KNOXVILLE – When Ron McKeefery was hired as Tennessee’s football strength and conditioning coach last month, his military pedigree easily could have been a source of intimidation for the players.
Anthony Anderson just looked at the bright side.
“I was actually excited,” the rising senior cornerback said last week. “You look at all the guys in the Army and how they look and how strong they are, and I wanted to look like them.
“We’ve had so many new strength coaches that I was ready to see what he’s like, and he’s been amazing. Serious, he means well, he wants the best for the team, and he’s going to do everything in his power to do it.”
McKeefery is the Volunteers’ fifth strength coach in three years after taking over for Bennie Wylie, who left after a season for the same position at Texas. McKeefery spent the past decade at South Florida, helping build the Bulls’ program from scratch to build a contender in the Big East Conference.
He left USF after its bowl game in December for a position as the human performance coordinator for the U.S. Army Special Forces in Fort Campbell, Ky. But soon he was back in college football.
His players said “Coach Mac” hasn’t wasted any time getting himself acclimated.
“He’s getting the best out of us, and that’s what we need,” cornerback Marsalis Teague said. “The intensity of the workouts, the tempo we work at – we work at a nice, good tempo, and we make sure we feel everything, isolating everything, getting everything going.
“It’s really beneficial for our whole body and our whole offseason program. He didn’t come in taking a lax approach about things. He’s quick to point something out if we’re doing something wrong, and that’s what we need. He came in with a good approach, very hands on.”
Like Anderson, cornerback Art Evans has been through five strength coaches at UT. Though there’s always an adjustment period with a different person running things, the grueling 6 a.m. workouts are an effective way to quickly build an important relationship. Through workouts throughout the offseason and the summer, players spend more time with the strength coach than with any other coach on staff.
“Those guys who recruited you or were here when you first came in helped you develop a certain type of body,” Evans said.
“They know your body, and then to get a new guy, it’s like you’re starting all over again. But Coach Mac came in, was up front with everybody and got to know everybody pretty fast.”
Teague is on his third Vols strength coach, though this spring practice, which begins March 22, will be only his second. He doesn’t see the revolving door of strength coaches as a big concern.
“I think it’s a big deal if you let it affect you,” he said, “but at the same time, if you approach it as just work – as in you’re going in there to work out – now he’s giving you the game plan … that’s how you’ve got to approach it.
“You can’t approach it like who’s giving it to you as long as you’re getting in it. You’ve got to take that approach to it and everything will be all right.”
Anderson said the recent strength work has focused on improving players’ explosion, along with what he calls the “basic stuff.” But there’s only so many ways for a football team to work out, and the Vols seemingly have been through them all in the past three years.
“We’re used to do a lot of different types of workouts,” Evans said, “but [McKeefery] brought the more intense stuff. Stuff that I would hear from a military guy that they do, we do that with football. It’s more football-oriented.”
Though the results of UT’s offseason work won’t be evident until the 2011 season, Teague said he’s seen tangible results from McKeefery after just a month of time together.
“We feel very confident as a team right now,” he said. “We’re doing these offseason workouts and we know we’re getting better.
“We see our improvements now, and the coaches are doing a good job of showing us our improvement, trying to get us to meet certain goals and expectations. It’s all a good feeling for us right now.”