Tag: Ben Herbert

Ben Herbert says nothing’s changed about Michigan football strength program

This is extremely encouraging! #GoBlue

INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan football’s biggest and secret weapon in the three-year College Football Playoff run was strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert. Because of Herbert, other teams would eventually tap out, and the Wolverines earned the reputation of being a “boa constrictor.”

With Sherrone Moore taking over the program after Jim Harbaugh bolted for the NFL, Michigan fans waited with bated breath to find out whether or not Herbert would remain in Ann Arbor or follow Harbaugh to the professional ranks. It took some time, but ultimately, Herbert joined Harbaugh in Los Angeles, much to the chagrin of the maize and blue faithful.

But perhaps not all was lost.

Moore elevated Herbert’s right-hand man, Justin Tress, to the post of director of strength and conditioning. Tress followed Herbert from his stint at Arkansas and was privy to his methods for the past eight years. So he has a good grasp on what’s worked and how to deploy that which has been successful in Ann Arbor.

And Moore said at Big Ten media days on Thursday that, according to Herbert himself, there’s no difference in terms of results.

“Yeah, so coach Herb actually came to a practice or a walkthrough-ish thing that we can have — per NCAA rules we can do stuff without going against the defense all that. And Herb said nothing changed,” Moore said. “So for him to say that and to watch the guys work out, I think that speaks volumes to what J. Tress and what that crew’s done. They’ve done an outstanding job, along with Abigail O’Connor and their staff, of keeping the intensity, the attention to detail where it needs to be for us to do what we need to do.”

That’s a great vote of confidence from the man who built the team into an elite program behind the scenes. Though Herbert certainly knows what he’s looking at and it may be all good and well in a walkthrough, the real verdict will come when the 2024 season approaches, and it will do so rather quickly with Texas coming to Ann Arbor in Week 2.

Ben Herbert highlights the goal of Chargers offseason program

Executive Director of Player Performance Ben Herbert shared his approach and thoughts on the new training regimen. 

The first day of the Chargers’ offseason program began on Tuesday and Executive Director of Player Performance Ben Herbert shared his approach and thoughts on the new training regimen. 

Herbert made a questionnaire that the players filled out to give him a better understanding of where the players stand at the moment.

The foundation of Herbert’s program is consistency and attention to detail. 

His goal for the program is to develop stronger and “harder to break” players. To accomplish this, he will focus on five key areas: neck, shoulders, hips, hamstrings, and ankles.

“Consistency is incredibly valuable to me,” said Herbert, who also relayed a story about why putting weight back correctly on the rack is important.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s the second plate of the 10th plate, it goes back precisely,” Herbert said. “It’s no different than a DB’s eyes of his footwork. Or an offensive lineman’s hand placement.

“We practice attention to detail,” Herbert added. “We train a certain way but it’s also how we keep the room.”

Herbert made it clear that his approach is not to break the players down and build them back up, but rather, he hopes to equip them to endure the challenges of playing in the NFL.

He is also keen on building rapport with the players in order for them to be successful in their training. 

“I’m here to impact them and this team in the most positive way.”

Ben Herbert kicks off Chargers offseason program

Executive Director of Player Performance Ben Herbert began his offseason training regimen with the Chargers on Tuesday. 

Executive Director of Player Performance Ben Herbert began his offseason training regimen with the Chargers on Tuesday. 

As the head of the offseason program, Herbert had the opportunity to meet the players as a group. 

“To say I was excited for today would be an understatement,” Herbert said.

This is Herbert’s first time leading a program in the NFL. Herbert comes from the University of Michigan, where he spent six seasons. In that time, he developed 22 NFL draft picks, including six first-round selections. 

As the offseason program started, Herbert chose not to converse much with players throughout their weight room sessions. Instead, he showed the group how he wanted things done. 

His philosophy is to show, not tell. 

“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say,” Herbert said. 

The saying may sound familiar since it is often used by head coach Jim Harbaugh.

Herbert said it was a “no-brainer” when Harbaugh asked him to join the Chargers coaching staff, especially since the two share similar football philosophies. 

“The game of football, building a team, coaching a team is very important to him,” Herbert said. “If you see it that same way and it’s important to you … if you’re willing to sacrifice and commit … you’re going to have a great relationship and great rapport with Coach.”

The Chargers are still months away from the regular season, but Herbert ensures that they will be ready as they will seek peak performance every day.

“The time we spend together will have value. I’m confident they realize it after Day 1,” Herbert said. “With each passing day, they will reap the rewards of what we do in that training environment.”

