BOULDER — The loudest program in college football brought its players together through the sounds of silence.
CU football matters again. Coach Deion Sanders made the program relevant. But talent burns like rocket fuel. Georgia Tech doesn’t care what CU did last year.
So, how will the Buffs remain in the mix for a bowl game after the exodus of players to the NFL, including Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders?
Well, it helps when an old school strength and conditioning coach adopts a new approach. To be seen this year, some things were not heard.
Andreu Swasey, hired in January, turned the volume down on a program whose default setting had gone up to 11 since Coach Prime’s arrival. Plates were clanging. Players were grunting. But no tunes were playing during offseason workouts.
“I don’t think I ever said, ‘Turn the music off.’ It’s more of a continuation of what we did for training. When I first got here, I just thought, ‘Why don’t you listen to each other instead of music?’” Swasey told The Post.
When the bass stopped thumping, something interesting started happening.
“We learned how to talk to each other,” said transfer running back DeKalon Taylor. “It was a really interesting experience.”
For years, strength and conditioning coaches have been the engine powering football programs. They’re on the sideline, but they’re not calling plays. They are credited for touchdowns they don’t score, blamed for a lack of muscle that has nothing to do with their own physique, and generally exist as a fulcrum in shaping team culture and performance.
It is a challenging enough job without the additional burden created by the endless churn of the transfer portal.
Swasey must have his finger on the pulse of the team. But how can he do that without a beat?
“I feel like the summer training we did with Coach Swasey helped bring us together. Going through the winter, there was a phase where we did the workouts, and there would be no music. We would just be in there talking to each other,” safety Carter Stoutmire said. “I feel like that really did help. We might not have liked it. But it really did make a difference.”
Muting the music is not much different than taking away a cellphone. Kids have grown up with devices in hand, pods in ears. So the silence was jarring.
“It was like, ‘What’s going on?’” defensive back Ben Finneseth said with a smile.
Music has long been connected to feelings of happiness. The Nuggets have their senses assaulted with jams throughout an NBA game. Hitters have walk-up songs. And it’s hard to find a football practice at any level without music blaring.
CU has DJ Fa’Dorah in the locker room creating a vibe before games. There are no plans for that to go away. Kids respond more to Blackbear’s “Hot Girl Bummer” than Bear Bryant’s Junction Boys summer.
But Swasey felt it was important to push pause. While the right tune played at the right time can brighten a mood, syncing with a teammate can create a bond. The kind that might make a difference on fourth-and-1 in the red zone on Oct. 25 at Utah.
“You have a lot of new guys coming in, so it was a great chance for me to get to know everybody, really. This team, you can really tell this year, is way more connected,” sophomore running back Micah Welch said.
How so?
“By talking, we learned where people come from. Why are they doing this? Why are they here? What did they go through? What drives and motivates them?” Welch said.
No, Pantera is not a panacea. It takes a lot more than just removing distractions to turn a team with questions about its quarterback and run game into a contender.
But it can create momentum. Almost every good team has players who take ownership, who care for each other. That’s hard to do without encouraging and developing relationships.
“As a kid, I was always outdoors. I was the one knocking on doors and asking if a friend could come out and play. For me, no music wasn’t that bad. We were able to laugh and talk about stuff in our personal lives,” Taylor said. “You become tighter when you learn where someone is coming from, what their goals are, what they are aspiring to be. Then, you get extremely happy when you see them achieve.”
Swasey did not come by this lightly. He has been a strength coach for more than two decades at the University of Miami and Florida International. By conservative estimates, he has prepared 120 players for the draft. “Train like a ‘Cane” became a thing for NFL stars like Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne, D.J. Williams, Jeremy Shockey and Jonathan Vilma long after they left school.
Vilma almost quit during his freshman season in 2000 because of Swasey’s workouts. Twenty-five years later, he cited Swasey in his commencement speech to Miami graduates.
“I kept going back every day. I tell you that story because everybody has a Swasey. The Swasey in your story is so important,” Vilma said. “The Swasey in your story is the reason you’re here today.”
Swasey never talked about his decision with CU players. It just felt right, and he believes it helped camaraderie. The tunes are now back. But the result from the experiment should be music to Swasey’s ears.
“Now that I have seen us play as a whole unit, I can tell you as a fact that we are a way better and more complete team than last year. I am not one to talk about, but you all will see,” Stoutmire said. “We have really come together.”
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