Advertisement
football Edit

Q&A with Mizzou football strength coach Zac Woodfin

GET THE INSIDE SCOOP EVERY DAY WITH YOUR PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION!

New Missouri football coach Eliah Drinkwitz added seven new position coaches to the Tiger staff after he was hired in December, and they've received most of the attention. But in the past two months, no one on staff has spent more time with the players than new strength and conditioning coach Zac Woodfin.

Woodfin played linebacker at UAB from 2001-2004, finishing his college career as the Blazers' all-time leader in tackles. From there, he bounced around the NFL for a few years, at one point playing a season for the Frankfurt Galaxy in the now-defunct NFL Europe. He has spent time on the strength and conditioning staffs for the Green Bay Packers, UAB, Southern Mississippi and, most recently, Kansas. With spring practices set to begin on Saturday, Woodfin sat down with PowerMizzou to discuss the Border War, smuggling food to his wife in Germany and the specifics of the "New Zou" culture.

Note: This Q&A has been edited for brevity.

Advertisement
Meet new Missouri strength and conditioning coach Zac Woodfin.
Meet new Missouri strength and conditioning coach Zac Woodfin. (YouTube)

Question: First of all, I have to start by asking, how aware were you of the Missouri-Kansas rivalry before you got this job?

Zac Woodfin: “I knew of it, obviously, especially the big 2007 season, I think they were ranked No. 1 and 2. So I knew of it, but I also knew that once Missouri came to the SEC, it kind of dissolved, at least in football. And so, I guess I didn’t realize there was still a hatred. Even though they haven’t played in quite some time, people still don’t like Kansas, which is all good. I’m a Tiger.”

Do people still bring it up to you?

“Yeah, so when they ask me, 'Hey man, where’d you come from?' And I say KU, I definitely get some, 'ahhh.' My response is, hey man, I’m on the good side now. It’s all good.”

I know you played football in college and professionally. When did becoming a strength coach cross your radar?

“My junior year in college. That’s when I had to decide on a major. I was undecided for the first couple years, and I had to decide, and I really started to ask myself, what would I love to do? What would not feel like a job to me? And this was it. I knew at that point in time that I loved training, I loved nutrition, I loved pushing myself beyond what I thought I could do. I used those things to help me become a better player, and I also knew that whatever I did in life, I wanted to use my passions to help give back, to find true purpose in life. And so that’s what led me to exercise science and this profession.”

So as you played in the NFL and at a high level in college, how much did that help you, knowing what you were going to do? What did you take from those experiences that you’re able to use now?

“Well, I became really close with the strength and conditioning coaches in the NFL. I asked them lots of questions and I took lots of notes. And being on the amount of teams that I was on, because I got cut a lot, I got to experience a lot of different styles, so I really got to decide, like, what was going to be my style? And it wasn’t just because of a guess. It was because I had been through it as an athlete, I asked lots of questions about it. I’ve learned it. I know the science behind it. And now this is my own because I truly believe in it. I’ve felt it, it works. And that’s why now it’s my own philosophy. Not because I saw someone else who was winning games. So basically, it’s tried and tested, what we’ve done through my career and what we continue to try to evolve and do, it’s all stuff that I’ve put myself through. And I felt the difference.”

Do you have any specifics about the tenets that you’re talking about, that you’ve made your own?

“So, really focusing on quality of training instead of just, like, the loads. In college, it was really just about, like, how much can you lift? And I could lift a lot. I was really strong. But I wasn’t as mobile as I needed to be in order to really excel in the NFL. And ultimately that’s probably what got me cut a lot. Like I was big, I was strong, I was fast straight ahead, but I didn’t have the hip mobility, I didn’t have the trunk mobility to be able to be really fluid and to change direction really efficient. And so when I started training in that manner, focusing on mobility with strength, quality is just as important or more important than quantity, I started to feel myself become more athletic. Like wow, you know, I didn’t know I could move like this. I’ve never felt this good. ... We’re not in powerlifting or Olympic lifting. We’re playing football here. So being able to move really well, stop, jump, change direction, those are the things that make you a great football player, and that’s what I got enlightened to after college.”

I saw you played in NFL Europe briefly. What was that experience like?

“That was really, really cool. Great experience. I had just gotten married, so my wife got to come to Europe with me. We lived in a hotel. We had to hide my wife every day, because in Germany — I don’t know if this is like all of Europe — they make you pay per person. And I wasn’t making any money, I didn’t have any money. They didn’t pay, NFL Europe, like they did in the NFL. And I was like, babe, we can’t afford to have you here. Like, you have to be invisible. So there was no signs of my wife in that room. We would hide her suitcase any time we left, like, put her makeup up. So that was really fun, that was interesting. But we got to do a lot. We got to go to Italy, see the Coliseum, St. Peter’s Basilica, everything in Italy. We got to do some really cool stuff while playing football over there that I probably wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. And that’s the cool thing about this game. It takes you places that you may not ever get to go otherwise, and we tried to soak it all up. And we made it to the World Bowl, which is like the Super Bowl, which was awesome. We won our fair share of games, and I got to play a lot, so it was awesome.”

Did you have to like smuggle your wife food, or how did that work?

“Yeah, I pretty much did. So we would go down to the lobby to eat, and I would eat and I would always have a to-go box. And I would be like, alright, here’s your food. If you don’t like it, sorry, that’s all we have.”

Were the rules the same?

