Ryan Sulkowski calls it the coffee grinder. Upon his arrival from Baker County High School in Glen St. Mary, Fla., the first-year Coffee County Central (Manchester, Tenn.) head coach has installed a 60x36-foot pit filled with black sand, and it has become the centerpiece of his attempt to rebuild a program coming off an 0-10 campaign. "During my time (at Baker County) we were huge in promoting our summer workouts with our sand pit as we prepared for the season," Sulkowski told FootballScoop. "We installed a sandpit down there in 2011 and immediately saw success. We went 32-12 in those years and produced a number of Division I players. I swear by sand pit workouts."
Sulkowski served as a graduate assistant at Valdosta State under defensive coordinator Will Muschamp and defensive backs coach Kirby Smart, and later worked as a GA at Clemson under both Tommy Bowden and Dabo Swinney before taking over at Rifle High School in Colorado, boosting that program from 0-10 in the year prior to his arrival to 4-6 in his first year on the job, and then at Baker County, where he went 32-12 in four seasons.
And now he's at Coffee County, grinding his program up and hoping it becomes something more, well, digestible.
"We have broken our sand pit workouts into four quarters and determine whether or not we are ahead or behind after each quarter," he said. "Since January, the kids in the program have had only five weeks off and have been working 20 hours a week with us in the weight room and in the sand pit."