Since Mike Barwis arrived in Ann Arbor from West Virginia, he has been hailed as something of a visionary and an expert by the local media as well as the national media as everyone seems to want to know what his workouts are like and how much they appear to be helping the Michigan players.

Meanwhile, ex-strength coach Mike Gittleson has been universally dumped on for his old techniques and criticized for holding the program back. Gittleson was around for a long time but many felt his methods were outdated.

The new staff walked into Michigan's weight room, took one look around, and said it looked like a "museum" and immediately got the athletic director, Bill Martin, to purchase all-new equipment that would total around $1 million in cost.

Here's the deal with Gittleson: his training methods were based mainly on straight-line power. He used a lot of machines which aided in allowing the players to get as big as possible and to lift more weight than they would be capable of if they had used free weights as Barwis uses. That's not entirely a bad thing because smash-mouth football was the way Michigan liked to play, however. As long as Michigan committed to that strategy and went with it all the way, it would end up giving them an advantage over other teams in the pure strength department. I feel it can still be a viable strategy in college football as evidence by teams like Wisconsin and Texas.

The running game was always pretty good and the defense was extremely hard to run right at. Short yardage plays were almost always blown up by Michigan's incredible ability to deliver massive blows at the point of attack and to move people off the line. The 2006 defense was one of the most stout against the run the NCAA's seen in some time. Michigan players always seemed to put up huge numbers on the bench press at the combine, etc.

But contrast that with what Barwis teaches and you'll see a huge difference. He's already said flat-out that he doesn't think the bench press is nearly as important as other people do, because it's not a movement that is conducive to what players actually do on the football field. He said that if a player is performing a bench press-style movement, he's probably on his back trying to get someone off of him.

Barwis is all about Olympic-style power clean movements targeting the fast-twitch muscles, running for days, and doing balance work and plyometrics. Speed is of the utmost importance as is endurance. This philosophy wouldn't work quite as well in a smash-mouth style like Michigan used to run where they would just try and line up and out-execute the opponent, but it should work perfectly with the new spread-option/hurry-up system.

So, it appears we have two systems that work well with two different philosophies. I don't think Gittleson's system was as bad as it was made out to be, at least not the overall philosophy of it. If teams like Miami (FL) and maybe Georgia Tech for instance, teams that also ran the ball a lot, had a similar system of all-power, all-the-time, I think they would have had much better offenses over the past two years. Those teams tried to run power offense but their players seemed much thinner and more built for speed from what I saw.

That doesn't absolve Gittleson from the mistakes he made, however. The over-emphasis on power seemed to take its toll on some positions, especially the safeties and linebackers on defense who always seemed to lose their balance and fall down or miss open-field tackles. Ernest Shazor in particular was a player who absolutely flourished in the box and was an All-American safety, but when he got out in space against Vince Young he was made to look like a JV player in high school. The team always seemed to wilt in the fourth quarter as well, and the overall shape of many of the players, especially the linemen on both sides of the ball, was always called into question. Many of them had massive bellies and appeared quite out of shape.

Now, Barwis enters town with a reputation as being a miracle worker. His methods will definitely pay big dividends for the players, and the system seems to match which is the most important thing. Just the fact that seems to be more demanding than Gittleson will also help out a tremendous amount.

The main question is whether or not Michigan will still be able to handle a power-running team like the Badgers or Penn State. Morgan Trent told me at the spring game that he was confident they would be able to still stop those teams. Time will tell.

Barwis' presence should be a big boost to the overall conditioning, speed, and explosiveness of the Wolverines, but Gittleson wasn't quite as bad as he was made out to be. Gittleson's mistake seemed to be from the outside looking in that he had an inability to adjust his philosophy at times to help out the speed guys on the outside, and the straight-forward play-calling also seemed to hinder the Michigan offense a great deal.

Michigan was a consistent winner under Gittleson, but under Barwis, they have a chance to take the next step and compete for BCS titles. So Michigan fans should thank Gittleson for seeing them through some tremendous years and helping to lead them to a national title, but now with Barwis, things are about to get a whole lot more interesting.

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Jim Ganley said:

	Dumping Mike Gittelson will come back to haunt Michigan in the years to come. Mike not only was a great strength coach, but he actually trained himself, a rare commodity today among the training "experts". who pontificate and work the media from an isolated office while the weight room is a scene of utter chaos. Jim Ganley
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June 02, 2008
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Intelligence said:

	With Rodriguez Michigan will lose. Without tradition Michigan is like any other team, or should I say WEST VIRGINIA. Its just an upside down M right now, and hopefully that changes. Gittleson, Bo, and Lloyd, were Michigan.
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February 12, 2009
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mike said:

