Hear from Northwestern's strength staff

Northwestern has made some major strides as a program over the past 12 months.

At this point last season, the Wildcats were sitting at 2-5 and had to battle to earn bowl eligibility. This season, they're sitting at 6-2 (2-2 in conference), and are looking at their fifth straight bowl appearance, and hoping to tally their first win in those four trips.

From everything that we've heard out of Evanston, the strength and conditioning staff took made sure that they took their offseason training to the next level following 6-7 season of 2011.

Featured in this video are two strength and conditioning assistants who used to line up against each other in the very competitive College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. The CCIW is regarded by many to be one of the top three Division III football conferences in the country. The third member of the staff that is featured in the video is Troy Sutton, who serves as the assistant director of strength and conditioning.

Jose Jose Palma (who played defensive line at North Park) and Derek Sulo (an All American running back at North Central) have come together in Evanston as two pieces of a staff built on ensuring that the Wildcats put in the year round work that is required to win a Big Ten title under head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

Palma recently became a full time member of the strength staff, while Sulo is currently working as a graduate assistant. Hear from each of them, as well as coach Sutton, in the clip below about their journey, as well as some of the philosophies within the Wildcat strength and performance program, and what makes the Northwestern environment special.

Some really good content in here from some quality people on what it takes to do what they do, and what it means to them to have the unique opportunity of working under coach Fitz in a Big Ten environment.