(photo by PonyFans.com).

Coaches often say that games can be won, and seasons made successful, almost as much in the offseason as on game day. The strength and conditioning work players put in getting physically ready for each season can play a huge role in the success of each season. Like teams across the country, the SMU Mustangs have put in extensive work with strength and conditioning coach Trumain Carroll and his staff, reshaping their physiques in preparation for the 2016 season, in some cases slimming down, in others gaining muscle and explosiveness.

Carroll visited with PonyFans.com to offer a glimpse into his program as he heads into his second season at SMU. Carroll was quick to point out two things: the fact that a player slims down or adds significant muscle does not in any way indicate a starting role or change in playing time; those are decisions that will be made by the coaching staff. Also, for those who are on the field, a jump in weight lifting numbers or a drop in times in running drills does not always translate to on-field success. Those numbers are merely measurable numbers that indicate players who have put in considerable work and dedicated themselves to getting physically ready for the upcoming season.

In the first of a two-part series, Carroll touches on a number of subjects, including the role SMU head coach Chad Morris and his staff have had on the success of the program Carroll and his staff run with the players, how player leadership in the conditioning program has changed since last year, which university’s strength and conditioning staff shared its knowledge and experience with Carroll and his staff, and why, if he had any remaining eligibility, he would want to play for Morris.

PonyFans.com: At this time last year, you talked about how your offseason program was just in its initial stages after you had been hired. How different is your program this year in terms of either what you and your staff are asking of the players, or what they’re giving you, now that they understand what you and your staff want from them?

Trumain Carroll: To answer that, I would rewind a step. Yeah, our program has adapted. You know, Coach Morris and I — we come from two different backgrounds, so the style of what he was used to was different than the style I was used to. So it took that year of getting used to what those expectations were. He did a great job of explaining his expectations, but to see the style of practice, the tempo of practice more importantly. I knew that there were some things that we would have to change from our program to meet the needs of this high-tempo offense.

So Coach Morris, he’s a phenomenal leader, and he challenged us, he challenged our whole staff — and not just the strength staff, but the whole entire staff — to go out and become better than we were a year ago. Because doing the same things, obviously, and expecting different results, that’s the definition of insanity. I think Coach Morris is pretty sharp — he won’t hire anybody who’s insane.

So he challenged us to go out and develop ourselves, adapt our programs, our style. We’ve been together for a year, so we know exactly what to expect now, we know exactly where our athletes need to be in order to fit this system. So we have to remodel — not necessarily reinvent, but remodel, restructure and adapt — our style of training to fit those needs of what we’re doing on the football field.

PonyFans.com: So are these changes philosophical — are you having the players do entirely different circuits of lifts and sprints and jumps? — or are you simply adding to what you had before?

Carroll: I would say a mix of both, because as you know, different positions on the football field have different needs. Offensive linemen, defensive linemen, you want to be strong and physical at the point of contact and make people go backward. Big skill positions — tight ends, linebackers — you need to have those people able to move out in space but still be able to pack a punch when it’s time to deliver that blow. And then your skill positions, whether it’s running backs, wide receivers or defensive backs, you need those guys to be able to fly, to be able to run people down or be able to make people miss and outrun people out in space. A lot of what we were deficient in last year was in that speed category, that ability to move, and in particular, that ability to be able to get up off the ground in a hurry. So we’ve taken those things that we were deficient at, identified them as an entire staff — like I said, Coach Morris does an unbelievable job of making sure we know where we are and we know where we’re trying to go. So as the leader of the ship, he has the ultimate plan, as far as where he wants us to go, our destination. So it’s my job, as a strength and conditioning coach, to outline the best route to get to where Coach Morris envisions us going. He’s the driver of our bus.

Another of the great things that he has done: he has incorporated a book called Energy Bus, by John Gordon, and he has required everyone that’s involved with football to read that book, and I took it a step further. I had everyone who impacts these players from our department … I went out and bought several copies of the book, as well, and required my staff to read it, just because we have to be traveling in the same direction. That bus has a big windshield, and if you can’t see out of it, you don’t have any idea where we’re going. So you need to be transparent and make sure everyone knows where we’re going, and knows what piece they play in that big puzzle to get us there.

