Florida's strength and conditioning coordinator, Tyler Miles, met with the media Tuesday to discuss an offseason of improvement in Gainesville
Graham Hall
Having concluded his first summer workout program as UF's strength and conditioning coordinator, Tyler Miles met with the media Tuesday to discuss the improvements made by Florida's roster, the importance of staying healthy in fall camp, and more.
Here's everything he had to say:
On the team's progress and buy-in:
"It was a lot of fun, to be honest. We had a lot of highs. It was just really a lot of fun to grow the relationship more with everyone on the team. When you're an assistant or you're in sports science, you might only see a certain group of guys but when you're in charge of it all, you have to make that connection with everyone so it was a lot of fun. The buy-in was really easy. It was easy from the get-go and we kept that going all summer. It really made my life easy and a lot of fun throughout the summer. It's probably the most fun I've had in a summer in my entire career."
On what he's most proud of:
"I'm really proud of the numbers but I'm really just proud of how they conducted themselves. We talk about being a pro but also just being a man every single day. You come to work and you do what you're supposed to do and I think that is what led to the increase in numbers. The speed numbers are great and the strength numbers are great and the body composition numbers are also great. They're all phenomenal and I'm very proud of that. I'm more proud of how these guys have conducted themselves and attacked everything throughout the entire summer."
On the numbers:
"We got a couple guys running 23 mph now, we got 15 guys running 22, 43 guys running 21, 62 running 20 and then bigs, we have a handful of bigs running 19 and weighing at least 330 pounds."
On the significance of those speed numbers:
"I can put it in perspective with other places I've been. I won't say the places but I know the most anyone on my staff has seen anywhere we've been in the past for 22s was five. I've only ever seen one 23 in my career at the college level and I know there's more out there but just where I've been. We have two on one team and that's phenomenal. I'll put it in perspective like that. Strength numbers, we went from 15 guys cleaning 300 pounds to 45 guys. Our average squat weight was around 365 pounds around the end of winter and now our average is 425. Bench I can't remember, but I don't put as much emphasis on bench. The weight has increased but squat is kind of the no-brainer. We kind of define that as our identity because to drop down low it takes no fear with that much weight on your back. We take a lot of pride in that."
On players being more confident about their conditioning:
"At the end of the day, you want to win. For me, for the young men to have confidence and see their hard work pay off like that, really that's what makes me happy. How they conduct themselves is more important to me than the numbers even though the numbers are important and what we want to focus on. But for young men to have that kind of confidence and conduct themselves the way they conduct themselves, that's what I do here. I don't have any kids of my own. I have 130 kids that I see every day here."
On player conduct:
"They keep their locker room spotless, they keep the indoor spotless, they don't miss anything. If they get called out on not doing something right, they fix it immediately and say yes sir. They know we want the best for them. Everything they do, the little things. There's that famous video of Ed Reed talking about picking up trash in the locker room. They keep their locker room spotless and I know that doesn't sound like a big thing but to us, that is a big thing. All the little things stack up and matter and they do all the little things correct."
On Lombardi's quote that if you win the mental battle the rest will follow, if he agrees with it:
"I never really thought about it like that, moreso I just think about it the way my father raised me, it's just every day, you have responsibilities and you do that, on the days you don't feel like doing it, you have responsibilities that you need to accomplish and get done and you don't just go through the motions, you do it the best way you can, so that's kind of how I think about it, if that makes sense, but my mind just works in that simple, you've got a job to do, and you get it done every day."
On how is father raised him:
"As you guys kind of know I grew up in a rural background but from the age of 11 or 12, I'd be getting up at 4 a.m. to feed the animals, a lot of days at, 11, 12 years old, I didn't want to wake up at 4 a.m. but the animals have got to eat, so, every single day you have a job to do, or people, and families don't eat so, 12 to 14 hour days pretty standard from where I come from so it's just a way of life."
On strength and speed training, how will it relate to stamina, being able to last four quarters of a game, 12 games in a season:
"When you undulate things you undulate in volumes and intensity so you know, there's that saying you can't win the season in the beginning, the offseason, but you can certainly lose it, so not always keeping the guys all the way up here all the time but undulating those volumes to get them where they need to be to be one ready for camp, but at the same time, not over-trained, after camp, or in season, hopefully bowl games and so on, that's a long time so you have to really modify those volumes and intensities not just when you get to the season but when you start an offseason, especially in the winter, it all starts there, so, just how we use all those numbers and pass the numbers to not only build up what we need to do but when to put the foot on the gas and when to put the foot on the brake."
