Football

Jay Hooten is the man behind the scenes.

The director of football performance isn’t easy to spot on the sideline because he does most of his work off the field. He’s in charge of overseeing strength, speed and conditioning training for the football team, which is the most unseen part of any offseason but also the most important and influential.

And listening to Hooten, it’s clear the machinations of the weight room are as complicated and detailed as the X’s and O’s that go into a game plan any given Saturday.

“Each position has a different workout,” he said. “Everybody has something specific that they need to be doing to improve on the football field.”

Some of that specificity is obvious — of course an offensive lineman is on a different workout program than a wide receiver — but the level of intricacy burrows all the way down to a player’s current weight, height and experience.

Defensive end Dean Lowry and safety Godwin Igwebuike both need to be big, strong and fast, but Lowry, a junior, and Igwebuike, a redshirt freshman, still have very different personal fitness goals. The 200-pound Igwebuike is more focused on getting his body ready for the rigors of Big Ten play.

“I’m trying to put a little bit of weight on,” Igwebuike said. “High school to college, it’s different. You have to take care of your body.”

Every player is on a training program, but strength and conditioning is especially emphasized for the offensive line. Hooten takes personal responsibility for training that position group, which last season had the lightest average weight in the Big Ten and was dwarfed by some of the conference’s mammoth units.

Hooten said the offensive line has bulked up to an average of 299 pounds, which he believes is a new best for the unit. The process of gaining weight starts with adding muscle mass in the winter before spring practices begin.

“What we really focused on was building muscle hypertrophy, which is muscle size,” Hooten said. “We have to build their armor up.”

He also added that the smaller offensive line is somewhat intentional, because he said Northwestern focuses on recruiting “lean guys that can run” rather than already bulky players.

Getting the lineman up to size is as much about eating as it is working out, and Hooten says he works closely with the team nutritionist to develop a diet as well as exercise. A reason for the offensive line’s newfound girth may be an NCAA rule change made last year that permits teams to provide unlimited meals and snacks to athletes.

“We’re able to feed the kids now five times a day,” Hooten said. “Each player goes home with a huge snack bag that they can eat throughout the day during class, so you can definitely see it in our big guys.”

Much attention has been paid this spring to the three-way battle to become the Wildcats’ next starting quarterback while Hooten has been quietly toiling in the background to engineer the offensive line that will protect whoever ends up under center.

The linemen have stayed out of the spotlight, but offensive line coach Adam Cushing is excited about the prospects of the group for next season.

“We’re going to find a way to get the best five guys on the field,” he said. “We need a lot out of those guys this year.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @BobbyPillote