FSU Football: NFL Combine highlights strength & conditioning importance

The FSU Football strength and conditioning program was not a strong point of the program the last few years under Jimbo Fisher.

I’ve said FSU football has NOT been a physical team the past few years, particularly the last few years under Jimbo Fisher. How many times have I talked about the lack of physicality on this site?

There have been certain individual players that stood out like Derwin James, Brian Burns and Derrick Nnadi.

Those guys looked the part because they put in the work and it showed during games and at the NFL Combine.

There’s a reason James and Nnadi were drafted early and Burns will most likely follow suit after his NFL Combine performance.

Then there were other players that thought they were good enough to not put in the work and just show up for games. However, the same inconsistencies they had in putting in the work showed up during games too.

A perfect example is Nyqwan Murray. Some games he looked like he could play at the next level and others he was non-existent.

Murray has talent no question, but his performance at the NFL Combine highlighted the importance of the strength and conditioning program. More importantly, the student-athlete’s buy-in to that program.

Former Duke standout receiver Jamison Crowder was thought to be an apt comparison for Nyqwan Murray going into the combine by NFL.com. However, Murray’s combine performance left a lot to be desired compared to what Crowder did in 2015.

Murray’s fastest 40 yard dash was 4.63 after running a 4.7 on his first attempt. Crowder ran a 4.56 and had a faster 20 yard split. He also had a higher vertical, bigger broad jump, faster three cone drill and got two more reps on the bench press.

Final Thoughts

I took off two-tenths of a second off my 60 yard dash time (baseball) with my college strength and conditioning program in two years. I was able to put on 15 pounds of muscle and increased my throwing velocity by four mph.

If you put in the work the results will come as most athletes rarely maximize their full potential.

Listen, I realize Murray wasn’t labeled a five-star wide receiver coming out of high school. He was a three-star and the No. 83 ranked wide receiver in the country.

However, at his size was he running a 4.6 to 4.7 forties coming out of high school? If so, that basically says he didn’t improve a bit in that department since 2015.

If he did improve that means he was running 4.8 forties as a slot receiver and that’s not FSU football caliber.

That would mean the coaches were not doing their job on the recruiting trails which we know has happened because of the amount of dead weight from 2015-17 recruiting classes.

I hope guys on the current FSU football roster see the results of not fully buying-in to the strength and conditioning program.

It’ll cost you in games and could be the difference in getting drafted or signed as an undrafted free agent.