Trumain Carroll said he sees SMU football head coach Chad Morris as the ultimate motivator, someone who can get optimal performance from his players (photo by PonyFans.com).

PonyFans.com: You and some of your staff visited the strength and conditioning staff at Clemson. What was the thinking behind that trip?

Carroll: We went down there and hung out with their (strength and conditioning) staff, and they really laid it out for us. They do an unbelievable job with their strength and conditioning program, and they gave us some great input and great feedback. What it allowed us to do was to see not only the style of training that they program, but also see the leadership. That’s the most important piece of everything I saw there, the leadership amongst those players. When I went down there, it wasn’t a bunch of coaches losing their voices, screaming and yelling doing all this just to get guys going. It was those players, it was those leaders. It was those team leaders that I heard over everybody else, while they were training — in the weight room, on the field. They took unbelievable ownership in what they were doing, and you could see why they played for the national championship this last year.

PonyFans.com: Did this trip to Clemson come about through Coach Morris leaning on his connections there to get their staff to invite you? Did you reach out yourself? How did this even come together?

Carroll: Well, the thing is, I’ve always been a huge proponent of professional development, so if I’ve got to go to Clemson to find out what the best way of going about it is, then I’m going. If I’ve got to go out west — if I’ve got to go to USC or Washington — if there’s any place that’s going to help us take our program to the next level, then I’m going to do that. Obviously, Coach Morris has ties to Clemson. That’s where he spent his last four years before he came to SMU, and obviously, they’re doing things the right way down there. They’re doing things the way that he’s accustomed to down there. So me, being his head strength and conditioning coach, it would be unwise for me not to take that trip.

Coach Morris does an unbelievable job of not letting us be comfortable of where we are. He’s always going to challenge us to become better than we are, and like I say, the way I’m wired, if I had two years of eligibility left, Chad Morris is the guy I’d be playing for. Most definitely — just because he’s a great leader, and he knows how to push his people, you know? He pushes people to become better than they are, so whatever you thought your best was, he can get a little bit more out of you. That’s what kind of leader he is.

PonyFans.com: When we talked last year, after you got hired, you talked about how you and your staff wanted some of the players to lead their teammates, as far as their involvement in and dedication to the strength and conditioning program, and then a few moments ago you talked about the way some of the student-athletes led the way at Clemson. Are you going to change the way your athletes lead each other here?

Carroll: It’s already taking place. The unbelievable leadership that has formed within this team over the past year … it has been a night-and-day change. Last year, we had leaders on the team, but we had both positive and negative leaders. Those positive leaders, who were those guys that you want to speak up and to be heard by their peers, were sometimes kind of drowned out by a couple of those negative leaders. The thing is, those positive leaders are a year older, a little more mature now. They know what it felt like to go 2-10, you know? That was a lesson we all learned, that was something we all experienced, we all lived through together. It’s no fun. So the thing is, all of those guys who were positive leaders but didn’t necessarily want to be the guy to speak up, those guys are a year more mature, and those guys don’t want to experience that anymore.

These guys are juniors and seniors who are taking care of their business academically, first and foremost — just guys who taking care of what they’re required to do.

So they have taken ownership. We have painted a picture of what we saw when we went down to Clemson, and we charged those guys to step their game up as leaders. Since then, they have developed a leadership council, which is juniors and seniors who are positive, vocal leaders of this team. They’re running workouts for this team. They came together and met at 5:30 in the morning, set up the field, got the entire team out there, told them what they had for the day and ran it just like we were out there. We were out there, watching — we have to be there to observe, to make sure nobody gets hurt, so we’re there from a safety and well-being standpoint — but we were completely out of the mix. I’m there, taking pictures and shooting video with my cell phone. Those players took complete ownership, from start to finish, and they do a great field workout followed by a great weight room workout, and you would have sworn that coaches are leading them, but there’s no coaches leading anything, no coach giving a cue or anything — everything was player-led, player-driven, and it was just a great sight to see, because it shows the maturity that we have reached in the past year. If you had asked me a year ago if we could pull off something like that, I would have been like “you’re out of your mind.” There’s no way. Seriously — there’s no way, because you had people who were one foot in and one foot out. There were several different motives on last year’s team that weren’t necessarily geared toward becoming a successful football program.

