Early spring benefits Gamecocks’ strength program

During the offseason, South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp announced spring practice was moving up a week. At the start of spring ball, he explained why it started earlier than in recent years.

“I felt like we ended spring ball last year – we were into a discretionary week. We were into exams.”

The discretionary week means the team can’t have required conditioning. That led into exams and then a break before players returned for classes starting in early May.

Muschamp said that stretch took a toll.

“I felt like we lost some spring gains from the offseason program,” Muschamp said. “To have the spring game a little bit earlier, to have two weeks of lifting outside of that time frame going into the summer – I thought we would have less loss of strength, in my opinion, as far as workouts are concerned.”

That change comes down to a quirk in the schedule. The team breaks up at the end of the semester, with not all players attending the “Maymester” built into USC’s academic schedule. Players on campus work out, and locals would sometimes float in, but much of the team wasn’t there.

Last year, coaches said there was almost no time between the end of spring and the long layoff. Players fell out of shape, which required the strength staff to get them back to a baseline before working on speed, strength and position work.

With shifts in the schedule and moving spring, the team gains a few weeks, and those have value.

“It’s really good because it’s a slingshot into our summer,” Gamecocks strength coach Jeff Dillman said. “Now we’ve got three weeks to continue to build a good foundation that leads us into the summer. Now we can intensify a lot faster. Where before, we kind of had to hit the reset button.”

Muschamp also pointed out players tend to go harder with a strength coach nearby.

The accelerated spring schedule also means the Gamecocks’ spring game on Saturday at noon won’t overlap with any other SEC spring games.

This story was originally published March 28, 2017 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Early spring benefits Gamecocks’ strength program."