University of North Carolina Athletics
A Q&A With Jeff Connors: Part II
By: Joe Bray
TarHeelBlue: What kind of methods do you employ to improve someone's speed?
Jeff Connors: "Speed development is very involved.
"If you're talking about linear speed development, straight ahead speed, you've got your stance and start to begin with.
"Then you have acceleration mechanics, which are more applicable to the game of football because everything is acceleration, de-acceleration and re-acceleration. Very seldom do you run forty yards straight ahead in the game of football.
"You have acceleration mechanics, then you have maximum-velocity mechanics. This thing gets very involved where acceleration is more of a punch-and-drive action, with prolonged foot contact into the ground, where you're trying to overcome inertia. Once you get up and running, it's more of a cyclical action, where you want to put big force into the ground and get up off of it so you're working more on stride frequency.
"It gets very involved, and I think you have to teach both. We try to encompass all areas of speed development. It's a very involved subject, something that we could have an entire interview about.
"It's complex, but we try to simplify it for the players by choosing the most effective drills and simplifying the teaching."
TarHeelBlue: Do you get very involved with nutrition?
Jeff Connors: "There's a North Carolina law that says that unless you're a registered dietician you can't give much nutrional advice. You're very limited in what you can do in that regard. We do have a registered dietician, Tausha Roberts, who consults with the football team. She's a professional, and I certainly trust her to do her job.
"Now I may give her some information very frequently about some players, because if I have anybody who's overweight, there's going to be a very aggressive program to get their body fat reduced because I will not tolerate a very high percent of body fat in one of my players.
"Right now I've got about five guys that I'm really looking at closely who need to lose some weight. I'll give them whatever advice I can give them, then I'll refer them to Tausha, and I'll speak to her regarding their objectives. She'll then give them her professional advice.
"I personally don't believe that you can run fat off of somebody. I think that it has to come primarily from their dietary habits. If you recruit an individual that's already overweight, that kid may have a lot of behavioral problems where they can't lose weight because they can't quit eating. I hate to say quit eating, because you can't quit eating, but they don't know how to eat properly, and they can't adapt to eating properly.
"If a guy is overweight, he's got to change his dietary habits. Otherwise, he may not make it in the program. I think you need to take those things into consideration when you sign an athlete.
"Last spring at ECU during a coaches' clinic, I had a couple of coaches approach me and say 'We can't find a fat guy.' I said that's the way we want it. That's the type of program I expect to have.
"That's what I expect here."
TarHeelBlue: Do you publish your records, such as fastest times, heaviest lifts, etc.?
Jeff Connors: "That's an interesting question because I think a lot of strength coaches out there fabricate their test results. It would be very easy for me to make this team look extremely good.
"I know coaches who have used the "buddy system" when they've tested bench presses, where they give them two fingers under the bar and they press 30 or 40 more pounds just with that little bit of help.
"I don't have a problem with people looking at my test results, because I don't have anything to hide, but at the same time I think it's difficult to make comparisons with other programs, unless I could see exactly how other coaches are testing on testing day.
"What I want to do is be honest with our players and our coaches as to where we're at and where we want to go. Right now I'm not impressed with our strength stats. The best way that we can evaluate ourselves is against ourselves, where we were and how far we've come. I can tell a lot more from that than evaluating ourselves against some other team."
TarHeelBlue: How many hours a day is the weight room "open for business"?
Jeff Connors: "Right now I've divided the team into small groups, because I want to micro manage this team. I want to put a microscope on every player. I want to learn their strengths and weaknesses.
"Right now we open at 6:15 a.m., and we're usually here until late, because we're working on a lot of different projects. We have our testing and evaluation coming up, we have our War Day coming up, we have our coaches' clinic that we're trying to plan.
"I'm trying to put together about six different types of training programs for our guys who graduate from here and go to the NFL and are looking for a training program. I want our NFL athletes to have a program that they can come back to if they want to train here.
"We're filming our guys lifting, then showing them the film to help them with their technique. We'll be filming them running. We had to develop a program to send out to the signees.
"I've got a ton of projects I'm working on now."
TarHeelBlue: You mentioned War Day. That sounds kind of interesting.
Jeff Connors: "War Day is when the offense competes against the defense. We go out at 5:00 in the morning.
"We'll have about three fields set up with different drills, different competitive things that we do. We'll have the skill guys competing against each other, the bigger guys competing against each other. We'll have winners from each group, then we'll have an overall winner.
"The losers, either the offense or the defense, will have to do a hundred up-downs."
TarHeelBlue: What do the winners get?
Jeff Connors: "They don't have to do the up-downs. Plus, they get the glory of beating the opposition.
"You have to have intra-squad competition until you're ready to compete against someone else. That's something we really try to promote in our program, guys competing against each other. A lot of times when we do sprint work, I'll have them run against a partner.
"Right now, once a week, we have our guys go out on the field. They have to flip a tractor tire, pull a weighted sled, throw bags over the goal post, do some other things, sprint back and do the same things on the way back. By the time they get to the end, it's pretty tough. I think the fastest time we had last week was about 1:22. That's 1:22 of constant work.
"We try to make it interesting for the players. We put them in different competitive situations."
TarHeelBlue: You may not want to mention any names, but are there any guys who are really impressing you the most with their effort?
Jeff Connors: "I think there are more and more people stepping up every week.
"I've been real impressed with Ryan Sims, I think he's going to be a great leader on this team.
"There have been quite a number of individuals who have shown a great work ethic, so I don't want to slight anyone. But, Anthony Perkins has stood out. That's why they call him "Full Tilt," he has certainly lived up to his name. He is relentless in his work ethic.
"David Thornton is another guy. I think that Willie Parker only knows one speed. Clay Roberson only knows one speed. Jeb Terry is another one, the same thing.
