Product of Struggle..College Football Player

[AgainstAllOdds1]

Hey let me start off this journal by thanking you for taking the time to track my progress. I am a defensive linemen at a non BCS D-1A school. At this time I am going to protect my identity but as time passes, I may disclose more information but im new to this site. I am 6'2 254 pounds. I have 3 years of elgibility remaining, after redshirting my first year at school and then playing this past year. I have played end mostly throughout my carear and got recruited to play it however due to graduation I am going to play interior defensive line and strongside defensive end this year. I am fine with that, anything to help my team succeed. I actually like playing 3 technique (tackle going against the guard) because they are even less athletic then tackles and i have pretty good strength and you get a lot of 1 on 1 pass rush opportunities.

We are about 2 weeks from spring ball which is later then most d1 schools. That is fine with me, more time to improve and get better. My pre-winter workout numbers were bench- 355 pounds, squat-480 pounds, and power clean 290 pounds. My 40 yard time was a 4.88, shuttle was a 4.32, vertical a 31.12 inches (vert pad), and broad jump of 9 feet 2 inches. As you can tell, my 40 time is not amazing however I have good explosion and good change of direction speed which is why i excel. A lot of the 40 yard times on here are hilarious.. you are not running nearly as fast as you think you are. I was timed at Nike "electonically" at 4.7 my senior year. I am definitley faster now but those arent legit times. Just look at the NFL combine, I think people would be suprised at what a legit 4.9 looks like. Enough with that, its just funny how many 4.4 people are on here but im at a major d1 program and we have 4-5 guys running those legit and there are very few at the NFL combine each year. Anyway I have been busting my ass this winter and hopefuly I will see a dramatic jump when we test before spring ball.

Long term goal, is rather simple.. make the NFL. What seemed as a dream long time ago seems to be more and more acheivable as I see guys around me make the NFL and perform so well at the NFL pro day. I am not saying the odds are i make it, however I beleive I can get there. We run a 4-3 in college and I can play both inside and outside which makes me versatile. However, my best chance at the next level is more of a 3-4 end. THose not familiar with football, 3-4 ends are usually heavier and less fast. Realistically, I dont think I'll ever run a 4.6 to be a 4-3 end in the NFL. Because I am 254 pounds, I do need to gain a good amount of weight to make this a possibility. The good thing is that I am 254 pounds at 11.7% bodyfat and have 3 years. I have the lowest body-fat of any linemen here and I am long armed and am constantly told by coaches I could gain another 20 pounds. Long term, I want to be in the 280 range but I realize that is way too much weight for one off-season. I am hoping to gain another solid 15 pounds by next season, putting me at 270 and keeping my athleticism, strength, and speed. Although I am on the shorter side for a 3-4 end, I am very technically sound.

Although I don't have much choice in my workout program because the strength and conditioning coaches put us through workouts, I do beleive this site could help alot with diet. I do keep a food journal here and have training table however honestly I beleive i could use more advice. Our strength and conditioning coaches are great when it comes to workouts however what I read here and what they advise me conflicts. I have a rather fast metabolism and I am working out a real real lot, so I eat a ton of calories. I eat pretty healthy and a ton to add good weight however I never have to be too strict because ultimatley i am a defensive linemen .

The life of a Divison 1 football player is far from glamorous 353 days of the year. Sure those 12 games where your in front of thousands and thousands is great. But working out until you throwup, waking up at 5 AM 5 days of the week, practicing in the hot, cold, rain and snow, and dedicating your life isnt easy. Im not saying anything is easy but their is a big misconception people have with D1 football. A scholarship is nice but we earn every last doller. Meetings, film, meetings, workouts, practice are all that consumes our lives.. and more meetings. It really is a love/hate relationship. I hate getting up at 5 AM and working out till i puke and then going to class all dayu and then coming back and squatting and snatching but I love football. Like every other football player, my life revolves around the game. This absolute dedication has made me the best player I can be so far but i plan on getting so much better. We get no academic shortcuts, I spend most of my freetime watching film, meeting with tutors, and perfecting my technique. It's not easy but it's worth it to me. I am lucky I had a great freshman year and am already planning on making these next 3 incredible.


