PonyFans.com 2010 Season Preview

Strength and conditioning report
deLaura's program creates better look, harder training, better players
Posted on 08/18/2010 by PonyFans.com

When he took over as SMU’s new strength and conditioning coach, Mel deLaura didn’t necessarily like what he saw.
“What (former strength coach) Vic Viloria was doing was something he believed in, something he wanted to do,” deLaura said. “But a lot of us have different philosophies. There were some players who were pretty strong, but they didn’t look the way they should.

SMU strength and conditioning coach Mel deLaura believes his players should work every part of their bodies ... and he doesn't hesitate to join them in their workouts (photo by Webmaster).

“Looking good doesn’t make you a better football player, but if you don’t look good, you don’t train as hard. I’m not trying to make them look like bodybuilders, but I do want them to take pride in how they look. That’s why we do abs for 15-20 minutes every day — we want their core to be strong. We want them to have abs. When they get told they look good, they want more of that (positive feedback). That’s a normal reaction.”
deLaura admitted that he thought about pursuing his current position when SMU hired June Jones — with whom he worked at Hawaii, and played at Portland State — but said that out of deference to Viloria, the time wasn’t right to move to Dallas.
“I didn’t want to do that to Vic,” deLaura said. “But when he got the Florida State job, June called. Then it was perfect — everybody was happy. I would have loved to have come work for June when he first got here, but he had a strength coach, and a good one. When Vic got the FSU job, then it was time for me to join June again.”
deLaura’s theory of strength training is designed to increase players’ overall strength, and requires all players to work every body part, but he does differentiate a little based on the position players play.
“The first thing I wanted to do when I got here was increase the ‘push’ for the offensive players, and the ‘pull’ for the defensive players,” he said. “The offense — those guys are all about the ‘push,’ so the bench press is a big deal with them.
“The defensive players — they have to be able to pull guys past them so they can get through to make plays. So the defensive guys will do a lot of cleans (lifting a barbell from the ground up to the shoulders in one motion) and hang cleans (letting the barbell hang in front of the lifter’s waist) to work their shoulders, their backs and their arms in pulling motions.”
But in addition to raw power, deLaura said he quickly identified a need to make the Mustangs a more explosive team. To that end, he has increased the amount of plyometrics (a series of exercises designed to force an athlete to make short, explosive movements), and other explosion exercises, like box-jumping.
Part of his success as a strength coach, deLaura said, stems from the fact that he and Jones have such similar philosophies about strength and conditioning.
“June lets me take this deal and do what I think needs to be done,” deLaura said. “It’s a little different that we’ve been together so long, but because we have, I’ve earned his trust. We played together. We trained together. We believe in the same things.”
One of those things in which deLaura strongly believes is the value of every player working every body part.
“Zero,” he said when asked if there are exercises and lifts that some players have to do and others do not. “They all do a lot of the same. Where I separate the skill guys from the big guys is in the amount of weight they lift, and maybe the speed of the lift. But I believe in every player working every body part.”
There is more method to deLaura’s madness than simply generating the brute force needed to move players around against their will.
“I’m about injury prevention,” deLaura said. “We want to get each guy as strong as he can get at his size, without getting hurt.
While deLaura insists players all will do the same exercises, he does, of course have to deal with players with different body types. Case in point: offensive tackles Kelvin Beachum, Jr., and J.T. Brooks, each of whom weighs in the 290-300 range.
“J.T. and ‘Beach’ have completely changed their body types,” deLaura said. “I wasn’t here at the time, but ‘Beach’ was too light and J.T. was too heavy. They bought into the kind of work and commitment that’s needed to make themselves into the best possible players, and that has continued since I got here. Those are two of the hardest workers on the team. Look at them now — it’s like they have new bodies. They move well, and they’re strong. They’re good examples for the younger guys, examples of what you can do if you put in the work.
“J.T. was a big guy when he got here. He has changed the way he eats, and he has really put in a lot of work. He’s almost 300 pounds, and he’s out there running with no shirt on. He has strong arms and abs. Then there’s ‘Beach’ — I don’t think he lifted weights much before he got here, if at all. Now he’s one of the hardest workers in here on the team. You look at the way he lifts, and the work he does with the medicine ball, and you can see it pay off on the field. Watch him in drills, the way he delivers his punch — he’s really powerful, a really strong guy, and it’s football strength.”
deLaura said he has seen evidence that a lot of the Mustangs, including some of the new freshmen, have bought into the commitment needed in the strength and conditioning program. Since their arrival at SMU over the summer, freshman running backs Kevin Pope and Darryl Fields have gone from 224 pounds to 231, and from 199 to 214, respectively. Senior running back Chris Butler has jumped from 218 pounds to 230, while sophomore linebacker Ja’Gared Davis has jumped from 210 pounds to 225. At the same time, some of the heavier Mustangs have shed some weight under deLaura’s watch: freshman nose tackle Mike O’Guin has dropped from 326 pounds to 316, and freshman offensive lineman Ashton Duhe has gotten down to 318 pounds after checking in over the summer at 349.
“The work ethic of the kids is unreal — they seem to get it,” deLaura said. “My measuring stick is taking their shirts off. Most of these guys will take their shirts off, because they are starting to look good. How often do you see offensive linemen with abs? These guys are getting stronger, and they all can run — even the big guys.”
deLaura said stamina and the ability to run are vital, because while Jones and his staff have recruited better overall talent to the Hilltop than SMU has had in a couple of decades, the Ponies still don’t have enough depth to just roll out fresh players all game long.
“We don’t have the depth to do that yet,” deLaura said. “We’ve got guys — a lot of guys — who will have to play a full four quarters. We’re getting better athletes, and more of them, but these guys have to be in shape to play the whole game.”
deLaura breaks the lifting part of his workouts into two sections: “big lifts,” which are the lifts (bench press, squat, clean, military press, etc.) that translate to football, and “small lifts,” (curls, etc.) which add to the cosmetic end result and help with the prevention of injuries.
“One of my goals is to start a 1,000-pound club here,” deLaura said. “That would be for guys who can bench 300 pounds, clean 300 and squat 400.”