On if he's seen less injuries with the strength program this summer:
"I won't go into particulars on that I will leave something like that to Coach Napier to disclose to you guys but yes, we have been very healthy, that's all I will say."
On Jake Sankal, how his involvement helps the strength program:
"As we said earlier we have body weight goals every week that they've got to make so one he's out there helping us program, as we've said in the past, like prep and core and help on the floor, but also he can see like this volume of running, what they weigh in the beginning of the day, what they weigh after, how does this effect how much weight this helps them lose, so on and so forth, so it just takes out some guessing game there and as for hiring him that's to Coach Napier and I think that was a very smart decision to hire someone in a full time role, it just makes my life a lot easier."
On the importance of rest in recovery:
"Well it's very important if they've been going to bed on time or not, I don't know, I hope that they are, but what I will say is they spend a lot of time in the training room, doing recovery, and then also goes along with myself, my strength staff, and the sports science staff, how we put them in positions to help their bodies recover. Like I was saying earlier, lowering volumes and intensities at certain times, and then the biggest thing I believe is knowledge is power, we give them the knowledge as to what we're doing and why we are doing it so they understand, hey, this is why we're doing it, and then they can kind of also make some decisions from there, and we really believe in that, knowledge is power, like when we the guys they need to run at 65 percent of their max peak they are pretty much, they are going to hit that spot on and then when we want tip runs and high speed runs, we're training at a different zone right now, and they are pretty darn good about knowing exactly where that is, so that all plays a part in recovery."
On where will 300-pound power cleans/gains show up on the field:
"Well, power cleans, that's just the development of power. So obviously you want to be more powerful out there on the field. But there's a lot of things out there, doing certain speed programs. Where you can see it in your squad is the cleans and all those things and how it translates is I really believe it's huge benefit is to why we've gotten faster, we've gotten stronger - more muscle helps you get faster. To put it in perspective we've gained 575 pounds of muscle and we lost 475 pounds of fat - that's around 1,030-pound swing. And even in the summer we had some skinny guys putting on some fat so it doesn't even tell the whole. So 600 pounds of muscle during the offseason that's how it translates to speed and (??) 1120."
On if he pushed for penalizing players for being late or not showing up:
"We just want to hold them accountable. The details of that, that's something Coach Napier and I sat down, I'll let him tell you more details on that. But it was more so just about holding guys accountable and making sure you're where you're supposed to be. That was just the main goals of it, and just making guys be better."
On going through the weight program yourself, if his experience aided him to improve and tweak the program:
"I was told a long time ago, if you're going to ask someone to do it you better be able to do it yourself. Honestly there wasn't a whole lot to tweak. There were some minor things: some reps here, some volume in the running, rest periods here. So it really helped myself and the entire strength staff do the entire program the players did. We were always about a week ahead, and at one point we actually hopped in and lifted with them - so it was actually pretty fun. But it just helped to know what they're feeling and going through, so that way we could make any adjustments. So it really helps. It also really helps build that relationship with the players; they know we're doing their program. They can't ever say, you don't know what this is like."
On naming one or two guys you just couldn't kick out of the weight room:
"There's more than that, there's plenty of examples. Pup Howard is one, Graham Mertz is one, Jake Slaughter, George Gumbs, Asa Turners - honestly there's a ton of guys. Coach Napier has already said in one press conference every Saturday, the highest we've had is like 72. I think we average 50 or 60 guys on Saturday. There's too many guys to name them all."
On Miles' strength numbers when he went through the training program:
"I didn't do body comp. But it worked, I'll just say that. I like to compete with the guys still. It's still fun for me, too."
On if he ever missed a 6 a.m. workout:
"I was there at 6, the same, every single time. I don't sleep the best because I always worried I'm going to be late to something, so I'm never late."
On how far has Desmond Watson come and how far does he have to go:
"Des has done a lot of great work this offseason. He's just got to keep continuing to work. The work never stops but he has made great strides this offseason in every aspect."
On if his playing weight is close to where you'd like:
"We still got to keep working. I don't really determine the weights. So I'll leave that up to Coach Napier where he wants it at exactly. I know he's done a lot of great work. He still got to keep working."
On the midyear arrivals, including Aaron Chiles, catching up with the strength program:
"Well, I told Coach Napier after two days of training Aaron Chiles, he's an alien, he's a very impressive young man, but honestly a lot of those guys have come in and hit the ground running and haven't missed a beat. They've done a phenomenal job. Very proud of those young men and how they're, already, at the age of 18, sometimes you forget these young men are 18 years old, and they conduct themselves like grown men and professionals, and they've done a phenomenal job since Day 1."