Again, any comments, question, or advice is welcome. I've learned that I don't know everything... or even close and could use the help. This journey isnt going to be easy but I approach every rep, every practice, every lift with the mindset that what I am doing will make me a better player and closer to my dream. May God bless you all in you now and your future endovers

[AgainstAllOdds1]

Wednesdays here are the hardest and best days at the same time of the week. We are training 5 days a week right now. Wednesdays are what we call mat drills. They were made up by Florida St or Georgia and many programs do them (at 6 AM here) . I know they are under scrutiny because it is not unusual for people to pass out, throw up, or show extreme strain. I know here pretty much every freshman throws up every mat drill. Some weeks we do 1 mat drill, some weeks we do 2. I know a few players in the last decade (like the kid from UCF) actually died during mat drills. Basically its a series of agility, conditioning, and sprinting which is set up in different stations. Its a circuit and you stay at each one for 4 minutes basically continously. I threw up for the first 2 mat drills this year but Im lucky I didnt today, I am getting in a lot better shape. You dont even throw up here and sit out, you throw up and get back into the drill and dont miss any reps. Some of the agility drills are bag drills, star drills, 60 yard shuttles, seat rolls with updowns, and figure 8 drill which you try to catch someone. These drills wouldnt be that bad on their own but you do them over and over in a circuit to the point where your exhausted. Then we break up and do some individual work for 15 mins. Dlinemen we did some starts, bag drills, fireoffs, and hit the sled in our indoor complex. Then we did a finish conditioning drill where we did 4 sets of 25 updowns which was pretty tough. Thats one thing coaches love here, we will do as many as 200 updowns in a conditioning session. The only reason I say Weds are actually good is becasue after this brutal 90 min workout we are free for the day. Obviously, I went back in after class and met wth both the d end and d tackle coaches to watch some film. I also went in for a 20 min high intensity bike ride just to get in better and better shape. I actually hate not lifting on Weds even though im absolutley dead after these workouts but im trying to cope with lifting only 4 days a week haha.


Here is my diet, since I'm trying to gain 15 pounds of good weight by next year, I eat, eat, eat because of all the training we are doing.


Breakfast 8 AM
3 egg omlette with ham, cheese, tomato, peppers
2 packets of Oatmeal
Vanilla Yogurt w/ granola
Potatoes
Grapefruit
Lemon Poppeyseed Muffin
2 Cinnamon Buns
1 glass of 1% milk
2 glasses of water


Snack #1 (10:30)
Homemade Weight Gainer
1% Milk
2 Scoops of PB
100% Whey Protein
1 cup of oatmeal

2 Handfuls of Almond


Lunch 1 PM

Chicken Stir Fry (peppers, spinach, tomato) with brown rice
Plate of whole wheat pasta
3 hard boiled eggs
Big Salad
1 glass of 1% milk
1 glass of water


Snack #2 3:30 PM
1 PB and Jelly on whole wheat
1 Bannana



Dinner 7 PM
Plate of Whole Wheat Pasta
Chicken
2 Cheeseburgers
Spinach
Cottage Cheese
1 glass of milk


Later tongiht....


Snack #3
Protein Shake with 1% milk
Almonds
Apple



Tommorow we got a full body lift at 6:30. After i will probably watch some film and work my hands with my dline coaches, i think that is one of the biggest reasons for my success at this level. I have very good hands and I need to keep getting them better. I will post again tommorow

[AgainstAllOdds1]

If you google mat drills and college football you will find a great link that talks about FSU's matt drills entitled "Mat Drills Push FSU Players To The Limit" . I tried to post the link but i guess i got to wait until I get 30 posts.

