Last week, as the Missouri athletic department prepped for the impending 2016 season, Assistant Director of Sports Information Shawn Davis sent out a flurry of tweets about players' impressive weight gains.
That was the start. Five other offensive linemen added 25 pounds. The defensive line added 195 total pounds, with the biggest increase coming by way of Rickey Hatley's plus-35.
Yes, there's always a certain editing process when it comes to players' weights. The majority of the human population does not have weights that end in 5 or 0, as most college football rosters do. But getting nit-picky with the numbers here belies the point.
Unanimously, players credited new strength and conditioning coach Rohrk Cutchlow with their size, speed and strength gains this summer.
It wasn't just the big uglies, either. Fresman defensive back DeMarkus Acy said he went from 183 pounds to 192 pounds -- an impressive feat for a lanky guy, especially in a short amount of time. Running back Damarea Crockett went from 210 to 225 -- "A solid 225 pounds," said his position coach, Cornell Ford.
The praise for Cutchlow has been resounding, and is made even more notable considering the guy he replaced, Pat Ivey, was known as something of a guru in those S&C crowds.
Ivey was named the 2013 National Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year, after all.
Cutchlow had big shoes to fill, and he seems to be doing just that. Players haven't said Cutchlow is re-inventing the wheel.
“We just do the same thing, but just more reps and more weight,” defensive tackle Josh Augusta said. “Right up there.”
“He’s really intense,” Tre Williams said. “Which is a good thing, because, he has a lot of workouts that it feels like you’re not going to make it through but you’re going to make it through.”
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And it's hard to know more about Cutchlow, the person, and Cutchlow, the coach, because he hasn't done any interviews since he was hired away from Memphis this off-season. But, make no mistake, when Missouri takes the field on Saturday in Morgantown, W.V., Cutchlow's work this offseason may have the biggest impact on the outcome of the game.
"The strength and conditioning coaches spend the most time with us, by far," Michael Stannard said. "It's not even close. All summer they're with us, all year they're with us. You don't really see your position coach that much during the summer."
Stannard, Missouri's No. 2-center, is the best person to talk to about Cutchlow, perhaps even better than Barry Odom -- who worked with Cutchlow at Memphis. Stannard worked under Cutchlow at Memphis, before arriving in Columbia as a graduate transfer this summer.
While he doesn't have experience under Ivey, he knows Cutchlow better than any other player on the roster.
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"He's an excellent culture guy," Stannard said. "That's really unique, because most strength-and-conditioning guys only get you stronger, or don't get you stronger. He's one of the guys that will establish a culture while getting you stronger.
"It's really important that you have a guy that can really establish that culture, or else your team's not going to be successful."
Without even asking, you know what that culture is. It's something that Odom has preached everyday since he was hired in December:
Toughness wins.
Cutchlow gets that culture developed based on what he asks his players to do in the weight room.
"Moving around in the weight room, doing what you're supposed to do," Stannard said. "Being fast to where you're supposed to be. Being relentless. Basically, just don't be lazy, which is kind of a little bit of a change of culture from what they had."
Even beyond that intense culture, the Xs and Os of how Cutchlow trains his players are different.
Stannard said Cutchlow focuses on stability exercises.
"The shoulder is the least stable joint in the body," Stannard said. "It rotates so much. He puts a lot of emphasis on that to try and keep shoulder injuries down. He does a lot of injury prevention stuff that other guys wouldn't do."
A healthy Missouri team is the first step in a rebound year and, with the exception of receiver Nate Brown, every expected starter is just that for Week 1 against West Virginia. After the season, if the Tigers bounce back from their 5-7 campaign in 2015, Cutchlow may be one of the biggest reasons.
Quietly, of course. Behind the scenes.
