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Alex Grinch: OU's Offseason Workouts Are 'A Huge Piece of What We Do'

Oklahoma's defensive coordinator liked the work he saw early

Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch has enjoyed the “coaching stations” drills that Lincoln Riley implemented for offseason player workouts.

There are no workouts currently, of course. The Coronavirus pandemic has shut down not only the OU campus and all athletic activities, but no players are congregating anywhere. They might be doing the work on their own — and Grinch hopes they’re pushing themselves like they get pushed during the coaching stations.

“It’s a necessary part of the process,” Grinch said before the shutdown.

“We explain to the guys, and coach Riley does a phenomenal job of explaining to the guys, that if we didn’t think this would do us any good, we wouldn’t do it.”

“I mean, you don’t just (say), ‘Let’s run around bags at 6 a.m. to fill time,” Grinch said. “You do it because there’s certain elements to this sport that — we can’t put the pads on yet, so what elements of the things that are gonna be necessary to be successful in football can we get done without pads on and all those things?”

Riley said last week that the Big 12 Conference has been “stringent” about coaches not interacting with players during the shutdown. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Thursday his initial reaction was just too “shut it all down,” including video conferencing.

But Riley said other Power 5 conference schools are not only communicating with their players, they’re also sending them workout equipment to stay in shape.

Offseasons are where championship teams are tested the most. But this offseason has been unprecedented for college football. Spring practice was almost nonexistent for most teams.

Without “voluntary” workouts in which players hold each other accountable and staffs of strength coaches organize demanding workouts, players are left to push themselves.

“It’s the discipline and attention to detail,” Grinch said, “going one more rep when you thought maybe that’s all you had in you.

“It’s a huge piece of what we do.”

Grinch also said this year’s winter workouts revealed something about where this Oklahoma team was headed.

“The thing I noticed from a year ago, we had a lot less guys on the side pulling out (this year),” Grinch said. “That, honestly, is a pretty low standard. But to talk about where we came from a year (ago), it was a successful week in that regard.”

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