Not only are mat drills incredible for conditioning, speed, and strength but it benefits mentally so much. Myself and many other kids here never went through this sort of adversity physically. Obviously we trained hard but mat drills are a whole different level. If you are not an elite athlete it would be incredibly tough to keep up. But mat drills push you so far mentally every time. It shows you that if you beleive something.. youc an do it. You get to a certain point, maybe a third of the way in where you think your not gunna be able tof inish. I remember my freshman year thinking that I was ghoing to pass out.. i ended up collapsing for 5 minutes but after i finished the mat drill. It gives a whole different sense of confidence gonig through something so tough. Freshman year is a really really long winter with the workouts but now its my 2nd year and I am thriving. Mentally it has helped so much in every sense. I realize when its tough you just keep pushing and you go so muich further then you thought you could. Last week we did the mat drills and our finish was 100 pushups, 100 situps, then 100 updowns at the end. I thought I was literally going to die but i kept pushing and pushing knowing mentally I can do this. You focus on every rep, every updown, every drill and slowly you become amazed at how much you can acheive

[beertank23]

Wow, great write up!

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/07/070012/sp-mat-drills-push-fsu-players-to-the-limit/sports-colleges-seminoles/

[AgainstAllOdds1]

Defense got our lift in at 6:30 this morning. Here was the workout:

Dynamic Warmup

Full Hang Clean

135 X 5
185 X 5
205 X 4
215 X 3
230 X 3
255 X 1
270 X 1


Front Squat
225 X 4
245 X 4
255 X 4
275 X 4


Back Squat
225 X 2
275 X 2
315 X 2
335 X 2
370 X 2
405 X 2
415 X 2


RDL (Romanian Deadlift)
205 X 5
220 X 5
230 X 5
240 X 5

Bench Press
235 X 8
255 X 8
275 X 6
305 X 4



Chinups
BW x 8
BW x 8
BW x 8


Hamstring Swiss Ball Curls
BW X 8
BW x 8
BW x 8

Partner Stretch


On the workout: The full hang clean is a hang clean where you catch in an a2g position. Not only does this work explosion but flexibility and athleticism. Alot of linemen seem to struggle to catch it low but im proud to be able to catch it with my ass nearly touching the ground and then front squat it up. I was doing pretty solid weight on these since they are a lot more taxing plus we dont use any straps like we are able to for maxouts. I tried to hang clean 305 full with ass to grass but got in the bottom position and bailed.

Next we did front squats, these are pretty solid numbers for me. Again these are A2G and even though I was tired from the cleans I pressed on. Then we did the back squat, these numbers are lower then I usually can do given the fact we just front squatted and full hang cleaned and also general soreness from the past 3 days including the killer mat drills. I was moving the weight pretty fast still on the back squatt.

RDL is one of my least favorite excercises. I do not really struggle on it however, my hamstrings also seem to be the first to be sore. the last 3 days we've done a ton of leg work and running and agility drills so i could defintley feel these.

This was a solid bench day but nothing particualr. We actually inclined and did upper body a few days ago so I was not at my peak, plus 100's of updowns yesterday didnt help either. Chinups went well, being able to do 3 sets of 8 is sometihing i prider myself on because not many linemen can do that without any sort of assistance.

Ended it with some hamstring curls for the sore hamstrings and any more work we do for the rest of the week. I had read on Defranco's this is great for not pulling a hammy.

[Acal83]

good log man,

one thing im curious about with college guys who lift early in the morning...
do you eat anything before you lift?

[AgainstAllOdds1]

good log man,

one thing im curious about with college guys who lift early in the morning...
do you eat anything before you lift?

