Lovett, Purdue's strength staff target specific areas for summer growth

Maybe at some point in Purdue’s progression under Coach Jeff Brohm, director of strength and conditioning Justin Lovett will be able to have a firm model of training that requires only tweaks each summer.

But that’s not where Purdue is right now, entering only the second summer under Brohm’s and Lovett’s guidance.

Right now, Lovett is staring at a roster that lost tons of older, physically mature players, especially on defense, so much so he’s categorizing that unit as largely “developmental.”

The shift from a veteran-laden group to one that’s, generally, on the low-end as far as training age — meaning a group that doesn’t have the experience, doesn’t have the volume, doesn’t have the time and equity in the weight room — means an altered approach.

Because that’s what makes sense.

And Brohm and Lovett understand there’s no sense in pushing a group that isn’t ready to do things it simply cannot do.

So when last season ended and the schedule shifted to winter conditioning and Wednesday came that first week, players wondered — aloud — “What’s wrong with Wednesdays?” Last season, it’d been deemed “Regeneration Wednesday,” as a time that allowed players to recover.

But with this new group — one that lacked established players like Gelen Robinson, Ja’Whaun Bentley, Danny Ezechukwu, T.J. McCollum, Austin Larkin, Garrett Hudson, etc., guys who were weight room warriors — it had to get accustomed to change.

And that change only has persisted when Purdue began its summer program June 11, a week ago.

“There is significant transition between the previous staff and how they played and ours, so it isn’t, ‘Year 2, let’s just tweak what we did last year.’ It still feels like Year 1 again,” Lovett said Friday, the end of the first week of summer training. “We’re not trying to outsmart ourselves. We’re just trying to do what’s best and get out of our own way. … Summer Wednesdays are lighter, but we’re developmental. We (still) power clean. It’s clean and then you get your correct. If you give us what we want, we’ll give you what you want. They need an extra day under the bar. They need an extra day of field work to tie it together. That’s not a product of what I want. It’s a product of what the team needs. They need that time. We need to catch up. As they progress through and get more veteran, we might go back to ‘you’re top end at your position or what your ceiling is, we have to do some things to manage you,’ but right now, for this year’s team, we’re not about that. We’re about attacking and trying to catch up ground. They know it, and they’ve been receptive to it.

“But they just like to talk and say, ‘Remember when y’all came in? You loved us up and gave us Regeneration Wednesdays. We win a bowl game and then what happens? You took away the only thing we liked.’ Well, we’re trying to win more than a bowl game. We’ve been honest, ‘This is what you need. This is what you are as a group.’ It’s been fun to evolve. With Coach Brohm, it doesn’t matter if you won seven games or 12 games, whatever you did last year doesn’t matter to this team. Because there are 20 kids, 22 kids now with the freshmen here, that weren’t here last year. So why would they care how you trained last year? Because it worked for (Purdue)? Well, they’re not (that Purdue). They’re different. They have different needs.

“That’s similar to how Coach Holt does his defense and his calls, and Coach Brohm evolves his offense. We do the same thing down here. It takes a little while to evaluate where you’re at and figure out how you play, what do you need, what do your coaches need? OK, that’s what we’re targeting for skill, combo, line, quarterbacks, specialists, modified or injured guys and then our developmental guys — so we have seven different ways we’re slicing up this team all over again, it seems like.”

As can be expected, each of those groups, and the position groups embedded within, has specific, targeted areas of improvement for the summer. Those areas to target weren’t solely decided by Lovett and his staff, either. Purdue’s coaches are vocal about their needs, whether it’s offensive line coach Dale Williams providing detailed lists of where he’d like to see his players grow or running back coach Chris Barclay specifying priorities.

And, of course, Brohm is involved.

He even asked Lovett to incorporate a “conditioning challenge” each week, a voluntary portion of workouts that would appeal to the competitive guys, as well as target improvements in conditioning. One of the workouts is going to be called the “Brohm Test,” based off workouts Brohm did when he was in the NFL with Tampa Bay.

But that’s extra.

There is plenty of work in the required realm.

“We have definite targets for each position group,” Lovett said.

