Nothing Voluntary About Workouts, Says Former College Players

Dallas Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett certainly doesn't speak for everyone who has donned a college football uniform.

But it's a good bet the outspoken second-year pro echoes the sentiment of a large population of current and former major college football players when he questions the motives of those who have accused Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff of excessive workouts.

Current and former Michigan Wolverines players have told the Detroit Free Press that Rodriguez and his staff often held them for 12 hours on Sundays following a game and that summer voluntary workouts were not voluntary at all. Some ask, what's new?

"I think it's stupid that players are keeping tabs on how much they are working," said Bennett, who spent three years as the starting tight end at Texas A&M. "They should worry about winning games.

"I'm sure every coach and school goes over the limit at some time, probably not weekly."

The NCAA has for years mandated that coaches not work "student-athletes" more than 20 hours per week in season and eight hours per week out of season. But in a game that generates millions of dollars for some institutions and has the potential to make some of its players instant millionaires at the next level, the drive to be better than the next guy -- whether your teammate or the opposition -- demands significantly more time.

But in the spirit of showing some appearance of amateurism, the NCAA limits the amount of time coaches spend each week installing game plans, breaking down film, practicing and lifting weights. The NCAA, however, doesn't put restrictions on how much time "student-athletes" can spend trying to be the best they can in their sport outside of the watchful eye of their coaches.

Those particular sessions are deemed voluntary. But in light of the allegations being waged against the Wolverines for the last week, the question is how involuntary are these voluntary workouts?

The prevailing belief is that with the dollars generated by elite football programs and the $2 to $4 million contracted afforded to major college coaches the expectations and pressure from fans and boosters say nothing is voluntary anymore.

Several coaches weighed in on the debate this week, with none admitting they force their athletes to attend voluntary workouts whether they be in the summer when the coaches are not allowed to have any coaching contact, or during other off-season months when the time is limited. But they all believe that the athletes who put in the extra work are the ones who excel on the field.

"In the end, they realize they are not going to be capable of playing if they are not here all summer, because someone else is going to be in their place who has been there all summer," said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. "What I've found is guys who have not had great summers, they end up injured in the first week or two. Their muscles, their legs ... they are not able to handle being out there in two-a-days and the stress of competing and play and someone else has passed them by whether it's explosiveness, whether it's injuries or this that and the other.

"Like anything and everything in the world, it's just more and more competitive. If you haven't worked and prepared yourself, someone else is going to be in there in front of you. It's just kind of the way it is. So it has definitely changed."

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini, who played in Ohio State's secondary in the late 1980s and early 1990s, doesn't see much different now from his time as a player. The need to be better than the guy across from or the guy next in line on the depth chart, was the driving force in putting in extra hours.

"If you want to play football, if you want to be prepared for a season, the NCAA limits the amount of time the players can be with the coaches, you are limited in some other aspects," he said. "If you want to be prepared as a football player, you have to spend some time, you have to be in shape when you get into camp. That's all voluntary stuff, but at the end of the day, as a player you'd better take it upon yourself to put the time in or you are not going to be prepared for what is a 12-game season.

"That's been created by the rules."

Back in the day, it wasn't out of the ordinary for major college players enjoy their summers at home with family and friends, being trusted to follow on their own a workout regimen designed by the school's strength and conditioning coaches. Times have certainly changed.

During the last 15 to 20 years it's become customary for college athletes to remain on campus during the summer months for summer school worked in around running sessions in the mornings and weight lifting in the evenings under the watchful eye of the strength and conditioning staff and for the skill positions on offense and defense there are seven-on-seven drills that utilize the playbook. Even incoming freshmen are heading to campus in June often at their own expense.

Some of the advantages are undeniable, a chance to build greater team chemistry, an opportunity to catch up or get ahead in the classroom. Surprisingly, coaches say the pressure to put in the extra work whether it be in the offseason or the summer is greater inside of the team than it is from the coaching staff.

"Everything is voluntary but the peer pressure the players put on each other is sometimes more powerful than what a coach ask you to do," said Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy. "That's why the players stay around all summer."

No notes or records are supposed to be kept, but somehow the coaches know. But the reality is the NCAA has trouble policing such an exchange, which will become evident as college governing body investigates Rodriguez and his staff the next several months.

"We basically had year-round practice," said former Boise State cornerback Orlando Scandrick with a joking wink as he talked with the Dallas Cowboys media Wednesday. "In the summer it was player-run practices, but it wasn't, quote unquote, mandatory. None of it was mandatory."

Texas coach Mack Brown says when you have a veteran team, it is usually the seniors and team leaders that apply the peer pressure to put in the extra work.



"Vince [Young] did an outstanding job with the guys and I know Colt [McCoy] has done an outstanding job," said Brown, referencing his former quarterback and his current quarterback. "All we do when they get back is say 'How did it go?'" They say it went well that everybody worked hard."

But Brown and many of contemporaries realize that demands of major college football often exceed the allowable in-season hours and the out of season time. But they compare the commitment required to be the best to the work put in in other sports.

"When you look at it, I've related it to like an Olympic swimmer or an Olympic track star, they work year around as well," Brown said. "These young men now, that's what they do. They see us during the week and then they play college football on the weekend, that's entertainment.

"A lot of them want to continue to play, they'd like to play pro football so they work really really hard at it. Usually even when we have discretionary time for them during the spring, they are always calling wanting to get in that weight room to get better and get stronger."