The Nebraska football team is trying its best to turn things around as quickly as possible. While the coaching staff has talked quite a bit about "culture" it's clear that one of the ways the program is going to turn things around is by being able to push around the big boys it goes up against. While there was a lot of talk about how much stronger and faster the team got last year, it appears they are getting even better this winter.
Nebraska football making gains in the weight room
Appearing on the radio on Wednesday night, Huskers' head coach Scott Frost talked about a number of different topics.
Sadly, one of those topics was the fact that Jovan Dewitt is battling some form of throat cancer. The coaching staff has known about the diagnosis and has been working around it for him.
On a happier note, Frost talked about the conversations he and strength and conditioning coach, Zach Duval had. According to the Cornhuskers' S&C coach, the team has been making some incredible steps, even since the season ended. According to Frost and Duval, the Nebraska football players have seen a boost on average of about 100 pounds on their squats since the end of the 2018 season.
Frost said Zach Duval told him Nebraska players have, on average, have had a 100-pound gain on squat since he arrived, more than a 50-pound gain on bench, and added 13 pounds of lean muscle per player. Said Duval just texted him, "Old Nebraska is just about back."
— Brian Christopherson (@Husker247BC) February 27, 2019
That number was so impressive to those listening, that some even thought the coach had said "since the staff arrived," it was only after further listening that those same members of the media made it clear the coach had meant the team had made that big a gain since the end of the last season.
Frost recalled that Nebraska used to run S & C testing results in the media when he was a player. Said he didn't want to do that when he arrived because it would have embarrassed some guys at the time.
— Brian Christopherson (@Husker247BC) February 27, 2019
The 100-pound gain in the squat is one thing. What the Cornhuskers have managed to do in other strength exercises is also quite impressive. Frost and Duval said that the team had gained about 50 pounds on average when talking about their ability to do the bench press. They had also each put on about 13 pounds of lean muscle a piece.
Last season, the Nebraska football team showed that while there had definitely been some improvements made, there were also times when the Huskers were getting pushed around quite a bit by the bigger and stronger squads on the field.
It appears that Duval and company are well aware that the only way to stop getting pushed around is to get even stronger.
The good old days returning?
Duval, Frost and the rest of the staff have long talked about how shocked they were by the way the Huskers were lifting when they arrived in town. One of the big takeaways from the conversation about the way the team has done better in the lifting department was summed up by Duval. "Old Nebraska is just about back."