 "Photo: Katie Kirkland / The Gamecock")
At 5:30 a.m. Mark Smith awakens before the hot summer Carolina sun. What he does throughout the day goes largely unnoticed by the entire football community, but his job might be as important as any other on USC's football coaching staff.
Smith was a team captain linebacker at N.C. State in 1987 and a one-time member of the Dallas Cowboys. His official title at USC is director of football strength and conditioning, which means it is his job to make a bigger, stronger, faster Gamecock.
"When people come to games on Saturday they see the finished product, but they don't realize what (the players) go through off the field and in the offseason," Smith said at USC's preseason Media Day.
Not only does every USC football player go to practice every day and compete in games on Saturday, but they also have to keep a very specific strength and conditioning program.
With most players taking summer classes, the summer workout session is the most strenuous. Four times a week players would wake up and be at the Bluff Road practice fields by either 5:30 or 6 a.m. for their conditioning routine. Is this a light run to get the players up and at 'em for their long day? Not exactly.
On the first day the new staff was in place, every player on the team ran 18 100-yard sprints, and as the summer wore on, reps grew little by little. Players are given a 45-second recovery time between sprints. Offensive and defensive linemen have to run the sprints in 18 seconds or less, the middle group (consisting of linebackers, tight ends, fullbacks and quarterbacks) has to run the sprints in 16, and skill position players and backs have to run the sprints in 15.
"It's not as easy as it sounds," Smith exclaimed. "And if somebody thinks it is, they can come out and try it one time."
After conditioning during the summer, players would break to take their respective summer classes, but also found time to hit the weight room four times a week.
Workouts took place Monday through Thursday and were scheduled around each student-athlete's class schedule at the new Dr. Charles Crews Football Facility.
Smith said the newcomers were sent a workout program to keep, but that it's not comparable to being on campus in the thick of things.
"You can try to kind of prepare yourself and think of how it's gonna be but its never gonna be the same," Smith said. "It's always gonna be a shock to them. If you go and ask every one of them now and they'll tell you 'it's something I wasn't expecting.'"
The new staff also changed the team's workout. Smith said his staff now emphasizes more Olympic-style lifts such as the power clean, snatches, clean-and-press and a greater focus on squats.
"The guys have done a real good job," Smith added. "I think the biggest thing when we came in was getting them to go to the level of intensity that we wanted them to go to as far as finishing every drill and doing it the right way. Other than that, they've done a great job."
While Smith has been impressed with the team's work in the weight room, team speed has been the biggest surprise to him.
"When I got here, I compared their speed results to some of the teams we had at Florida, and it surprised me that we had more guys that ran the 40 in 4.6 (seconds) or under than some of the teams we had at Florida, so that was pretty impressive."
USC coach Steve Spurrier also raved about the speed of the team early in fall practice.
"This might be the fastest team we've ever had here, especially with those young freshman receivers and running backs," Spurrier said after the first day of fall practice. "We have some talent out here. I know the other teams are getting faster and faster too but these guys can run, we know that."
True freshman quarterback Cade Thompson said he also had issues adjusting to the speed at Carolina.
"That's the first thing you recognize when you come up here and start throwing to Carlos Thomas and O.J. Murdock and they're outrunning your balls," Thompson said.
The new staff, including Spurrier, has emphasized conditioning, as Gamecock teams the past three seasons have gone a combined 1-10 in November.
"One thing I've been preaching is that our team will be in shape," Spurrier said. "I can't guarantee you a lot of things, but we hope we can guarantee that we can play all day and all night."
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