Rock Gullickson confident in 'good plan' as Vols' new strength coach

Rock Gullickson is introduced as Tennessee football's new strength coach on Jan. 10, 2017.
Rock Gullickson is introduced as Tennessee football's new strength coach on Jan. 10, 2017.

KNOXVILLE - For the past 17 years, Rock Gullickson spent nearly every day around professional football players as the head strength coach for three NFL franchises.

In Knoxville on Tuesday morning he was meeting with the five newest Tennessee Volunteers, the 17- and 18-year-old midterm early enrollees who could still be in high school.

As Tennessee's new director of strength and conditioning, Gullickson knows there could be a bit of a learning curve as he jumps back into the college game, where he's not been since 1999.

"You look at athletes today and they're pretty educated, way more than when I first started in the business," Gullickson said later Tuesday after his hiring was officially announced. Of course, with their iPhones and so forth, if you say anything that's not quite truthful, they're going to look it up and say, 'I don't know if that's factual, Coach. It says here that's not true.'

"They're smarter than they've ever been. They're more educated. Their high school programs are better. I'll know here shortly how and when I need to change some of my philosophies, my approach to things. It's been a while for me, so it'll be a little time to adjust."

Gullickson just completed his eighth season with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, and he previously worked for the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints. His years as a college strength coach were at Louisville (1998-99), Texas (1993-97), Rutgers (1990-92) and Montana State (1982-89). He met Vols coach Butch Jones while at Rutgers.

Then a graduate assistant with the Scarlet Knights, Jones struck up a friendship with Gullickson, who was in Jones' wedding and has watched his career trend upward from years as an assistant coach to the head coaching jobs at Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Tennessee.

photo Tennessee's new strength coach Rock Gullickson has been in the NFL since 2000 with the Saints, Packers and Rams. (Photo: Courtesy of the Los Angeles Rams)

"I told Butch... I want to help him achieve his goals, Tennessee football's goals and help these kids win a championship," Gullickson said.

The 2007 NFL strength coach of the year, Gullickson is tasked with fixing an area where Tennessee came up short in 2016 after Dave Lawson, Jones' longtime strength coach, was jettisoned and Michael Szerszen, Lawson's right-hand man, took over the day-to-day duties with the team.

Jones perhaps listened too much to some of his veteran players in deciding to remove Lawson. The Vols' physical effectiveness noticeably diminished through the course of the 2016 season.

Gullickson believes college players, particularly freshmen and sophomores, need more direction and structure in their workouts than NFL players, and he's confident in his plan, which is based on using free weights and engaging and challenging players with a variety of methods, to get Tennessee back on the right track.

"I have a good plan," Gullickson said. "I'm excited for what we're going to do. Like I told the freshmen this morning, I'm just one man. I've got the plan and I can provide the leadership, but they've got to help and they've got to be working with me on this. Together I think we can accomplish a lot. As far as assessing the team, it's an ongoing process.

"I don't know many of the guys. I'll start meeting more of the guys tonight. We're going to have position group meetings starting tomorrow and just have a skull session with each group to determine where their goals lie and what their thought process is. It's an ongoing process.

"I would say as far as fully assessing the team, it may take the full offseason to be able to really sit down and say what are this team's strengths and weaknesses."

Gullickson's two-year deal through February 2019 is nearly finalized, and his salary will be $375,000. Tennessee paid Lawson $200,000.

Starting this week the Vols will be largely in Gullickson's hands for winter workouts leading up to spring practice.

"I've personally known Rock for more than 20 years and know what he stands for as a coach and a person," Jones said in a release. "He fits the culture we are continuing to build at UT, and he has a comprehensive plan that I truly believe our players will greatly benefit from.

"He is passionate about his work, a tireless worker, detail-oriented and has a tremendous track record of developing and motivating players to reach their maximum potential. The strength staff spends more time with our players than anyone, and he, along with our current staff, will provide our players with the type of training needed to compete at the highest level."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

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