction that the Bulldogs were pushed around during a six-game losing streak last season led him to put off spring practice several weeks to give the players more time in the weight room.
Boucher installed a 45-gallon commercial milk dispenser in the weight room and fills it with chocolate milk three times a day in order to give the Bulldogs better access to muscle-building nutrients.
And the third-year strength coach tweaked his off-season conditioning program to emphasize gains in weight and strength.
"That's certainly been our goal," Higgins said. "We felt the need to get bigger and stronger. We feel like we are recruiting a better kid each year, but we still have to get them bigger and stronger, and Donnell is doing a great job with that."
Boucher's methods were on display last Friday morning, under the lights at the Maybank Triplets Practice Facility. The Bulldogs' "voluntary" workouts begin at 5:30 a.m. five days a week during the summer. They are in the weight room four days a week and also run four times a week.
During the first session of summer school, when incoming freshmen were on campus, as many as 95 Bulldogs were taking part in workouts. Now, with freshmen at home for a short break before school starts next month, about 72 players are working out each morning.
"A lot of guys work in the summer, and it's hard to get afternoon groups in," said senior defensive end Dewitt Jones. "And working out in the afternoon heat is counterproductive to putting on weight. So the guys decided that 5:30 a.m. is the way to go."
During the summer, Boucher and his staff are the only coaches allowed to have contact with the players. So on this day, he supervises the Bulldogs as they stretch and warm up before a 7-on-7 passing drill that is run mostly by quarterback Bart Blanchard.
Then, the fun begins. Two brief tug-of-war matchups pitting offense vs. defense get the juices flowing — linebacker Tolu Akindele bests fullback Ryan Keiper, and linebacker Mel Capers takes out running back Christian Graham.
Then, Boucher splits the team into groups for a six-station agility circuit. Drills include tug-of-war battles with small tires; sprinting to pick up balls out of a box and place them on small disks; and sprinting forward and backwards around large hoops.
Boucher, who played football and earned a degree in health education from Worcester State, likes to pick the brains of strength coaches at top programs around the country.
"I'm going to be the biggest scavenger of knowledge out there," he said. "I harass them all the time to find out what they are doing and apply it to what we need. I like to keep the guys on their toes so it doesn't get monotonous for them."
Said Jones, "He does a great job of keeping up with the latest things in the training world. We're never doing the same things twice, and that keeps you on edge."
After the agility circuit, the players divide again — offensive and defensive linemen at one end, inside the box players (tight ends, linebackers) in the middle and skill position players (receivers, defensive backs, quarterbacks) at the far end — for 20 minutes of what looks like hell.
The linemen push "prowler sleds", weight-bearing sleds that can weigh up to 255 pounds. Ten yards up and back is one back-breaking rep.
"Those are the worst drills," Jones said.
The linebackers and tight ends line up behind huge tractor tires that weigh between 300 and 450 pounds. They have to flip the tires over twice, then sprint about 20 yards for one rep. This drill induced the only involuntary loss of breakfast witnessed Friday.
The backs and receivers do shuttle runs, up and back sprints that add up to about 50 yards for a rep.
"We try to design the drills for each position group, for the environment they play in," Boucher said. "The linemen have to be able to push a lot of weight around. You should have seen them the first day we did it; it just puts a different tax on the body.
"The guys with the tires, they have to use their hips a lot, go from low to high and get a sprint behind it. It all fits with the positions they play."
In the weight room, heavy iron chains are used to add pounds to chin-ups and lifts. No detail is too small, not even chocolate milk.
"That's our crown jewel," Boucher said of the 45-gallon dispenser. "Chocolate milk tastes good, and the nutrients in it are super foods for building muscle. You put that on top of the supplements and diet plans we give them, and we've had a little more success putting on weight.
"Guys who struggled to put on five pounds last year have put on 20 this year. I looked at our potential starting defense, and it's about 600 pounds more than last year's."
As he flipped the heavy tire Friday, junior tight end Alex Sellars wore a T-shirt that read, "There is no off-season."
"That's true," Bouchell said. "If they want to get where we want to go, they can't take any time off. It's a year-round thing, commitment all the time."
