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Arkansas’ Bret Bielema explains his strategy in getting players in shape
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Arkansas coach Bret Bielema loves summertime. That’s the time he feels players have the longest stretch of uninterrupted off-field training to get in football shape.
That’s why he wants all his Razorbacks to have “two summers” as he explained to SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum on Monday.
“One of the biggest development times in a college student-athlete’s career is during the summer, because they have eight uninterrupted weeks of just training and getting their bodies right. During my freshman year, I went from 190 to 225 and went from 235 to 265 my junior year. That’s when you put on great weight gains in strength if you do it the right way.
“What’s better than one summer? Two summers. One of the things we do in our program is two eight-week programs. One in the summer like everybody else, but also one in January, February, March, before we even think about playing football. I just want our guys know you’re going to get eight weeks of work in before you even think about putting on a uniform, because we need to get your body right.”
In other words, Bielema’s other “summer” is really in the winter.
The fourth-year coach had his Razorbacks among the last FBS teams to start spring practice, and the last SEC team to play its spring game, which is this Saturday.
Bielema believes this helps Arkansas close the gap on the other SEC schools that are able to routinely land the top prospects in the country.
“When I make my schedule, I don’t look at anyone else’s or pay attention to what they’re doing. I believe in development,” Bielema said. “We’re never going to have a sexy roster of five-stars or four-stars. We’ve got a bunch of guys that like to go to work every day and want to develop.”
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