"Madison Hedgecock, that's another guy. He doesn't say two words, he's just relentless.
"Those are some of the guys, but there's more. There's more and more popping up every week.
"You can tell how somebody's going to play the game by the way they work. It almost always is 100% true that what they give you off the field is what they'll give you on the field. It becomes part of their character.
"One of my sayings is that 'Every day is game day.' You strive for consistency on the field, and I believe that consistency starts in this room in what we do in the off-season. If they show up with the same high level of effort and intensity every day, then I have to believe that they are going to be more likely to play consistently from week to week when we get into football season.
"If I allow them to be inconsistent, then those same things are going to carry over into the season. We have to show up every single day, every single week.
"Whatever level of emotion, intensity and effort we show up with to play Oklahoma, it's got to remain the same week in and week out throughout the entire season, no matter who we're playing.
"We can't do that unless we take care of business in the off-season."
TarHeelBlue: Jim Webster told me that the most important assistant coach is the Strength & Conditioning Coach, because you have to spend so much time with the players. I know you have to discipline the team, but do you feel a sense of family with the guys?
Jeff Connors: "I hope I bring to the table a sense of family with the guys, because I'm interested in knowing them as much as I possibly can, as far as what makes each individual tick. What buttons do you push to motivate an individual, because each person is obviously different to some extent.
"Probably the number one factor that impacts a player's motivation is his playing time. Individuals develop a different attitude when they find out they're not going to get any reps. You know, everyone who signs a scholarship comes to play if they're any kind of competitor. Obviously, there's going to be some disappointment, because everyone can't be a starter.
"I like the way the game's developed over the last ten years. The last couple of years at East Carolina I've seen us play fifty or sixty players in a game. It's not like you have your starting eleven and they play the whole game. You rotate more people into the game so that you can stay fresh. I think that's a positive thing for players.
"Another thing is what's their level of self esteem, how do they perceive themselves? Do they have a sense of purpose? Players have to have a sense of purpose and some level of self esteem like any other individual to have a positive attitude and a positive approach to the game.
"You're always looking for ways to build the players up. When I came into this program, they had a common phrase around here. It was 'Beat Down.' They referred to their workout as the 'Beat Down.'
"The first thing I told them is those two words will never be said again in this facility, because we're here to build people up, we're here to win.
"And I used the word edification. (Laughing) That's a big word for them now. They go 'Coach, are we gonna get edified today?' If we have a tough training day, they go 'Man, we really had some edification today.' I go 'That's right, gentlemen. I'm building you up.'
"I had a guy miss a workout the other day, so I had him in here at five in the morning. Some other guys were in here lifting, and I made sure they saw what he was going to have to go through. They made several comments that he was experiencing some serious edification.
"But, I really believe I'm helping that guy to develop self-discipline. I'm making him a better person, I'm building him up. I believe that.
"Some of the best athletes I've had through the year have had to develop discipline, and they've become better for it. I don't like the word punishment, I like the word discipline.
"I put a quote on the board for my players every day. The one today talks about how some people who are highly talented just cruise along and are successful, but if you want to get to that higher level, the only place to turn to is self-discipline.
"I'm trying to get into their minds, the inner-most part of their minds, which is the heart of the man.
"People didn't come to Rocky movies because they liked Sylvester Stallone. They came because they liked the concept, the heart. People like to go visit the Alamo because of what happened there. Those are the type of things I'm talking about.
"You can watch a team from the top of a stadium and tell what kind of a heart that team has. I really think that's something that's recognizable, and that's what I want to be recognizable in this team.
"I want it recognizable by the way we take the field, by the way we play, by how hard we play at the end of the game, by how we handle adversity, by how we handle success. I think all those things factor in."
TarHeelBlue: Have you enjoyed yourself so far in Chapel Hill?
Jeff Connors: "Well, I stay in Southern Village, and I come to the weight room every day. Those are the two places in Chapel Hill that I know.
"I had one of the managers take me out the other night to show me where 15-501 was and how to get on it.
"(Laughing) I've heard Chapel Hill is a great place, people keep telling me that."
TarHeelBlue: Well, how about the job part of it? Has it been what you expected?
Jeff Connors: "I think it's what I expected, and I'm very, very happy with the way these guys have adapted to my program. In the short amount of time I've been here I've grown close to these guys. That's what provides me with satisfaction more than anything.
"Probably the two things that provided me with the most satisfation at East Carolina were my relationships with my players and with our fans. Winning was very, very important to those people.
"I really do miss the relationships that I had with a lot of the people in the Greenville area, but I look forward to getting to know our fans and alumni. (Laughing) I'm very interested in meeting people, because right now I don't feel like I have many friends left. When I left Greenville, it's like you just burned that bridge because you're going to North Carolina.
"There are some very strong feelings from the East Carolina fans towards the North Carolina fans. It runs very deep. But, having been up here, I don't see as many negative feelings towards East Carolina as I saw the other way around.
"Yea, it's been kind of tough, but I have no regrets coming here. I love the place. It's going to be a great challenge for me.
"I really have enjoyed the people that I've met so far. I just hope to settle in, learn the town and meet some more people.
"I'm on fire right now. I am very excited about these guys, I really am. The other day we were out there and they got fired up and made a lot of noise. People were looking out of the building like 'What are they doing out there? What did you do?'
"I guess the way I can put it is that these guys are hungry for an emotional spark, and I think that Coach Bunting is the guy that has the personality and the approach to do that for them.
"I really think that his philosophy, his way of thinking and the passion that he has for this place is something those guys need right now. They are going to respond quickly to someone who gives them some emotional spark, because they've got the fuel.
"They just need somebody to light the match."