Look: Chargers arrive for first day of offseason workout program

Check out the Chargers back in action.

Since the Chargers have a new head coach in Jim Harbaugh, they began their voluntary workout program before any of the other NFL teams, as players and coaches were back in the building on Tuesday.

It’s only the first phase of the program, which consists of meetings and weight room training. Once Phase 2 begins, players can get on the field and begin running drills, not in an 11-on-11 setting, however.

To see the Bolts return to the facility and in action in the weight room, here are some photos and a video, courtesy of the team’s official social media.

 

Takeaways from Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh’s offseason program press conference

Jim Harbaugh gave his first press conference as the Chargers opened up their voluntary offseason program on Monday.

Jim Harbaugh gave his first press conference on Monday as the Chargers opened their voluntary offseason program. He last spoke at the owner’s meetings before this week. Clearly, he was excited after mentioning April 2nd’s start to the program more than once.

First, Harbaugh stressed the importance of Ben Herbert’s being with the Chargers. In Phase 1 of this install, it seems like a lot of detailed work is being done.

We just got right into football, putting the schemes in offensively and defensively, baseline training. Ben Herbert is huge in this Phase 1.

In his own press conference, Herbert would later discuss the “baseline training” and the Chargers’ players filling out an introductory performance questionnaire.

When asked about how the team would start establishing physicality, Harbaugh went on to say:

We’re really big on what you do speaks so loudly that we can’t even hear what you’re saying. What you do speaks so loudly. The rest is talk. I’m not going to talk, just talk about it. When you get to the point where the players know that they’re physical, they’re dominant, they’ve trained themselves to be there, in that place, then I won’t have to get up here and say anything, they won’t have to get up here and say anything.

Harbaugh laid out various conditioning-related Harbaugh-isms such as “Fat is the enemy of speed” and “Do you want a steel rod in your neck or do you want a noodle?” He and Herbert so far have every intention of trying to carry their sports performance program to the NFL in a more significant way than seen in previous Chargers’ staffs.

Harbaugh played it coy when asked about the Chargers potentially trading the fifth pick. “When does Joe [Hortiz] talk? The week prior to the draft? That’s a phenomenal question for Joe Hortiz. You get to go into as much depth as he’ll go into a week before the draft. [laughter]”

Tuesday was offensive and defensive meetings day. Harbaugh was involved in setting up and participating in both. Special teams meetings will be held on Wednesday.

Harbaugh echoed very positive sentiments of what he said a few months ago on SportsCenter in regards to starting the Chargers’ job. When asked about the first three months:

This is just true, it’s been the best damn job I’ve ever had to start out with I hope that it ends that way, but it’s been a tremendous start. Hiring coaches, free agency — that’s not just one day, that goes for a while — getting ready for the draft. Really excited about the coaching staff and the amount of work that has been produced over the last month-and-a-half. It’s been a lot, they’ve done a great job. It’s been locked, cocked, ready to rock, just needed the players to come in, and we got that today. It’s been really good.

In regards to the new acquisition, Kristian Fulton, Harbaugh essentially said the goal is to get him healthy and playing well. He talked about getting Fulton with Ben Herbert to address soft tissue injuries that have impacted the former Titans cornerback’s availability in the past.

When asked about attendance, Harbaugh reiterated that the program is voluntary. It would seem that not everyone is in Costa Mesa yet. Pictures released on the Chargers’ website of player entrances show approximately 30-40 different players entering the facility, including Justin Herbert. OTAs will take place in May, while mandatory minicamp will be in June.

Chargers hire 4 to sports performance staff

The Chargers are close to having their entire staff built out after adding four more on Thursday.

The Chargers are close to having their entire staff built out after adding four more on Thursday.

Los Angeles announced the hirings of executive director of player performance Ben Herbert, head strength and conditioning coach Devin Woodhouse, director of performance analytics and performance analyst Lincoln DeWolf.

Head strength & conditioning coach Jonathan Brooks will continue in his role on the staff.

Herbert spent the last six seasons at the University of Michigan as their strength and conditioning coach.

Woodhouse recently spent the 2023 season at Michigan as their assistant strength and conditioning coach. He served in the same role for the University of Wisconsin the two seasons prior (2021-22).

Rabe worked the past four seasons (2020-23) on the strength and conditioning staff as an assistant at Michigan.

DeWolf recently worked as the associate director of performance analytics at Michigan.

Michigan football players react to departure of Ben Herbert

However bummed you are, the players are more so.

Michigan football received the news on Monday that strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert will depart for the NFL, reportedly following Jim Harbaugh to the LA Chargers.

