Under Grobe, it's been my understanding that our "strength program" was completely unconventional. It was focused on core strength and flexibility and eschewed traditional lifting like the bench press. This apparently served Grobe well prior to Wake because his players were cut blocking option system guys who relied on speed and technique rather than raw strength. The Grobe was notoriously forced to abandon cut blocking, and began recruiting the bigger "file cabinets on wheels" (as he and Lobo called them) needed for the new zone blocking scheme. However, he kept the existing strength regime in place that still didn't focus on traditional strength training. Combined with sub par recruiting, these players never developed the strength needed to block effectively, leading Clawson to say that when he got here our players were the weakest he'd ever had *at any level he'd coached*. We are now basically starting over with a fresh crop of OL being trained in a more conventional strength program.
In this regard, don't forget the notorious Orlebar brothers who were linemen at Wake and transferred to App State as soon as they learned what Grobe's strength training entailed -- or what it didn't entail. In hindsight, those guys were probably right on the money.
That's the view I've been coming around to lately, and we'll see how our OL progresses under Clawson to see if we actually become more effective blockers than under Grobe and his legacy.
