KNOXVILLE – Deandre Johnson weighed in at 235 pounds shortly after arriving at Tennessee this month.
He’s a defensive lineman, so some quality time in a college weight room and an introduction to a calorie-heavy nutritional plan are in order.
The former three-star prospect out of Miami is looking to add 15 pounds in his first months with the Volunteers, so perhaps he was paying the most attention when Tennessee’s five early enrollees met with new strength coach Rock Gullickson last week.
“Rock is very exciting,” Johnson said. “He’s a very interesting guy. He knows the body well, and I’m just excited to get to work with him. I’m trying to change my body, and I feel like Rock, he’s the perfect guy to do that.”
Johnson is the kind of college project to which Gullickson will have to adjust after coaching in the NFL with the Rams, Packers and Saints the past 17 seasons.
NFL players are mostly finished products from a strength coach’s standpoint, and offseason workouts often are more about maintaining and sharpening, while college players, particularly freshmen and sophomores and linemen, need more guidance and direction on how to add muscle and improve speed.
After his hiring was announced officially last week, Gullickson admitted he faces a learning curve returning to the college game, but his old-school approach won’t undergo a drastic alteration.
“I’m a free-weight guy,” he said. “I believe in planning progressions. I believe in using periodization charts and kind of doing the mathematics to help the kids choose weights, but my philosophy is I want the program to be balanced. I want the program to be challenging.
“I want the kids that every time they leave they’re saying, ‘That was successful and I can’t wait to go back again for the next workout.’ It’s tightly scheduled. It’s very concise. I want to engage the kids as much as possible in what we’re doing.
“In the years past, it was easy to say to a kid we’ve got four sets of five reps on this exercise. Kids today, with their attention spans, they’re like, ‘Ugh, another four-sets-of-five workout.’ But if you take those 20 reps and say instead we’re going to go six, five, four, three and you’re changing the reps and you’re changing the amount of weights they’re handling and they’re adjusting to a new demand with each set, now they’re more engaged.”
Johnson laughed when asked if he was intimidated by the brooding Gullickson when they met last week.
“No, Rock is cool,” he said. “He’s the opposite of what you think a strength coach looks like, but he’s a very cool guy. He attacks the job from more of a mind standpoint. He knows the body well, and he uses a lot of science, so he’s good.”
Johnson doesn’t want to rush his physical transformation, but he’ll certainly be pushed by Gullickson.
“I really understand the percentages,” Gullickson explained, “so when I say, ‘I think you can do this weight, and three (reps) might be difficult, but I think you have a chance to do four. You want to try four?’ What’s the kid going to do?
“He’s probably going to go for four, and progress is made and trust is built and the understanding that we’re working together is happening. Without that coach’s involvement, it gets kind of boring, and I want it to be exciting and I want it to be challenging. I want there to be variation.
“I’m going to use chains and bands and all types of different apparatuses to keep their bodies adjusting to new stimulus. I want them coming in not knowing exactly what’s going to be expected of them other than they’re going to work hard enough to make a change in their body and have trust that we’re going to take them from point A and get them to point B.”
Johnson was committed to Mississippi State for four months before flipping to Tennessee in December after helping his Miami Southridge High School team win Florida’s 8A state championship.
At Tennessee he will play defensive end, though the coaches believe he could slide inside in certain pass-rushing packages.
“In high school I started off at end, but due to team needs I slid down to tackle and played the three-technique,” Johnson said. “I’m versatile. I can play all across the line.”
To play anywhere on the defensive line in the SEC, Johnson first needs to get bigger and stronger, and he’s more than ready to work hard and reach that level.
“Nothing’s promised, nothing’s guaranteed,” he said. “Just come in and compete. That’s it from my standpoint, is just come in, get a grasp on the playbook, physically just bust my butt in workouts and just grind.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.