ATHENS — Mike Cavan knows more than most about Georgia’s strength-and-conditioning program. Not only is he intimately familiar with Joe Tereshinski Jr. and the principal parties running it, but he also has observed the new regime up close the past month and a half.
Cavan, a former Georgia player and assistant coach who is now a fundraiser in UGA’s development office, underwent knee-replacement surgery early this summer. So for the past six weeks, he has spent three hours a morning in Georgia’s weight room undergoing rehabilitation. Cavan quietly witnessed what he believes to be a radical metamorphosis of the Bulldogs.
“Let me tell you something: We’re a different looking football team right now, today,” said Cavan, who was a head coach at Valdosta State, East Tennessee State and SMU. “I don’t know what that’s going to mean in wins and losses. Nobody does. But I think people are going to see a team that’s going to come out in shape and ready to fight the whole game.”
Cavan’s perspective is important because nobody else with first-hand knowledge is talking. “Joe T,” as everybody around UGA knows Tereshinski, repeatedly declined requests to comment for this article. Likewise, none of the other strength coaches have anything to say.
This unwillingness to talk is not surprising to those who have known Tereshinski awhile.
“Joe’s not one to beat his chest,” said Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity, who has known Tereshinski since the 1970s. “He’s not going to be out there talking about himself. That’s just not Joe. He wants to be in the shadows. He’s a grinder just like [part-time strength-and-conditioning assistant and former player] John Kasay. They don’t want any publicity.”
NCAA rules forbid college football coaches from observing off-season strength-and-conditioning workouts.
“You can’t get reports from your strength coach, and you can’t go out and watch or coach those guys,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “You can talk to the players. ... They’re really the ones leading our off-season program. They can tell you how they’re doing.”
The summer program ended for the Bulldogs on Wednesday. Players report for preseason practice Tuesday night, and after a day of physicals and testing, they will encounter their first practice Thursday. It sounds as if it will come as welcome relief.
The chief difference in Georgia’s summer program has been an emphasis on running. Specifically, running for a long time. The Bulldogs have always run during the summers, but most of the emphasis was on sprinting.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a radical change. I’d just say he’s taking a different approach as far as the types of [training] we do,” senior cornerback Brandon Boykin said. “People aren’t complaining. It’s just a different feel to your body. When you’ve been doing something for three years and then you change it, you’re going to have a different feeling about it. But once we started seeing the results that are happening with your body and the way you’re conditioning, everybody bought into it.”
Players also were subjected to weightlifting, agility drills and plyometrics five days a week. Virtually every exercise came with a specified goal, depending on players’ heights, weights and results to date.
“It’s for winning the fourth quarter,” junior linebacker Christian Robinson said. “It’s for testing your mind to see if you can push through. Some guys early on, it tested them, and they weren’t able to do it. We’ll continue through the process and remember what we’re playing for.”
There was at least one direct casualty of Tereshinki’s methods. Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Brent Benedict, who had worked with personal trainers since his early high school years, quit over differences in opinion as to how he should train. But after Benedict met with Richt and Richt backed Tereshinski, Benedict subsequently transferred to Virginia Tech.
There’s a method to the running madness. Georgia was within a touchdown of its opponents in the fourth quarter of all seven games it lost last season. Stamina is what the Bulldogs believe was to blame.
“Everybody understands that we couldn’t finish in the fourth quarter last year,” junior receiver Tavarres King said. “I don’t think we won one. That’s what we’re implementing right now.
"We’re getting back to finishing the drill. ... We have something very tough to do at the end of every workout. So when that fourth quarter comes this year, we know we can finish.”
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