But I feel like this year, the “buy in” rate has gone up tremendously, and those (leaders) have really stepped it up. Like I said, Coach Morris has not only challenged me — Coach Morris challenges those guys to become better than they were a year ago. We don’t allow any of what we call “energy vampires” in the building. If you’re not bringing energy to the atmosphere, then you’re taking it away. It’s important for you to bring positive energy to the group for us to be successful.

Carroll said part of his motivation going into the offseason was a challenge from head coach Chad Morris, who asked everyone associated (and not just the strength staff) to get better (photo by Pat Kleineberg).

PonyFans.com: One of the things you mentioned a moment ago was the need for speed at the skill positions, that you need able to “fly.” But you always hear coaches say “you can’t teach height and you can’t teach speed.” How much can you change the speed of these players through your program?

Carroll: Well, if you look and break down the components of developing speed … speed is basically how much force you apply to the ground. So if I’m 165 pounds, and I only squat 200 pounds and I only clean 185 pounds, I’m only able to develop so much force that I can apply to the ground in order to propel myself forward or laterally or straight up off the ground. So the thing is, if we develop those guys, if we develop that 165-pound body and increase him to 180 pounds, and get him to where he’s squatting over 300 pounds and cleaning well over 200 pounds, that’s more force. That’s more force that’s able to be applied to the ground, and more force that’s able to propel an athlete going forward or laterally or up in the air.

To give you an example, we have a running back who was a freshman last year. When he got here, he was 183 pounds and he ran a 4.58 in the 40-yard dash. Take him a year later, and now he’s 200 pounds, and he runs a 4.43 in the 40. So not only has he put on nearly 20 pounds, but he also has increased his speed more than a 10th of a second. If you watch him now, he’s a little bit of a different dude. It’s not just about putting weight on a guy — that’s not necessarily going to make people faster, and I don’t want that being taken out of context. It’s about developing what they have and teaching them what they’re deficient at in order to get the most out of them. So it’s kind of a balancing act. With those guys — especially with the guys who are younger, those guys who are a year or two removed from high school, or the guys who are fresh out of high school and just had their graduation a few weeks ago — the thing is, you’ve got to be able to manage their bodies, manage their workloads, to where you don’t take too much, too early, because if you try to get greedy, you can actually work against yourself. It’s about having a fine balance, looking at body language because all guys aren’t great at communicating what’s going on inside their bodies. But if you have a good gauge of them, if you know when they are 100 percent, you know when you can push them a little bit more. Or, when they’re looking a little run-down and fatigued? That’s when you know to back off a little bit, to where you can maximize what you get out of your training window.

PonyFans.com: A year ago, when you and your staff got hired and went through your first spring workouts, it was new to everybody. In a sense, they were all freshmen, because you were new. How much more quickly are the incoming freshmen picking up your program, simply by having veteran teammates around them who have been here and know what you and your staff want and expect?

Carroll: First of all, I have to tip my hat to Coach Morris and those coaches upstairs, because they did an unbelievable job of bringing in recruits that were ready to go. These guys, they can move around. Those guys’ natural abilities … you watch those guys run around and move around, and you can tell they’ve got something to them. That battle was won 18 years ago, as Coach Morris would say. But it sets you up to where you’re able to do better things a lot earlier.

What we did last year — I feel like we ran a great program last year, but it set us up for what we’re running this year. If we had tried to run this system, from a programming standpoint, last year, we would have over-trained. We wouldn’t have made it through fall camp without half of our roster injured. You have to build what’s called “work capacity,” and I feel like we built a great platform with that work capacity, and it set us up for this year. Those guys who are coming in now, having that natural athletic ability, they’re able to adapt a lot sooner than last year.