For the defensive line, which lost three of its four starters and a key backup, the inexperienced group will be drilled on improving its hands. Lovett called them “heavy hands,” tying Mixed Martial Arts with the weight room in terms of having violent hands. (MMA has been a staple with the new strength staff — led by Domenic Reno, who has trained former Boilermaker and current fighter Matt Mitrione.) But it’s important, Lovett says, for the moves to be integrated through the players’ cores, too, getting hips involved, not just hands. Then, working with former defensive linemen and current strength coaches Jeff Eaton and Mitch Meador, players can learn what works and what doesn’t based on an offensive lineman’s response. Mobility/flexibility will be a key, too — developing more bend in the ankle and the hip — for that group up front. Increased strength and power are obvious with a D-line, but that’s not what will separate them early, which is why the main focus is elsewhere, Lovett said.

“I don’t think you can do those (strength and power) with this group without at the same time tying it together with hand violence and be successful. Because the other group, they might not have been as fluid as athletes as these guys have the potential to be here now, but they could get over on their opponent with raw muscle and repeatability of just power and strength and force,” Lovett said. “This group won’t be able to do that — I don’t think — in training camp. So they’ve got to find their own way, which, to us, in some spots they’re more athletic. They have to grow into their bodies. But they have some twitch to them. They have some natural leverage that they can utilize.”

At linebacker, which may be the team’s thinnest position in terms of bodies but also in experience, Lovett said they are “chasing speed.” The goal is for that position group to be able to open up and get places quickly, repeatedly by the time camp hits.

At defensive back, Lovett has been impressed with Purdue’s young athletes, calling the group “kind of stacked,” from a physical perspective. The Boilermakers could play a pair of redshirt freshmen at cornerback after losing both starters a year ago. It’ll be key to grow confidence in that young group of corners, especially — the safeties are older and more mature physically — that they can believe they’re able to “go all day long and not break down because they’ve put in the work.”

Even on the offense, which is more experienced and older across the board, there are specific areas pegged for improvement by position.

And, sometimes, within the position.

Like the offensive line. Williams approached Lovett and broke down his group even further than the typical — generally, there’s targeted growth in bend, mobility and first-step quickness from that group — calling them “special populations” groups.

“So some guys need more rotational strength, they’re moving like robots. Some guys need more mobility. Some guys need more foot fire, we call it,” Lovett said. “So each player is kind of identified not just in one category, but he slides over here because he needs more foot fire. He slides over here because he needs more rotational strength. He doesn’t need more mobility. So it’s not cookie cutter, one size fits all. It’s not like that.”

Purdue has two seniors in its backfield, Markell Jones and D.J. Knox, as well as third-year sophomores Richie Worship and Tario Fuller, both coming back from injury. Each back was productive in spurts last season when he was given the opportunity, but Barclay and Lovett are looking for more. There was jump-cut quickness by some. There were power runs that knocked back defenders. But what was missing? “A home run,” Lovett said. So that’ll be the continued focus — Jones said he loved Maymester and its focus on on-field work that included “quick twitch, change of direction and movement-type stuff” — this summer.

“They can not just be content getting to the first level, but they can go, being able to hold their posture and motor, not just be a quick guy and be tackled after 25, 30 yards,” Lovett said.

Brohm wants his offense to be more explosive this season, and a big part of that will be how the receivers develop. For Lovett’s group, that means helping those players “reduce energy leakage.” Lovett wants receivers to not waste steps or create false steps, whether it’s coming off the line, back down hill or in and out cuts.

Quarterbacks and specialists “are a different breed,” Lovett said.

“It’s nice to have your quarterbacks and your specialists all work hard. Those are guys who usually (say), ‘I don’t need the weight room.’ But these guys are into it,” Lovett said.

Lovett hopes that detailed, position- and group-specific approach this summer can launch Purdue into camp ready to roll.

And after the first week of training that just wrapped, at least, seemed to be a good indication that could happen.

"I’m happy with where this first week and the attitude of our kids is. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do, and we know we’re developmental in some spots and we know we have the second-toughest schedule. But I’m happy with where we’ve been and where we’re at now," Lovett said. "It’s been a good process and a good evolution of what we thought we wanted to be when we first got here to what we are. I think we’ve executed and checked certain boxes and, then, changed lanes. That’s one thing I’m proud of, too.

"I’m a former semi-pro quarterback that was garbage, but I know how to call an audible and working for Coach Brohm, he’ll call an audible in a minute. So we’ll get out there and we don’t hesitate to call audibles with what’s best for the kids. So I’m pleased with how well we know them in a short amount of time."

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