Bigger, stronger, faster players sought at Tech

Underneath the bleachers at the south end of Bobby Dodd Stadium, behind two white doors with brown paper taped over the windows so people can't look inside, is where football players full of promise and potential are turned into men.

In his office in that lair, otherwise known as Georgia Tech's weightlifting room, director of player development Neal Peduzzi says his orders from coach Paul Johnson are simple: Make players as strong as they can be and as fast as they can be. That's more important than target weights.

Through a combination of weight lifting, diet and natural maturation, a freshmen such as defensive end Emmanuel Dieke can arrive at Tech weighing 215 pounds, which is fine for a wide receiver but not a quarterback hunter, and 18 months later, weigh 270 pounds. Dieke is expected to be a big contributor this season as the Yellow Jackets try to defend their ACC title. Others, such as sophomore T.J. Barnes, arrive and must lose 20 pounds because they don't know how to eat properly. Either way, mother nature helps a lot.

"It's amazing the growth process from [ages] 18 to 22," Peduzzi said.

But, even with help from biology, the challenge Peduzzi and his staff face is to put weight on players or take it off, while making sure that body fat is reduced. Gaining 10 pounds and increasing body fat doesn't help anyone.

The process starts when freshmen arrive.

Dieke enrolled early, joining Tech in January 2009. The player-development staff weighed him, measured his body fat and took various photos to reference during workouts. Each player's body fat is measured twice a year.

The strength-and-conditioning coaches analyze the information and put together an individual plan for each player to improve his strength and reduce his body fat. Each player gets a sheet, filled with various weightlifting exercises and the sets and reps required. It also includes his max in each exercise. Players will come in three days a week, grab the sheet, hand it to one of the strength coaches and begin working out with that coach's help.

The players who must gain or lose weight meet with a nutritionist. They are asked to write down everything they eat during two weekdays and one weekend. Peduzzi said some of the things the players write down can be somewhat shocking, referencing one player who listed 20 hot wings as the way he would sometimes start his day.

"You try to help them get to where they need," Peduzzi said. "They've been playing football their whole life and lifting weights since high school. They understand how to do it. No one's ever told them how to eat. They just ate what they had."

Once it is determined how much weight a player must gain or lose, the nutritionists take that number and divide it by the number of weeks he has to accomplish the goal. Players who must gain may simply add meals or drink an extra jar of muscle milk each day. Those who must lose may be asked to eat as frequently, but not as much.

Some players, such as Dieke, gain weight easily. Peduzzi sifts through the file drawers until he finds Dieke's photos. It's a Bruce Banner/Incredible Hulk before-and-after look.

Dieke's shoulders, torso and legs are much bigger. His mom, Elizabeth, said she was surprised the first time he came home after two months at Tech. She barely recognized the 230-pound man who walked through the door of their Riverdale home. That was almost 40 pounds ago. Now...

"He's getting bigger every time we see him," she said. She said when Emmanuel tells her that he's coming home, she goes to the grocery store to buy the largest jar of peanut butter and as much sandwich meat and bread as she can.

Some, such as Embry Peeples, struggle to gain weight no matter what they do. Others, such as center Sean Bedford, can put weight on, but have a hard time keeping it on. He said he has to eat a lot of 10,000-calorie meals to stay at a suitable weight for playing. His advantage is that offensive linemen in Johnson's spread-option offense don't have to be as big as the offensive lineman in former coach Chan Gailey's pro-style offense, according to Peduzzi.

For many of the linemen, such as redshirt freshman Will Jackson, reducing body fat while increasing strength is the goal. He weighed 292 pounds when he arrived and weighed 289 last week. His body fat has dropped by 6 percent while his bench has improved by 40 pounds.

"Everybody out here can run," Bedford said. "If you can't run you can't play. We don't have 350-pound behemoths. They wouldn't survive in this. You have to be able to get down the field, you have to be able to get to the second- and third-levels, you have to be able to be mobile and go from one side of the line and be able to pull.

"There are a lot of demands that the prototypical gigantic guy couldn't do."

It is possible for the players to get too big too quickly. Peduzzi said if a player tells him his back feels tight, that's a sign that he is growing too quickly. The staff will then adjust how much the player eats.

Brad Jefferson, for example, wanted to add a few more pounds toward the beginning of the 2009 season. He got up to 245. But, after working at that weight in practice, he decided he wasn't moving as well. Peduzzi said Jefferson's back also was tight. They worked together to bring his weight down. He weighs 250 pounds now because his job on the defense has changed. Dieke had the same issue this summer and dropped a few pounds.

That's the key to the second part of Johnson's important equation: big and fast. Before every workout, which involves three weight-lifting sessions and two conditioning sessions each week, Peduzzi or his staff puts the players through numerous stretching exercises so that they can effectively use the muscles they are developing.

Jefferson and Dieke said they are quicker over short distances because they are stronger. That's important for players close to the line of scrimmage who work in confined spaces.