Mean Green showing more bulk this season

[Harry]

Dan McCarney was walking around campus shortly after taking over as North Texas head coach before last season when he ran into one of his star defensive players.

Jeremy Phillips was coming off a season in which he won the Byron Gross Award given to the team’s top linebacker and was expected to start for the second straight year.

That news just about floored McCarney.

“He was 198 pounds,” McCarney said. “I asked him if he played safety and he said, ‘No, I’m a linebacker.’ I told him, ‘You don’t look like it. I hope you play like it.’”

Phillips always has played like it, and now looks the part after focusing on developing his body in UNT’s off-season strength and conditioning program.

Phillips checked in at 226 pounds this fall, making him perhaps the best example of the progress UNT’s players have made physically over the last few months. UNT’s coaching staff and players hope that development will make a big difference on the field this fall.

The list of players who made significant improvement in terms of size and conditioning is a long one and includes several players McCarney has mentioned specifically over the last few days.

Defensive end Daryl Mason packed on the pounds while boosting his weight from 210 pounds to 235, defensive lineman Austin Orr went from 235 pounds to 275, linebacker Chad Polk from 200 pounds to 225 and tight end Marcus Smith from 220 pounds to 240.

“That was a big emphasis for me,” Phillips said of UNT’s off-season conditioning program. “I needed to put on weight. The coaches helped me out a lot, and I did what I needed to do to put on weight and keep it on.”

UNT’s staff has made improving the physical attributes of the Mean Green’s roster as a whole a priority.

read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/08/unt-playing-up-better-physical-conditioning.html/