From MGOBLUE.COM...YEAH...sounds like they are really missing Gittleson...poor Will Johnson only did 47 reps with 225#...possibly more than any other NFL combine participant EVER...HAIL to Barwis...Gittleson needs to tell stories about his days as a SEABEE instead of leading a weightroom... ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Fourteen former members of the University of Michigan football program worked out for professional scouts today (Friday, March 13) at Schembechler Hall. Scouts for nearly every NFL team were in attendance to evaluate the players in the bench, 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump, 20- and 60-yard shuttle and the three-cone drill. "I thought that our players represented themselves very well for the NFL scouts," said head coach Rich Rodriguez. "I think they were able to showcase their abilities in an intense environment and hopefully each guy helped themselves in preparation for the draft. Quite a few players worked with Mike Barwis leading up to pro day and I know they performed exceptionally well. We are really proud of all the guys." Defensive tackle Will Johnson turned in the day’s most-impressive performance, wowing the scouts and onlookers with an eye-popping and record-setting 47 reps of 225 pounds. The effort eclipsed anything that has been previously achieved by a Wolverine and broke what was believed to be the NFL Combine record, 42 reps set by former U-M left tackle Jake Long last season. Johnson also clocked 4.9 second in the 40-yard dash. "It was exciting, but my goal was to put up 50 reps," said Johnson. "I’m really pleased with what I was able to accomplish, though." "Will’s performance on the bench was amazing," added Rodriguez. "He showed great effort and determination in setting that record. Will is an intense competitor and a hard-working guy." Defensive back Brandon Harrison and tight end Carson Butler were extremely impressive in the 40-yard dash. Harrison clocked in the 4.4 range and Butler had a pair of 4.5 efforts. Defensive end Tim Jamison worked out in four drills, including the 40-yard dash, clocking 4.9 seconds on both efforts. Nose tackle Terrance Taylor improved mightily on his 40-yard dash from the combine, trimming nearly four-tenths of a second off his time, clocking both efforts in just a hair over five seconds (5.09 and 5.06). Long snapper Sean Griffin also fared much better on his 40 time, clocking 4.9 seconds after running 5.1 at the scouting combine. Taylor and Griffin also did positional drills. After an impressive combine where he was among the top performers in five of the seven categories, including the best among cornerbacks in the 60-yard shuttle, Morgan Trent participated in only position drills at pro day. Tight end Mike Massey, linebacker John Thompson, defensive backs Doug Dutch, Shakir Edwards and Charles Stewart and kickers K.C. Lopata and Jason Gingell also worked out for the scouts.

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March 14, 2009
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Intelligence said:

But you know what's funny about all of this, if you compare their records... hmm the most consistent and successful strength coach of all time, versus the NEW GUY and everyone likes to hear about the NEW but sometimes the new is not well thought out, and sometimes what you had got the job done and adapted. Lets just say, your point doesn't mean anything considering that this was the worst season in Michigan's 153 years of history, sorry man but Michigan will be lucky to get even ONE NFL player from this failed season.

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April 19, 2009
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Intelligence said:

	plus Gittleson never talked to the press so how would you know of his millions of achievements? Its easy to be excited about new things but when there isnt scientific background to it, then it just becomes fun rather than productive.
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April 19, 2009
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mike said:

are you serious jim? have you seen Barwis??? he's a former MMA guy...he trains like a maniac...I get worn out just listening to the guy talk...gittleson on the other hand pontificated ALL DAY about his experiences in NAM...and how awesome a three sport athlete he was at some little hick school in New England...Mike was a foundation LONG ago...he was still trapped in the days of manual resistance and nautilus machines...SLOW MOTION athletes...who could no longer keep up with the pace of today's game...

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September 06, 2009
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mike said:

	"plus Gittleson never talked to the press so how would you know of his millions of achievements? Its easy to be excited about new things but when there isnt scientific background to it, then it just becomes fun rather than productive. " I knew him personally...I didn't need the press...
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September 06, 2009
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mike said:

"But you know what's funny about all of this, if you compare their records... hmm the most consistent and successful strength coach of all time, versus the NEW GUY and everyone likes to hear about the NEW but sometimes the new is not well thought out, and sometimes what you had got the job done and adapted. Lets just say, your point doesn't mean anything considering that this was the worst season in Michigan's 153 years of history, sorry man but Michigan will be lucky to get even ONE NFL player from this failed season. " so because Barwis and Rodriguez were on campus for ONE season it's their fault LLLLLLOYD recruited a core group of lazy slow incompetent players who finally became seniors??? what of the three years STRENGTH training under your GOD gittleson? I'd say three years can't be undone in one...

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September 06, 2009
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mike said:

	...there was a time when the FORD MODEL A and MODEL T were the class of the automotive industry...run one of those up US-23 OR I-75 today....times change...keep up or get run over.
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September 07, 2009
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^ foolish said:

It doesnt matter if they win every game they cant beat the consistency of 30 years. Things change, yes, like fashion changes. But in strength training like in fashion it goes through cycles, many weight rooms these days have made cycles back to weight rooms as far back as the beginning of weight lifting (nothing NEW about it). Gittleson was ALWAYS new and on top of things. Always read about biology and how the body works always concerned about the players. Not of the skinny (and ... fast? not really) fashion of today. But about how its supposed to be done. Ask anyone who worked under Gittleson, nobody had an easy work out, ever. Ask NFL players, the hardest you'll ever experience. Game play and players always change, but the direction most training is occurring these days is off. By the way barwis injures his players and calls them all kinds of shit, and demeans them as human beings. FIRST off its a college sport, its about the players, not about winning. The priorities go in that order, players, then winning. You have too much faith in espn, fashions, and trends in football. But having the highest and most consistent stats in all football history means something, why dont you ask brady, or woodly? You want change? you got it with obama, you should be satisfied.

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September 10, 2009
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