CHICAGO -- In the past, one of the things you knew about Michigan football was that it was going to be a strong, tough team. Whether it was back in the Bo Schembechler days, Lloyd Carr's tenure, or Jim Harbaugh's, the Wolverines were going to outhit you and outlast you.
But in the two years of Sherrone Moore, the maize and blue were known more for their injuries than their toughness. And new head coach Kyle Whittingham noticed that something was amiss when he arrived in Ann Arbor.
Whittingham was shocked when he took over the football team and noticed that they were not as strong as his Utah team. Given that the Wolverines are comprised of some of the best recruits the country has to offer, that wasn't exactly a positive for the new Michigan head
coach. So, he went to work.
And now, he says, most of the team has achieved personal bests in the weight room.
"One thing, probably the one thing, or the most glaring thing that stood out to me when we first got there, was that when we tested them at the strength room, the overall strength of the team was not up to par," Whittingham said. "And so we've worked hard the last seven months to correct that. We tested last week, and I think every player on the team, with the exception of just a handful, hit all their personal best in their lifts.
"So we've got that problem solved, but that was probably the most eye-opening thing when we got here, because we had all these real tall, long, good-looking athletes, but the sheer strength just wasn't there. So we addressed that, and we hope that's not going to be a problem."
It wasn't a discovery that came by happenstance. Whittingham says that strength coach Doug Elisaia was the one who figured out, by evaluation, that the team had languished behind where they should have. And from there, he formulated a plan, and now, the results should pay dividends come the season.
"You evaluate it by testing them," Whittingham said. "Just put them on a bench press and see what they can do. Squat and see what they can do. It was very apparent by the numbers. They paled in comparison to the place we came from. We were a strong football team from back in Utah. All the credit for that goes to our strength coach, Doug Elisaia. When he got the numbers, he came into my office and said, 'Coach, you're not going to like this.' We talked for a while. I said, 'Doug, I got no question in my mind. You'll get it right.'
"The players bought into what Doug was selling. As soon as they started seeing the strength gains and the body weight go up and lean body mass, as soon as the players know that you can help them be a better player, you'll get buy-in. As soon as they know that what you're preaching is going to work and if they follow it, then they're going to be better. That was something that really started to self-perpetuate. I can't tell you specifically which players gained the most, but I'm going to tell you, 97% of our players at least all hit personal bests when we tested last week."
Michigan is days away from fall camp with eyes on the September 5 season opener against Western Michigan.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: New Michigan coach says team was not strong enough