Good question. I'll have some green tea (yeah weird pre workout supp but it works for me and cheap) and a piece of whole wheat toast with natty pb and a banana. If we wre doing a ton of running/ conditioning or mat drills then I will nto eat at all becasue I will throw up. Haha i dont even really drink that much water the day of, i hydrate the night before because i will be ebnt over hurling all that water up. I generally have something light though if its a lift or a lift and some speed/change of direction work

[Acal83]

Good question. I'll have some green tea (yeah weird pre workout supp but it works for me and cheap) and a piece of whole wheat toast with natty pb and a banana. If we wre doing a ton of running/ conditioning or mat drills then I will nto eat at all becasue I will throw up. Haha i dont even really drink that much water the day of, i hydrate the night before because i will be ebnt over hurling all that water up. I generally have something light though if its a lift or a lift and some speed/change of direction work

awesome, thanks for the response. Ill be keepin up with your log

[AgainstAllOdds1]

Had a pretty good lift this morning which i posted earlier and after my classes I went in for some more work. I had a meeting with one of my position coaches and went over defense. I read on ESPN.com that Suh from Nebraska wanted to know how the whole defense works. i think that this will help me too so we went over some of that fr about 30 mins. Then we got to watch some film from NFL guys, he had me watching Jared Allen, Dwight Freeney, and a couple others, kinda hard to emulate those guys haha. After film i got changed up and did some work with the coach. I did a bunch of hand drill for about 30 mins, then I worked on some running the hoop drill which teaches u to bend coming off the edge. I finished with a 25 minute bike ride.

Tommorow morning we got competition Friday. Basically you go against someone of similar athletic abilites and you compete in a series of drills including pro agility, L Drill, bag drills, tug of war and this weave drill. Then we have a lift in the afternoon.

As a side note its funny how the NCAA limits D1 schools to 8 hours of work during winter workouts and 2 days off a week, My school does not follow this. I want to be brutally honest in this log and that is why i am concealing my identiy for quite some time. Just mandatory workouts we have 6 days this week where we're working and a mandatory of 12 hours (4 over the limit). That isnt even counting the "optional" meetings, films, and various activities. I certainly am putting more work in even if we were doing 8 hours/week so i dont really mind because im still doing workouts, film, and meetings on my own on top of everything. It gets tough with school but we dont have much free time honestly. But seriously, who would anyone on this team tell tht we're going over the NCAA limit? Like, we al want to be good.. if we have to do extra work to make us the best we can then so be it. Thats just the attitude aroiund here, plus a lot of kids here hve aspirations of the NFL so as much as we can improve here puts us in a better position. I am fortunate to have some time to relax tonight, probably wach some college basketball and hang out. No going out tommorow night because we have a 3 hour crazy ass workout Saturday morning. our one day off is Sunday, its always nice to sleep in past 6 AM haha.


Here is my diet for the day, obviously the day isnt over but ill just put in what im going to eat the rest of the night 2 because I always stick to schedule:



Diet today:

Breakfast 9 AM

3 Egg White Omlette w/ spinach, tomato, pepper, and ham
Irish Steel Cut Oatmeal w/ spoon of maple syrup
Yogurt w/ Granola
2 Turkey Sausage
Muffin
Apple
1 glass Apple Juice
2 glass Water

Snack #1 11 AM
1 Peanut Butter and Jelly on whole wheat
Bannana
2 glasses of 1% Milk


Lunch 1:30
2 90% Lean Cheeseburgers on Whole Wheat Bread
Brown Rice
Apple
2 Hard Boiled Eggs
Smal Salad with veggies
2 glasses of water

Snack #2 4 PM
2 Cups of Almonds
Protein Shake


Dinner 7:30 PM
Plate of whole wheat pasta w/ marinara
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
2 pieces of cheese pizza
Green Beans
2 cookies
1 glass of 1% milk
2 glasses of water



Pre-bed Snack 11 PM
1 Cup of Almonds
Homemade weight gainer: 1% milk, natty pb, oats, ice, and bannana




The best part of my school is we have a great dining hall just for the athletes. We have a lot of healthy options at the dining hall with all the calorie, fat, protein, carb etc content placed next to the food. It's great having omlettes with fillings, steel cut irish oatmeal, and turkey sausage at the dining hall! Just eating a lot trying to keep gaining that good weight to kill it this year.

[pigskinmuscle66]

some good stuff. Very interested in the mat drill....