ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- There has been a lot of discussion late this offseason about how Michigan football has improved its strength under new coordinator Doug Elisaia.
It started with Kyle Whittingham at Big Ten media days, saying that the team was woeful in terms of its overall strength, and that Elisaia worked quickly to elevate the players' gains in winter and summer conditioning. Now that they're much stronger, the players themselves are feeling much more confident about their abilities, sure that they'll be more prepared to take on the season than they have been in recent years.
On Thursday, senior right guard Nathan Efobi said that his gains in the weight room is where he has make his biggest strides from last year to now.
"Mentality and strength,"
Efobi said. "I don't know. I feel a lot more stronger, just built around leaner, faster. I just feel more ready for this season than last year."
That's an assessment that fellow senior guard Evan Link concurs with. Link says that the team isn't just stronger, but it's faster as a result of the offseason work.
"I would agree with him," Link said. "This new strength staff has done a tremendous job of getting us stronger and getting us faster as well, and I can definitely feel it. Like, there's not much more to say than that. They've done a great, great job of what they made us do in the winter and this summer conditioning cycle."
While that makes a difference to a lineman in being able to move defensive tackles and edge rushers across from them, how else will it help? Link says that it should reduce injuries -- like the one he sustained, ending his season, last year -- as well as just keeping the team going through the year in ways that perhaps other teams might not be able to match.
"I honestly think it'll help, I want to say, our longevity throughout the year, to be able to play at a higher level consistently throughout the year," Link said. "Previous years, I mean, you do what you can in the summer, and you don't really kind of lose it as it goes on through the season, but I think this year we'll be able to maintain our strength and our speed much, much better. Just the way we've conditioned, the way we've lifted; so I think that'll help us throughout the stretch of the end of the year."
We'll know rather quickly whether or not the gains in the weight room made a difference. While Michigan opens up the season against Western Michigan, it will host Oklahoma at The Big House on September 12.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan players praise Doug Elisaia's impact in weight room