Now leaner and stronger than he ever has been, tackle J.T. Brooks represents the look deLaura wants in his offensive linemen: powerful, explosive and mobile (photo by Travis Johnston).

deLaura said there are a few players on the team who can do all three, but said he is particularly impressed by the number of players — 16 — who already can clean 300 or more. Those players are: Youri Yenga, Justin Smart, Taylor Thompson, Pete Fleps, Ja’Gared Davis, Marquis Frazier, Aaron Davis, Chris Banjo, Robert Parker, Kelly Turner, Sterling Moore, Cole Beasley, Margus Hunt, Bryce Lunday, Cameron Rogers and Patrick Fleming.
The “glamour lift” for football players always has been the bench press, and while deLaura’s goal is to get the bigger players up to the 300-pound plateau, he said there are five who can bench “well over 400.” Those players are Frazier, Turner, J.T. Brooks, Thompson and Hunt.
“For the skill guys … a lot of guys aren’t big enough to do weight like that, so in a perfect world, we want to start a group for them, too — something that shows what they can do, too. So if you have a 38-inch vertical jump, can run a 4.5 in the 40-yard dash and broad jump 9 feet, 8 inches … those guys will get a t-shirt, too.”
deLaura said there might be as many as 20 current Mustangs who can reach those goals in the vertical jump, 40 and broad jump. The list of players who currently can do all three, he said, includes Beasley, Banjo, Moore and Ja’Gared Davis.
Lest anyone thinks deLaura is building a powerlifting team, instead of well-rounded football players, he also said his program will help increase players’ speed.
“You can automatically shave two-tenths (of a second in the 40-yard dash) with good (running) fundamentals and technique,” he said. “If you already have a strong running background, I’m not going to mess with your technique too much, so if you’re already running a 4.3, you’re obviously doing a lot of things right. What I can do for guys like that, though, is help get your legs stronger, so that can help with acceleration and will make them a little faster, and will make them maintain their speed better throughout a game. The guys who can get a lot faster are the guys who run a 4.9 or 5.0. Those guys, my program can usually help. You can always get more explosive, whether that means you get faster or you have more power. Either way, more explosiveness helps.”