Throughout the offseason, Texas football head coach Tom Herman has preached two words to his team in getting ready for the 2018 campaign: develop and finish. There is no doubt the first has already happened.
"We want to develop positively better athletes in terms of getting bigger and stronger and faster," the second-year coach explained. "We want to develop as football plays in terms of understanding the game and the techniques and the situations that arise in the game. And we want to develop as coaches."
Let's back up to the first part of that statement because what's next are rather eye-popping statistics.
Everyone knows the Longhorns always recruit at a high level, but sitting at the podium during Big 12 Conference Football Media Days in Frisco, Texas, Herman rattled off some weight-room numbers that will make a number other teams jealous.
- 60 players have a vertical jump over 30 inches
- 42 players can power clean over 300 pounds from the floor
- 34 players can squat over 500 pounds
- 3 players can squat over 600 pounds
In summary, over half of the roster can jump over 30 inches and power clean 300 pounds from the floor, and nearly half of the roster can squat over 500 pounds.
Oh, and that was in the spring. There are still two weeks before the start of training camp.
That's insanity for a college football team, and it might be enough for this roster to throw a Longhorn.
"Finish" has already happened in the weight room, too.
"We have been training our guys how to finish. Every drill that we do, every workout that we have, everything that we do has a finish component to it," Herman said. "Meaning we require our guys to be at their very best when the game is on the line and I think our guys have really taken to that. They've embraced it and they're excited about this season."
After registering the first winning season at Texas since 2013 and first bowl win since 2012, Herman has the Longhorns, who had tight end Andrew Beck, defensive linemen Breckyn Hager and Chris Nelson, and offensive lineman Patrick Vahe at the annual Media Days event, sure looking the part.
Now, they have to finish with more wins and compete for Big 12 titles to make it that much sweeter.