PonyFans.com: How much are you and your program helped by the presence of (SMU sports nutritionist) Brittney Bearden? How much impact does she have on what you and your staff are able to accomplish with athletes?

Carroll: What we do and what she does go hand in hand. I feel like Brittney, as well as Mike Morton, our head athletic trainer … those are the two people I communicate the most with, because we deal with the athletes every single day, every day of the year. What we do, and what we have to do from a communication standpoint is outline the best plan — not only from them training, both in the weight room and out on the field — in order for them to fuel their bodies. That’s Brittney’s piece. In order for them to recover and adapt to the training load — that’s Mike’s piece. So we all have to be in sync and on the same page in order for the athletes to get the most out of their experiences here at SMU.

It’s like I said before: you’re not going to fill the gas tank on an expensive car with cheap gas, because it’s going to destroy the engine. We’re expecting these guys to run at a high level, and if you fill them up with the 83 octane, then we’re not going to get very far. We have to make sure they’re fueling the right way, getting that super unleaded, to where we we can go the distance.

My mentor, Rob Glass (at Oklahoma State), always says, “Tru, it’s not a sprint — it’s a marathon, so make sure you work smart, and not necessarily try to work real hard in the beginning, because you won’t get there in six months, eight months … you know?” He said, “first of all, it’s going to take a year and a half to change the culture of your program. Then, after that, that’s when you build and you keep sustaining.” He’s very philosophical. He dropped a lot of nuggets on me early in my career that are starting to resonate with me and come to life now that I’m the director here at SMU.”

Not everyone has to lose weight to get faster: since his stellar freshman season, running back Xavier Jones has added nearly 20 pounds and shaved .15 of a second off his time in the 40-yard dash (photo by Pat Kleineberg).

PonyFans.com: It sounds like much of the team has made significant improvement since this time a year ago, but who are some of the guys who have stood out to you, either in terms of their work ethic or putting on a bunch of muscle, losing a bunch of body fat … who are some of the guys who have caught your eye?

Carroll: There are a lot of guys who have worked really hard, and this isn’t everyone. But … just at the quarterback position, those quarterbacks are dialed-in. They know that they all have a chance at legitimately competing, and that’s the way that they approach their training: those guys have really taken ownership and leadership.

Then you move on to the running backs, and there’s a tremendous upside of everybody in that group, just because their best days are in front of them. You saw them as true freshmen, but now that they have a year developing in the program, they have put on substantial size, so they’re feeling good, they’re moving around well. That’s a group that’s going to step their game up and add a tremendous amount of value to our chances this fall. Then our wide receiver group: those guys are one of the most athletic groups on the team, just because those guys can run, and they can do it all day.

The last three groups I just mentioned, you can’t punish them by running them, because they’re like gazelles — they do it for fun.

Then the 3-back (tight end) position … those guys really get after it. Jeremiah Gaines, Dylan Dickman … Tony Richards has really transformed his body — he was 240 pounds when he started, and now he’s between 265 and 270. Tony’s really starting to emerge and have some success in training. You know, he battled a few nicks and dings last year, but we’ve got him up and running, to where he’s operating at a high level.

PonyFans.com: When you look at a young player in his first or second year, and he gets stronger and puts on some size, is it hard to look at him and determine how much of that growth is a result of the work he puts in with you, and how much is simply him being an 18- or 19-year-old guy who is maturing physically and growing into his frame?

Carroll: That’s what’s so critical about the communication we have with Brittney Bearden and Mike Morton, because we want to notice those patterns, because we don’t want them to gain too much, too fast. Putting on 20 to 40 pounds in a short amount of time would be the equivalent of putting on a 20- or 40-pound weight vest and telling them, “you can’t take it off.” It may feel good at first, but over time, you’re affecting your low back, your knees, your ankles — the different joints that have to carry that load around all the time. So our rule of thumb, and the pattern we try to follow, is that it’s OK for a guy to gain a little bit of weight, but we want to get that guy used to carrying that weight before he tacks on any more weight. So just like I said about that running back (Jones) who put on 20 pounds: our goal isn’t to put another 20 pounds on him. Our goal is to make sure that he’s able to carry 20 pounds around and operate at a much higher level than he was 20 pounds lighter. When he’s able to do that, that’s when we reevaluate and assess his body composition.