“Yeah, same American football rules. Most of the guys were American. They might have had like three Germans on each team. But American coaches. And back then, American teams could allocate players to NFL Europe. So half the guys were allocated, so that means they’d finish the year on a practice squad with, let’s say, the Saints, and the Saints were like, we need to help you develop more, go play a season in Europe, come back, and you’ll be a better player. … Most guys there had NFL experience.”

Click on the picture to start shopping now
Click on the picture to start shopping now

573tees.com is an online apparel shop for all things Mid-Missouri. Expressing yourself has never been easier with one of our pre-designed print-on-demand t-shirts, hats and hoodies or a customized one just for you for any occasion. As a powermizzou.com member save 20% on your next T-Shirt by clicking here: POWERMIZZOU DISCOUNT

When in your journey did Eli Drinkwitz come on your radar?

“Coach Drinkwitz came on my radar December of 2019. So we were introduced through some mutual friends. It’s really a small circle, once you really get down to it, and there are some people that he really knows and trusts that had worked with me and that really knew what I was about in terms of my character, my work ethic, my philosophy, and so as he was starting to look for this position, thankfully he got connected with some people who knew me. My name was tossed out there to him, and that led to a phone call, which led to an interview, which led to me being here with coach Drink.”

I know you were kind of in a unique position where, when this new staff got hired, they were on the road a lot, NCAA rules prohibited them from getting a ton of time with these kids. Especially before the late signing period, you and your staff probably interacted with the players a lot more than the position coaches. What were the things that you were really trying to convey during that period of change?

“So, coming in right away, one of the goals was to just develop relationships with our guys. One of our core values is just always look to build trust and respect. That was key, right away. Because I was new, all of our assistants were new in athletic performance, and in order for them to really push themselves to the level that we want, they’ve got to really know that I’ve got their best interests at heart. I’m going to hold them accountable and I’m going to be very disciplined, but it’s because I care for them. I want them to be champions. So developing trust and respect was right away. I called every single person on the team before we even started, as soon as I got the job, so just reaching out right away. 'Hey, this is who I am, I’m excited to meet you, these are the expectations.’ So did that, and then starting fast was key. That’s something that you see around our weight room, you’ll hear a lot. We’ve got to start fast. And so that was something that us as the athletic performance staff, we had to do with our guys, because a lot of our coaches were recruiting. We gotta get the New Zou era off to a fast start. And what that means is setting vision right away, which is to win the SEC East and a bowl game with class, integrity, academic excellence. Set the vision, allow our players to understand the standards and expectations that it will take to get to the vision, and then just make sure we coach each and every session like it’s the Super Bowl, with those type standards, that type urgency, that type of quality, that type of togetherness. And I feel really, really strongly we have gotten off to a fast start."

It seems a trend in college football is the athletic performance staff kind of also coaches the culture. You mentioned the New Zou, which is being put out there a lot right now, what in your mind are the specifics of the New Zou and what that means?

“It really comes down to just being true to our core values. We talk about integrity, and we term it as your words and your actions line up, and it’s nothing more, nothing less. Always competing. You see that on the wall as big as can be. So always compete. That’s the culture here at the New Zou. Always compete. Always do more than expected. ... Don’t just do what you’re supposed to do during the eight hours of training. Find a way to do more. Build trust and respect. Everybody in the building needs to do that. A team that trusts each other and respects each other is going to play harder for each other. And then enjoy the journey. Like, we want to do all of this, but we want to do it while having fun. Like straining, competing, doing more, that can be fun if you create the right environment and the right culture, and that’s all about the people that you bring in, and coach Drink has done an unbelievable job of bringing the right people in, people that build athletes up. And it’s not fake. When it’s not good enough, we tell you it’s not good enough. But we’re never going to demean our athletes either. We understand mistakes are made. We gotta learn from those mistakes and correct them. ... Toughness is a mindset, and it can be trained. So it’s our job as coaches to lead them and to train them the way that we want to be trained and to demand the things that we think are important to the culture, and the culture is simply those four core values.”

Just more generally, I know a lot of people don’t understand this. The NCAA has rules for how much student-athletes can do with you all at certain times of the year. What all have the players been doing since you took over and how does that change when spring practices start this weekend?

“So the team, during the winter offseason, has been able to work out with the athletic performance staff up to eight hours per week. And that includes speed development, conditioning, obviously everything we do in the weight room, power development, strength development. And so we’ve really allocated about two hours on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday to that, with Wednesday being kind of a day where they get a little bit of back off. How that will change when we got into spring ball is now you get 20 hours, because practices come in, and really football now takes a front seat. And the training is not less important, it’s just we won’t be training as many hours as we did when we had no football. So now football practice will dominate most of the 20 hours and meetings, and our lifting will be a little bit less in terms of time. Now, it won’t be less in terms of intensity and what our goals are. We have a growth mindset in season, which we continue to get stronger. There’s no such thing as maintenance here at New Zou. You’re always competing. You’re either getting better or getting worse. You don’t stay the same. … A lot of people just want to get through in-season because they’re tired from practice, they’re sore from practice. It takes a special athlete and it takes coaches that really believe in that and drive that home to say, no no, you’re always going to compete to get better. In season, it doesn’t matter. We’re straining to get better every single day.”

Is there anyone that has really stood out or that you’ve been particularly impressed with in workouts so far?

“There’s a lot of guys. I don’t think it would be fair for me to single one out. There’s a lot of guys that have really stood out to me in terms of effort, accountability, their toughness. And so I’m pleased. And the guys that maybe didn’t start off maybe as good as we had hoped are coming along too. And that’s our job. We gotta get everybody to our standards, so I’m really proud of a lot of guys on our team.”

Advertisement