In a normal world, the Illinois football team should have been fresh off the short slate of spring practices and the annual Orange and Blue Spring Game. Instead, the Illini, like every other collegiate football program, may not see the field until August or later. 

For programs like the Illini, the spring season is essential for player development and team growth. 

The spring is also a crucial period for maintaining the bodies each player built throughout the rigorous eight-week winter program. In the immediate offseason, strength and conditioning coach Lou Hernandez focused on his guys building muscle, maxing out and personal bests. Spring is the time for de-loading and perfecting their crafts on the field. While cancellations have altered his plan, that big-picture vision remains intact. 

“If we were to be back on our regular schedule, the emphasis on (this) time was going to be spring football,” Hernandez said. “We would start to build back our progression and start to hit some reps, range of motion. It would be a much lighter phase throughout spring ball; then, we would start to progress that as we’re moving on through and finish out the semester and get them to an intensity we felt would get them ready for the summer activity.”

Keeping track of nearly 100 athletes in the weight room is consuming enough, but keeping track of almost 100 athletes hundreds of miles away with only phone communication? Now that’s a daunting task. But it’s one Hernandez is already conquering. 

With classes and summer activities already canceled at Illinois, Hernandez won’t see his guys until at least the fall, but that won’t stop him from progressing the team. Whether it’s Doug Kramer, Alex Palczewski, Kendrick Green and Jamal Woods pushing trucks, Josh Imatorbhebhe jumping on recycling bins or even Coran Taylor pressing a basketball hoop, the work won’t stop. 

“They have surpassed my creativity,” Hernandez said. “It’s really exciting to see how much it matters to these guys to find a way to continue to stay the course on everything that we have set coming up for our season.

“If our guys can just continue to have some type of exercise during this time is our biggest goal because once we do get clearance, we want to be able to hit the floor running as soon as we are cleared to be back as a team.”

With so many players posting different videos of their creative workouts on Twitter or Instagram, it seems like a free-for-all. Still, Hernandez has given each athlete a near-individualized plan based on their needs and equipment. 

Hernandez has five assistants that are all in charge of different groups, whether that be skill/combo positions, linemen or developmental players. Each coach is keeping in contact with about 15-20 players, utilizing videos, pictures or FaceTime to see players’ progress, workouts or weight. 

While most states are in a stay at home orders with places like gyms or parks closed, Hernandez and his assistants are relying on workouts players can do in their home, backyard, or an open field. This includes strongman/bodyweight or even CrossFit workouts. 

“We want our big strong guys to concentrate on more strength-oriented exercises, like Doug Kramer pushing that truck is a great example of how to do that,” Hernandez said. “He’s got some heavier things to lift as well. We want him to try and do some of those heavier activities as well.

“As opposed to our skill guys, we still want them to do some muscle stimulant type of movements, and we want them to go out and run. That’s their strength, that’s their emphasis if they can jump boxes, jump rope, run stadium stairs. For our quarterbacks, we’re going to send them a little bit more for their balance, what they do for acceleration off power for the shoulder to the deceleration of strength for the rotator cuff of it.”

The Illini are not only missing out on the in-person weight training right now. They are missing out on perfecting their crafts on the field. Hernandez said this time of the year is the most important for on-field development.

While the team can’t gather and work on formations, routes or plays, Hernandez has encouraged the players to incorporate some position skills into their workouts.

“Like, spend 15 minutes on your position-specific, individual work as well,” Hernandez said. “We’d expect a receiver to run through a few routes. We’d expect a lineman to come out of his stances, things such as that so the guys can continue to do something. To not have that this time of the year is just truly missing out on working on their crafts. It can be a little bit of a distraction, a setback. A couple steps backward if you don’t continue to work on your specific skills and drills.”

While working out and exercising is essential to maintain and build lean muscle, eating a particular diet with additional supplements is equally important. 

When the players are at school, they have access to the varsity dining hall, which is exclusively for athletes as well as the Illini fuel staff. After workouts, every athlete has specialized shakes and supplements waiting for them, depending on their individual goals. 

Now, the team is missing out on a fundamental part of Hernandez’s big picture plan. Not every player has a financial situation that would allow them to purchase these supplements on their budget. However, Hernandez was quick to adapt and temporarily fix that issue. 

“They actually have been on their own for a little bit, but we actually this week got approval to be able to send them supplements,” Hernandez said in a teleconference on March 27. “It’s going to be primarily for the guys that we concentrated on this winter that have specific weight goals. There are nine guys on our team right now that we are focusing on to change some body composition and to increase their lean muscle mass.” 

Whether it’s continuing to bounce creative workout ideas off each other, sending videos of them running routes or sending pictures of what number the scale shows, Hernandez just wants his guys to stay motivated together and working toward their previous goals. Hernandez and his assistants have continued to check in on every player, but he hopes the Illini are doing the same thing with each other.

“We talk about that a lot in the weight room,” Hernandez said. “Do we want to be player-led or do we want to be coach-led. I think coach-led will make us a good team but player-led makes great teams. You look back at the experiences we’ve had and the success we’ve had here before. A lot of these guys took it upon themselves to do the extra thing. Watch more films, go out and do more walkthroughs. Those are things they took upon themselves and it had great success. It’s not just that particular group of guys, but we’re experiencing the same things across the country. When guys are more motivated to lead each other, there seems to be a lot more success with that and a lot more buy-in than when it’s coach-led.”

@gabby_h11

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