That’s another key role that Brittney Bearden plays: we measure these guys’ body comp. That allows us to know exactly how much lean mass and how much fat pass each player has in each section of their body. So, say a running back has seven percent body fat — I’m just giving an example — and then he only has six pounds of fat in his trunk, or whatever. We’re not going to tell him, “you have to lose weight.” We’re going to tell him, “we’re going to try to lean you up a little bit. We’re going to try to take that seven and make it six (percent). We’re going to try to keep your weight the same, but we’re going to try to drop one percent body fat. How you do that is by eating cleaner or cutting out the sugar, and doing things of that nature.”

PonyFans.com: There are temptations out there that every college student — and adult — faces, whether it’s a cheeseburger, pizza … whatever. Do you have a sense of how thoroughly, how completely the players have bought in to what Brittney is teaching?

Carroll: That’s hard to say. Like Kaz Kazadi (strength coach) down at Baylor says, you get them for no more than two hours a day — two hours is the max of what you get with them. So that means there’s 22 more hours in each and every day when you’re not with them, and you don’t dictate what they put in their bodies. That’s where the educational piece of this is so critical. We not only train our student-athletes, we not only make them lift weights and run — we educate them on why these things are important, what this will do to help them become successful. Brittney doesn’t just tell these guys, “hey, you need to lose six pounds … you need to lean up.” She’s over in the dining hall with them, instructing them on how to fix their plates. So let’s say if Braeden West wants to put on five pounds, she’s going to teach him how to structure his plate, to where he can gain a good, solid five pounds. Or if Braylon Hyder is wanting to lose 10 pounds, she’s going to instruct him on how to structure his plate to where he can lose those pounds. It’s more about teaching the athletes. We know what they’re going to do when they’re with us, but if you teach them these things, they’re more likely to do these things the right way when they’re not with us, when we’re not at their meals, when they’re home for a few weeks before camp.

PonyFans.com: There have been cases in the past of players who are so driven to get stronger that they basically get too big for their own frames — they end up carrying more weight than they can effectively move, or they lose flexibility, whether it’s a receiver who gets so big he can’t run fluidly or a lineman who bulks up too much in an effort to play another position and ends up losing flexibility and agility. How much do you worry about guys being so eager for success, or even just playing time, that they might overtrain and get too big? Or are they not at the point in your strength program where you’re losing a lot of sleep over it?

Carroll: Well, you’ve got a mixed bag there, and Coach Morris always says, you’d rather have a horse who makes you say “woah” instead of making you say “go.” So those guys that we have to pull back from overtraining, those are the guys we’re looking for — those are the guys we’re trying to sign more of. Again, that’s where our education piece comes in, and it’s so critical. One of our assistants, Marc Soltis … this past spring, he just completed his 200-hour yoga certification.

So recovery is a big component of what we do. We train four days a week. We train Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays … but that Wednesday — yes, that Wednesday is a day of, but it’s considered our active recovery day, so we offer what’s called a “Recovery Happy Hour.” Within that Recovery Happy Hour, we put the guys through an hour-long yoga flow. So they have that option — they’ll come in and we’ll have a great turnout, as well as the different modalities we have in the athletic training room. Those Wednesdays are dedicated to getting the guys’ bodies back. It’s what I call the “middle of the week weekend,” because we train hard Monday and Tuesday, but in order to get the most out of Thursday and Friday, we have to put something in the bank on Wednesday. So while we train hard Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Wednesday is probably our most important day of the week.

Be sure to check back for the second part in the PonyFans.com Q&A with SMU strength and conditioning coach Trumain Carroll (photo by PonyFans.com).