No weights, no problem. Wolfpack strength coach happy with progress after pandemic
When the N.C. State football team returned to campus in June, Dantonio Burnette was pleasantly surprised with how good everyone looked.
Burnette, the former Wolfpack linebacker and current director of strength and conditioning, hadn’t seen the players in months due to COVID-19. Like every program, N.C. State shut down all athletic activities in March. The Wolfpack got one week of spring practice completed before players scattered.
For Burnette, that meant missing those critical summer months, when players are on campus working out under his staff’s watchful eye.
Still, the work had to be done and all Burnette could do was send workout plans out to the more than 100 players. They trusted the athletes to get up, work out and keep a consistent routine going for nearly three months.
“To be honest our guys came back in really good shape,” Burnette told the N&O on Monday. “A lot of guys really look good.”
There were rules and guidelines coaches had to follow. Burnette couldn’t monitor workouts or organize a group workout over Zoom. He was allowed to send out weekly workouts, but even that was tricky. Some players had access to weights, others had to find things to do around the house, so Burnette had to make a spreadsheet for each group.
He’s used to being hands on, so trying to sculpture players from behind a computer screen was tricky. He had to depend on the players policing each other.
Guys developed accountability partners, breaking the team into groups, with the leaders checking in. Burnette singled out offensive linemen Joe Sculthorpe and Grant Gibson, along with linebacker Isaiah Moore for their leadership. And that’s just the way Burnette wants it. He wants to build the players, but he doesn’t want to micromanage them.
“I just pretty much provided the workout program and stayed out of the way,” Burnette said. “I’m always telling the guys it’s not my job to hold their hands or always be looking over them, but to provide them information. The guys who buy into our program and do things the right way, those are the guys who are going to have a chance to be successful.”
GETTING CREATIVE
Some guys could go to their local high school. Others had enough weights at the house to get in an adequate amount of work. In some cases, players’ parents set up makeshift gyms in their garage.
Burnette estimates that about 55 to 60% of the players had access to some weights. He would send a different weekly workout plan to that group. To the group that didn’t, he had to get extra creative because there are only so many push ups and sit-ups a player can do.
“Some of the guys used (resistance) bands,” Burnette said. “We were using jugs of water, book bags for front squats. They were using chairs for dips and incline and decline push ups, bricks, just so many different options. For kettle bell swings they just used their book bags and did book bag swings.”
The guys who had home gyms would invite teammates to work out. While they didn’t have all the bells and whistles and the Olympic weights Burnette has in the Murphy Center, it was more than enough.
“One of the guys is Danny Blakeman. It was cool to see that he had like four guys in shifts coming to his house using his equipment,” Burnette said. “Alim McNeill, his father purchased some weight room equipment, so he had guys training at his house. Then it was cool to see some of the guys build makeshift racks at their house and just try to find ways to get their work in.”
To account for more than 100 players, Brunette had his staff break the team into groups of 9-12 players and each staff member checked in on their group. Burnette switched the workouts weekly and send them to the masses, using an application called Teamworks. Having to get things done on their own has forced some players to grow up, Burnette believes.
“You can look at this as a negative, or you can look at this as a great opportunity,” Burnette said. “We just took it as a great opportunity for us to get ahead of some programs. I don’t know what other programs are doing, but I just feel like our guys did a great job.”
Head coach Dave Doeren said that Burnette and his staff are “solution based” and deserve a ton of credit for serving the players during a pandemic.
“They take great pride in what they do,” Doeren said. “Regardless of the obstacles in their path they stay positive and find a way. The way they go about dealing with any adversity is what makes them special.”
Once the team returned to campus Burnette had to evaluate each player, pretty much treating each guy like he was seeing them for the first time. He put them through a series of “movement screenings” to see how well they could bend and move on the field. That gave Burnette an idea of what the next steps needed to be. His biggest concern was if the guys would still be able to do all the Olympic movements such as power cleans, squats, front squats, just to name a few . He was then able to give them a few progressions to the next step. According to Burnette, the transition back was smooth.
“We’re rolling now, man,” he said. “We are excited about where things are going.”
TRAINING FOR GAME ONE
N.C. State announced that football camp will start on Aug. 4. There are still a lot of unknowns surrounding college football, but having a beginning date is a good start.
It’s too soon to tell if the opener at Louisville, scheduled for Sept. 2, is still a go. But Burnette at least has a timeline to work with — train to prepare for game one.
Despite time away, Burnette says the team had a great winter and a solid week of spring football. His biggest concern since then was conditioning — including if the players would get in their runs. He also had to keep an eye on players’ nutrition as best he could. Burnette met with the ‘Pack Performance’ group and discussed which guys needed to lose weight and who needed to gain. They also sent out weekly newsletters to help players better understand their diet, what they need to get the proper amount of sleep and proper recovery.
Despite all the evident setbacks, Burnette, like strength and conditioning coaches all across the nation, found a way to keep his guys in shape, and he’s thrilled with the results.
“Because so many guys were in good shape and a lot of the guys understood the program, guys were eager to take the bull by the horns and start to move this thing in the right direction,” Burnette said. “I think our guys are in a good place where I have been able to pick up things and continue to move forward.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "No weights, no problem. Wolfpack strength coach happy with progress after pandemic."
