Director of Football Strength & Conditioning Kevin Tolbert article
Credit: mgoblue.com
"“He’s a funny guy,” senior linebacker Joe Bolden said of Tolbert. “These guys, they love us, and we love them. We spend a ton of time with them. I’ve seen coach Tolbert almost every day for the last seven months. You’d think the face would get old, but it doesn’t because he’s always keeping guys on their toes, cracking a joke at the same time getting after you. He knows when work needs to get done. He has a way of doing things a little bit different than (previous strength) coach (Aaron) Wellman."
Source: Detroit News, 8/9/15 (Angelique Chengelis)
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From the article:
“Coach Tolbert motivates guys by loving you up, caring about you, then again, he’ll rip your butt. Coach Wellman is a very intense guy. Coach Wellman wasn’t necessarily as open, but once you suffer with him, you’re close to him. I have the utmost respect for both. Love both of them. Suffered a lot with both of them.”
Nice to see Bolden (who seems to be one of the leaders) say something nice about Wellman ... I have no idea how effective the prior staff was in that area.
So romantic...
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August 9th, 2015 at 10:04 AM ^
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As an assistant
August 9th, 2015 at 10:09 AM ^
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August 9th, 2015 at 11:07 AM ^
The next S&C coach is always the savior.
We were all oohing and ahhing over Barwis' innovations . . . until we started losing. Then we decided that S&C's impact on wins and losses is overstated.
Then Wellman came along and we were all oohing and ahhing over his no-nonsense back-to-basics approach . . . until we started losing. Then we re-decided that S&C's impact on wins and losses is overstated.
Now we're on to the new guy.
Oohh, ahhh!
August 9th, 2015 at 12:27 PM ^
Did anyone really ooh and ahh about Wellman? I think your point stands for the most part, but I just don't recall Barwis falling out of favor.
it was more like a calming down of the hype after we saw that even Barwis and his $1million weight room makeover couldn't make up for coaching and development errors, especially on D.
We just wound up with strong fast guys going in the wrong direction.
I do think that we thought Wellman would produce more MANBALL roadgraders. But again . . . coaching and development shorfalls.
The real truth is that S&C matters, of course, but there is no one single way it has to be done to be effective, and even then it still can't overcome coaching and development shortfalls.
August 9th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
A good S&C coach alone will not get you over the hump, but a bad one will sink you. I don't think Barwis was as much the problem as all of the other issues that plagued the Rich Rod regime. In terms of physicality, the biggest problem with Rich Rod's teams is that they were undersized, and there's not much Barwis or anyone else could have done about that.
Like Barwis, Tolbert has a solid track record, having overseen strength and conditioning (along with Shannon Turley) at the Stanford program that averaged the fewest injuries in all of FBS. But if things go south with Harbaugh (not bloody likely), then don't expect Tolbert to save us.
I don't think Barwis was a problem at all. We just made such a myth of the man - pet wolves!! - that there was no way he was going to live up to the hype. He could not "save" the program, nor could have any S&C coach..
I had a hard time figuring out what Wellmans techniques were. With Barwis he was always advertising what he was making the kids do. Gittleson was here so long that everyone knew what he was doing. I was not a fan of Gittleson btw. But with Wellman all I ever saw was one hype video and a few pics. I will say from what little I saw from Wellman I was not all that impressed. And I am in the S&C industry myself.
The thing about S&C coaches is they are a specialist. So they know more about their job than the people hiring them. So if you have the credentials and have the right contacts it's probably easy to stay in the industry even if you aren't the best simply because the people hiring you don't know any better.
At this level I wonder how much is technique and how much is just getting the kids to buy in to your program so they do the work.
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August 9th, 2015 at 12:35 PM ^
I thought Charlie Strong was intimidating
August 9th, 2015 at 10:21 AM ^
Somebody should tell Moorer that the worst thing he can do is wear Texas orange and take a photo that looks like a mugshot. Texas' legion of haters is going to have a lot of fun with that pic.
August 9th, 2015 at 11:05 AM ^
say it to his face
August 9th, 2015 at 11:31 AM ^
August 9th, 2015 at 12:45 PM ^
He hasn't.
August 9th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^
August 9th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^
I don't think there is much of a difference between strength coaches. Remember when everyone said Gittleson stunk? Well, he did win over 75% of his games. Tolbert will be just fine.