KNOXVILLE — Tennessee’s strength and conditioning program is getting a complete makeover under Craig Fitzgerald, a key part of Jeremy Pruitt’s overall culture change in UT’s football program.

The makeover was on display as Tennessee posted a video of clearing everything out of the weight room inside the Anderson Training Center.

The strength and conditioning program under Fitzgerald will focus on getting bigger, stronger and faster. That was Fitzgerald’s mindset as he oversaw the strength and conditioning program at South Carolina (2009-2011) and Penn State (2012-2013) as Director of Football Strength & Conditioning.

At both stops, Fitzgerald was a factor in South Carolina and Penn State’s success.

Reginald Bowens played various positions on defense at South Carolina from 2009-2012 during Steve Spurrier’s most successful time as the Gamecocks’ head coach, winning the SEC East in 2010 and winning 38 games in his four seasons.

Bowens details Fitzgerald’s strength program that helped create a culture change and success on the field.

“Coach Fitz’s strength and conditioning program in my opinion is designed to target all aspects of the game of football and more importantly the SEC,” Bowens told Saturday Down South. “Coach Fitz designed his program to challenge you mentally and physically all in a competitive nature. His program pushes your mental and physical toughness needed to survive in the SEC; he brings an intense motivation every day and believes in getting better every workout.”

The challenges are detailed throughout Fitzgerald’s workouts.

“Summer and winter workouts were at 6 a.m., in-season workouts were broken down into smaller groups in a time frame from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. depending on class schedules,” Bowens said. “His offseason program focused heavy on getting stronger and faster while preparing for a long season. In-season workouts focused more on retaining strength, muscle rejuvenation and flexibility essential for maintaining the body through a long season.

“Coach Fitz understands the struggles of maintaining a healthy body through a long season. His focus at South Carolina was for our team to be fast and as strong as any opponent. He instilled in us to out work any opponent competing at every aspect from lifting to conditioning drills. We had workouts using sledgehammers and tires, essentially to challenge you when you were exhausted and mentally tired towards the end of workouts, incorporating full body workouts and full ranges of motion while conducting challenging alternatives than the traditional ways of lifting.”

Bill Belton also went through Fitzgerald’s strength program. Belton played running back at Penn State from 2011-2014. Fitzgerald took over as Penn State’s strength coach by removing machine weights to clear the way for more free weights.

“Throughout my time at Penn State, having Fitzgerald as my strength coach were my better years of college athletically,” Belton told SDS. “I felt prepared going into the season and I was in great shape. We did a good job of basically pushing the team to new heights and being able to compete with the top teams in the Big Ten.”

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Clearing out the weight room was the same tactic for Fitzgerald at Penn State that he is doing at Tennessee to help change the culture.

“We had a lot of stationary machines and Fitzgerald removed them with racks,” Belton said. “Once we started moving weights, we could see the difference and it transitioned onto the field.”

As summer workouts approach for the Vols, Belton also details Fitzgerald’s routine.

“In the summer we were there with them for about eight weeks as Fitz brought in a new mentality with him,” Belton said. “I felt a lot more explosive and I never felt like that ever in my life. Being in a college program under somebody’s guidance like that, it definitely takes you into a new place. I think it’s a great hire for Tennessee.

“We had our lifting days and some yoga stuff mixed in. He did a good job mixing things up and providing us with stretching, hydration, nutrition and they took that to new heights as well. He was big on us being stronger and faster, but more flexible and it carried over onto the field and helped us perform better”

Pruitt mentioned after the Orange and White game that some players “quit” and the best way to get players to buy into his culture change and to make them better is to “confront them.”

Buying in and adapting to change is for the better and something that Tennessee players still need to fully grasp.

That is what Belton and his teammates did; it helped Penn State rebound from losing its first two games in 2012 and winning eight of its final 10. Penn State finished 8-4, but were ineligible to play in a bowl game due to sanctions imposed in wake of the Sandusky scandal.

“During that time, it was a tough time, but it actually helped us out as players by getting new coaches and new strength guys who were younger and had success at other places,” Belton said. “Once we were able to get that kind of coaching in there, people basically gravitate to it and bought into the program and once we did that everything paid off.”