Alabama players sound off on new strength and conditioning coordinators

Alabama’s sports science project seems to be earning high marks.

By now, you’ve probably heard the buzz around the Crimson Tide’s new strength and conditioning coordinators David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea. After all, it’d be hard not to given the praise the duo has generated this offseason.

Since Alabama brought in Ballou and Rhea to head up its strength and conditioning program in March, their data-driven approach has been a hit. Recruits rave about the personalized attention to detail the program now provides, while Nick Saban has expressed his pleasure with the first-year hires several times over the past few months.

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As Alabama opened up camp this week, the positive reviews continued to roll in as Tide players expressed their thought on the new workout regime.

“They're very open about their philosophy, involving science and things like that,” quarterback Mac Jones said last week, “But everything they do in the weight room translates to the field. Every single lift we do, there's a reason we're doing it. And they make it very clear to why we're doing that lift. And I feel like that just boosts morale, and we don't feel like we're just going through the motions.

“We're getting better every day. There's science to prove it. They've done a great job leading us. We love those guys already. So I think everybody on the team would say, they feel much better about how the strength and conditioning has evolved.”

Added receiver Devonta Smith: “They’re doing a great job just focusing on every individual’s weaknesses and strengthening things, and trying to cut out some of the injuries we were having, and just focusing on that. And getting our power numbers as high as they could.”

Ballou serves as Alabama’s director of sports performance, while Rhea’s title is director of sports science. The two take the place of longtime strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran, who was Saban’s longest-tenured assistant at Alabama before leaving to become the special teams coordinator at Georgia in February.

The new coordinators provided snippets of their process on social media with Ballou explaining his “Power Profile,” while Rhea posted a video of 6-foot-7, 360-pound offensive lineman Evan Neal performing an impressive split box jump. Neal, who worked with Ballou and Rhea at the age of 14, is one of a few players already accustomed to the duo, who previously worked together at IMG Academy in 2016.

“I actually helped Coach by recommending them to come here,” said linebacker Dylan Moes, who spent his senior season at IMG Academy in 2016. “They were actually my strength and conditioning coaches at IMG during my senior year in high school. When I was over there they put out very good results – dropped my 40 time, got me stronger. I was healthy throughout the season. I had nicks and knacks every now and then, you know that’s football. I felt great when they were my coaches. Now it’s even better, brought back a lot of old memories.”

Ballou and Rhea have been making their impact on the Tide even before players returned to campus. According to Saban, the coordinators were instrumental in setting up workouts for players as the team was forced to train remotely this spring due to the pandemic.

“I feel like our new strength staff has done a really good job — Coach Ballou, Dr. Rhea, everyone really combining together and coming up with a really good plan to make us stronger, make us faster in a short amount of time, all while doing it safely,” Jones said. “They’ve done an unbelievable job there. We’ve been grinding. Everyone looks really good. I feel like the overall morale of the team is really good. Obviously, as a leader, I can see some of these young guys look really good, and all of my older teammates look great, as well. So, we’re all moving in the right direction.”

After a day off Wednesday, Alabama will return to the field Thursday afternoon for its third practice of fall camp. The Tide will have 17 more fall camp practices leading up to game week of its Sept. 26 season opener at Missouri.