Herbert, who has been on staff since 2018, was widely considered to be the best at his position nationally. His process developed 37 NFL draft picks (not counting a likely large 2024 class), including seven first-rounders. Herbert’s instruction developed three-star Rod Moore, Kwity Paye and Kris Jenkins into top players in college football.

He will be replaced by Justin Tress, a Herbert disciple who followed him to Ann Arbor from Arkansas, but the loss is shocking regardless.

Many Michigan players, both past and current, took to social media to voice their disappointment. See their thoughts below.

Michigan loses strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert to NFL

This sucks, no other way to put it.

Michigan has now lost its third coach of the offseason to the Los Angeles Chargers with strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert departing for the NFL.

This one hurts just as much, if not more, as Jim Harbaugh and Jesse Minter. Herbert was one of the best recruiting tools on staff and was able to simply work magic on his players. Herbert saw at least one Wolverine selected in the first round of the draft every year he was at Michigan, coached a total of 37 selections (not counting a large 2024 class), and was key in Michigan’s ability to turn three-star talent (Paye, Moore, Bell, etc) into strong college and pro players.

Sunday, there was optimism around the program that many of the players who played key roles in the national title run would stick around. On Monday, that narrative has flipped. Michigan has a shot to keep most people in-house, but Herbert was one of the biggest culture builders in the building and certainly was the favorite staffer of many players.

Of course, time will tell exactly what happens here. The early outlook is less than ideal, but Michigan will be promoting assistant Justin Tress to the role previously held by Herbert. Exactly how close he was to the players remains to be seen, but keeping someone from the Herbert tree definitely seems like the right move.

This is another blow to recruiting that Michigan simply cannot keep taking. The lack of significant NIL makes it an uphill battle from the start, and uncertainty with head coaches, coordinators, and strength coaches only makes it harder to sell continuity to recruits. The quick promotions from within are good. They show trust and keep some aspects of the culture intact. That being said, it’s impossible to replicate what people like Harbaugh, Minter, or Herbert really meant to this team.

Former Wisconsin assistant a big part of Michigan’s National Championship-winning coaching staff

Former Wisconsin assistant a big part of Michigan’s National Championship-winning coaching staff

Michigan mauled its way to a National Championship last night, rushing for over 300 yards and eight yards per carry in a 34-13 win over Washington.

There is a lot about the Michigan program worth giving credit to. Jim Harbaugh has turned the program around after bottoming out in 2020, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter looks to be the next great defensive mind in the game, the players took the Connor Stalions saga and used it to their advantage and, in today’s evolving era of passing and air-it-out approaches, Michigan won a national title by being more physical than their opponent.

That last note is the one that feels the most significant, maybe because Wisconsin just recently went through a program facelift to move closer toward a high-flying passing offense. But Michigan’s approach to the game proved to be too much for Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama and Washington all in the last few months. It worked perfectly.

The person to thank for that is the program’s strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert, someone with deep Wisconsin connections.

Herbert played defensive line for the Badgers in the late 1990s and early 2000s, playing a key role in the Badgers’ back-to-back Rose Bowl teams.

He then worked for the Wisconsin program from 2002-12 under Barry Alvarez and Bret Bielema as the program’s S&C coach, before following Bielema to Arkansas in the same role.

All that said, Herbert landed at Michigan in 2018 and has quickly made an average Big Ten team into a national champion.

I don’t know exactly what the takeaway or punchline is here, aside from Michigan clearly showing that classic Big Ten football can still win, when done right. Now it will be an interesting test case to see where this Michigan program goes, and where Wisconsin goes under the new passing-centric offense.

Arkansas football’s ex-strength coach Herbert in line for national title

Michigan’s strength and associate head coach? Ben Herbert. Remember him? He was in the same role under Bret Bielema here.

Michigan is one win away from winning the last four-team College Football Playoff national title after upending Alabama in overtime yesterday in Pasadena.

The Wolverines (14-0), who haven’t won a championship since sharing the 1997 crown with Nebraska the year before the Bowl Championship Series, will face Washington next Monday in Houston.

Michigan’s strength coach and associate head coach, Ben Herbert, held the strength coach title at Arkansas during the entirety of the Bret Bielema era.

Upon Bielema’s firing, Jim Harbaugh reached out to Herbert and hired him in time for the 2018 football season.

Herbert has been there for all of Harbaugh’s Big Ten titles and back-to-back College Football Playoff trips that ended up in disappointment at the hands of Georgia and TCU.

If the Wolverines end up hoisting the crown on January 8, Herbert will be a big reason why.