College football: Summer workouts part of the game for Cougars, Utes

With an infant daughter at home, BYU lineman Jason Speredon would like nothing more than to spend his summer days tending to Mahala Jo and his wife, Shalee.

Having returned from an LDS Church mission in May, BYU lineman Ryan Freeman would like to catch up on some of the things he missed the last two years: pool parties, barbecues and family vacations.

Likewise, Utah lineman Zane Beadles doesn't really enjoy getting up early most mornings to run ladders with 45-pound weights on his back.

There was a time 15-20 years ago when college football players packed their bags after taking their last tests of the spring and headed home to relax before returning for grueling two-a-day workouts in August.

But as

Speredon, Freeman and Beadles can attest, those days are long gone.

"You know every other team is doing the same thing, working to get bigger, stronger and faster," Speredon said. "You can't afford to let down, even in the summer."

BYU strength and conditioning coach Jay Omer said the summer workouts phenomenon blossomed about 20 years ago, and now every major college football team in the country has an offseason workout program, which usually stretches from the time spring ball ends to the time fall camp begins, with only one or two weeks off in between.

"Unless a guy has an [employment] internship that takes him out of town, he's usually here all summer, working out," Omer said. "Guys generally don't go home for

the summer anymore."

At BYU, the emphasis this offseason has been on developing more speed and quickness, Omer acknowledged, after the Cougars were exposed for being on the slow side in losses to TCU, Utah and Arizona last fall.

At Utah, one of the major goals is to develop team camaraderie after the Utes lost several key leaders off their 13-0 team in 2008, strength and conditioning coach Doug Elisaia said.

"People don't realize how huge [team chemistry] is," Elisaia

said. "There are so many different characters and personalities and really in the summer you want to work all that out of the way and get everyone on a common goal. That way when you get everyone in here for two-a-days, they understand what they are doing and they know why they are here and they can hit the ground running."

Omer said better than 90 percent of BYU's players are participating in summer workouts, while Elisaia said he is working with a group of 102 players (out of a possible 105).

And it is all done away from the eyes of head coaches Bronco Mendenhall of BYU and Kyle Whittingham of Utah, or any of their assistants. NCAA rules stipulate that members of the coaching staff cannot be present for the workouts.

And the NCAA says the workouts cannot be made mandatory, although players chuckle when it is suggested they don't have to participate if they are in town for the summer.

"Basically, there's a sense of urgency," Freeman said. "If you are a college football player at this level, you don't have to be told this time of year is important, is crucial."

That's especially true if you haven't played football or been on a regimented workout program in two years.

Like many returned missionaries at both schools, Freeman has a lot of catching up to do. Omer designed a special workout program for him his first eight weeks back, but this week he began following the regimen the other players have been using for months.

"The biggest thing for me is putting weight on," he said, noting that he lost 20 pounds traipsing around the streets and backroads of Chile.

In addition to the workouts conducted by Omer and Elisaia, players at both schools get together on their own to watch film, throw the football around, play 7-on-7 games and do other football-related activities. Again, coaches are not allowed to watch or conduct the get-togethers.

"I am shocked at how organized they can get it on their own," Omer said.

As for BYU's emphasis, Omer said more time is being spent on speed and agility work and that one of his assistants, Kyle Grossarth, takes Tuesdays and Thursdays to develop it among the Cougars.

"Speed is really becoming more emphasized in the game," Omer said. "We have worked a little extra on that. We have to keep up."

At Utah, Beadles said the summer workouts are important to get incoming players acclimated to the rigors of Division I football.

"As far as the freshmen go, they're getting a taste of the way workouts run and the type of workouts you have to put in now," Beadles said. "When we get to fall camp, they'll be learning a new offense and technique. You don't want to be learning how to work at the same time. That is a lot to put on an 18-year-old kid."

Elisaia said a primary task has been to keep the players involved in Utah's Sugar Bowl win and undefeated season from getting complacent.

"We're working on it a lot more this year than last year," he said. "We're trying to develop some new leadership and get their minds off the Sugar Bowl and moving on. These kids are reminded every day about the Sugar Bowl when they're in public and we're trying to wash it out of their brains."

Neither Elisaia nor Omer would single out a player for exceptional hard work, saying they are not even allowed to report that to the coaching staffs.

Mendenhall "doesn't ask, and I don't tell," Omer said.

Both programs gave their players last week off for the holiday and to satisfy another NCAA rule that stipulates a week-long break in the nine weeks leading up to fall camp. But they are back at it this week, with the start of camp four weeks away.

"We open against Oklahoma," Speredon said. "We have to be as ready physically as we possibly can be."

And if that means a little less time with Mahala Jo, then so be it.