When spring ball ends and school lets out for summer break, coaches aren’t allowed to hold practices or work with their players in any way outside of brief meetings here and there.
The typical schedule for players during the summer is to put in their own time and attend mandatory workouts led by the strength and conditioning team. At Oklahoma, this team is shepherded by legendary coach and intimidating presence Jerry Schmidt.
Schmidt returned to OU in December as an addition to new coach Brent Venables’ staff after spending 19 years in Norman from 1999-2017. For the past four seasons, Schmidt worked as the director of athletic performance at Texas A&M. When his rehire was announced, past horror stories began to surface from former players regarding a ‘Schmitty workout,’ exciting Sooner fans about the direction of the program.
With coaches not being able to work with players, strength and conditioning teams are crucial in developing cultures especially with a new staff. Venables first arrived at OU with Schmidt in 1999 and there’s no one he trusts more to help steer the ship during the offseason.
“He's incredibly important, he and his staff and he's only one person,” Venables said. “He's got to be the leader of it, but he's got to have a staff too that can serve the players in all the right ways. And so whether that's position specific, or challenging and taking guys to some tough, dark places Jerry's been amazing.
“Up to this point, he’s had the same kind of impact he had when we all got here in 1999. He has a very unique way of always raising the standard and keeping guys uneasy and not allowing them to get comfortable. But our guys have bought into that in a very short amount of time.”
Schmidt has not only helped Venables install his culture but he’s also taken a burden off position coaches who want to push their guys. Brandon Hall, the Sooners’ safeties coach, remembers seeing his guys go through individual drills in the spring after a winter with Schmidt and being blown away by how wired they were to go full speed, almost wanting them to slow down a bit.
With Schmidt being around the players eight to nine months out of the year, Hall and the other position coaches don’t necessarily need to teach the standard, but keep them at the standard Venables holds himself and his team to.
“He’s always on 10 man,” Hall said. “What separates the good ones from the great ones is their ability to set the bar, set the standard really high and then never deviate from that and get the expectations in such a way that guys know that they’ve got to be there five minutes early, that they’re going to run through the line and they’re going to do every rep.”
‘He lights a fire under you’
The lore of Schmidt workouts has been passed down decades from past players and coaches who have witnessed them. Former Oklahoma defensive back Zack Sanchez recalled a story on the Eyes on Oklahoma podcast about players joking around during workouts, getting the entire position group kicked out of practice and having to come back in the afternoon and do the drills over again.
Hearing from past players about their experiences with Schmidt is important to Venables and something he says is telling about the kind of coach and person his trusted companion is.
“I think the former player testimonials have helped make that easier,” Venables said. “The guys have great respect for him, he's tough on them but he's fair, incredibly demanding and never satisfied and he's always at 10 every day. And so I've got a great appreciation for him and his staff and again, he's an additional layer of support and a guiding principle for what we want to be as a program.”
OU football strength and conditioning coach Jerry Schmidt during the spring game on April 23.
Stories from current OU players about a summer with Schmidt were also not hard to come by during the team’s media day Tuesday.
“It's been a grind, the best way I can sum it up is demanding,” redshirt fifth-year defensive back Justin Broiles said. “In terms of what he's asking of us, in terms of how hard he's asking us to work. How hard he's asking us to push ourselves day in and day out.”
Even though the training can be tough, players past and present rave about Schmidt’s tactics. Fifth-year tight end Brayden Willis even took to Twitter to share his feelings after the first day of winter workouts.
I like It…
— Brayden Willis (@Bwillis_11) January 18, 2022
“When we first started winter workouts I knew that I was going to have to step up my role so he really has been pushing me into more of a leader role,” junior offensive lineman Anton Harrison said. “Even on days when I’m feeling down and I just want to show instead of speaking, he makes me speak up and have that more vocal role on the team with the offensive line.”
When asked how Schmidt brings the more vocal side out of him, Harrison offered a family-friendly anecdote.
“For the PG-13 side, he lights a fire under you.”
‘He does an unbelievable job reaching these guys everyday’
As much as Schmidt prepares players physically, what he’s best at is helping them mentally. Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who was around Schmidt as a young player and coach at Oklahoma from 2002-06, and former Sooner running back and current coach of the position DeMarco Murray know this as well as anyone.
“He's the best in the business,” Murray said. “Schmitty is a guy that knows the body but more importantly knows the mindset and to be able to come in and help change a lot of guys' mindset.”
Schmidt’s impact is also felt outside of the weight room. The relationships he’s built with former players across 20-plus years and the immediate presence he’s been for current players speaks volumes.
The most important relationship, and the one players and position coaches have taken notice of is the bond shared between Venables and Schmidt. Not only are they aligned on what they believe is the right way to build a culture, but they’ve done it together before.
Defensive coordinator Ted Roof and co-defensive coordinator Todd Bates spoke highly of the commonality between the two, with Bates comparing Venables and Schmidt’s relationship to that of a quarterback and center.
“If the center has a bad snap, the ball is gonna be fumbled,” Bates said. “And I think that's the same thing, coach Venables can be the best at delivering the ball down the field … but if we don't have Jerry Schmidt to do his thing and get our guys’ minds right and get the mentality right, then we're behind the 8-ball.”
When players reunite with each other and report back to their position coaches for fall camp Thursday, they’ll be different people than when they left for the summer. Not only will they be physically ready to undergo practices, they’ll be more mentally bought-in to what Venables has planned for the 2022 season.
“You get around Schmitty in the summer, man you automatically get inspired,” Lebby said. “He does an unbelievable job reaching these guys every single day and giving us the ability that when we walk down that tunnel these guys are going to be prepared and ready to go to war.”
While his infamous workouts still haunt former players to this day, most all of them say they were worth it. And there’s no doubt Jerry Schmidt the man touches the hearts of every single player he comes across.
“You know he’s going to be hard,” Harrison said. “But you know he cares and he wants the best out of you so you just have to take it how it is and keep going.”
