We're about a month and a half away from College Football's Great Awakening, when the signing class of 2016 arrives on their respective campuses and learns they are about as important as the trash can receiving the excess content of their stomach after a typical workout.
Cal Poly strength coach Chris Holder penned an open letter to this year's incoming recruits on lessons he hopes they learn before they arrive on campus. It's great. We thought we'd post a few of our favorites before you read the full article here.
- You are not special: Whatever your story is coming in, let it go. Whether you are a super privileged kid who’s never wanted for anything in your life, or a trailer park/hood kid, you are here now. There will be people from all over the country, from every race and religion, all on your team. You will all be wearing the same workout gear and sweating and bleeding together.
- Starting from the bottom, you are here: Whatever you have learned about weight lifting in the past has no relevance. You will start from the bottom and learn everything from the beginning. In fact, I would rather you have never lifted weights prior to showing up. You've been texting and tweeting and playing Madden for the past ten years, so you have an infinite amount of problems with your hips that you are not even aware of. I have specific things that I need to establish with you and your nervous system, which means you get to unlearn everything you have learned.
- You are better off dead than late: I am a drill sergeant when it comes to time. I would rather you skip a session entirely than show up late - for any reason. Quit with the excuses. Your alarm did go off. Your car didn’t break down. You just cut it so close that you made yourself late. Now you get to explain to your teammates why they are doing 400 yards of rolling or 100 up-downs. If you need to be late, you better let me know beforehand so I don’t correct it by punishing the people you care about most.
- Reputations are earned, and your strength coach will not lie for you: Which leads me to the three groups professional scouts talk to when they come on campus - your coaches, the sports medicine people, and me. If you go to school where I work, it’s likely not in that order. Many teams come to me first. They aren’t going to invest millions of dollars in a person who is going to be a problem for their franchise. When I spend time with the scouts, how much you lift is something like number 25 on a list of 26 things they ask. We have the inside track on everything that is going on within athletics, so scouts will take what we say about your character, work ethic, and leadership.
If you think I will lie and say you are a great worker when you are not just so you can get a chance, you have another thing coming. I will not sacrifice my integrity or my relationship with that scout and team just to do you a favor. There will be many more after you. If I burn a bridge with them by telling them how much of an angel you are and you end up being a problem, they will never trust me again.