Getting Ready
June 19, 2008 09:44 AM | General
June 19, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The dog days of summer are a time for college football players to prepare themselves for the upcoming season in a variety of ways. A typical player might be recovering from an injury, adhering to a stringent diet to get in better shape or adjusting to a new position coach.
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| Greg Isdaner was named to the ESPN.com all-bowl team for 2007.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
And then there is West Virginia’s Greg Isdaner, who is juggling all three of those tasks in addition to his typical summer workload of drills and weightlifting.
On the injury front, Isdaner, who has made 25 career starts at left guard over the last two seasons for the Mountaineers and was named to the ESPN.com all-bowl team, is recovering from shoulder surgery that forced him to miss spring drills.
While other players with shoulder injuries like linebacker Reed Williams are still not allowed to lift weight over their head this summer, Isdaner assures WVU fans that he is almost fully recovered and capable of doing anything the strength staff asks.
“I’m doing fantastic. I’m probably about 90 percent and I’m ready to get back out on the field. I just have to get my strength fully back and I’ll be there by fall camp,” Isdaner said. “I’m doing pretty much everything lifting wise. There is some stuff I don’t do just for prevention purposes but I could do it. It’s not a problem.”
Nutrition and diet are two things Isdaner admits have been a problem for him in the past. The Gladwyne, Pa., native says he pretty much ate whatever he wanted in high school with no regard for calories or maintaining a certain weight.
“In high school I used to eat five double cheeseburgers, five Mchicken sandwiches and a milkshake,” was Isdaner’s honest response to his past dieting habits.
After spending three years under the guidance of a top-notch dietary and nutrition staff at WVU, Isdaner is much more in tune with the kinds of food he needs to eat to stay in the best shape possible.
“They are great down in the weight room helping us learn nutrition. All I have to do is go ask and they’ll tell me what I should be eating and the type of portions,” Isdaner said. “Now when I’m in training mode in the summer I try to stay away from fast food at all costs. I probably eat that once or twice during the summer.”
Eating right hasn’t come without a cost, however. Rather than buying just the basic ingredients and preparing a meal himself, Isdaner has to get all of his food pre-made.
“I can’t cook at all. That’s the troubling part. I’ve got to buy everything pre-done,” Isdaner said. “Hopefully one of my roommates can cook but if not I have to buy something that’s easy to cook. The George Foreman grill is a life saver.”
After missing spring drills Isdaner has taken extra care to eat right and train correctly to ensure that he will be back in time to contribute to what very well could be one of the deepest and most experienced offensive lines in school history.
“Personally I think I did a better job this year eating and trying to stay in shape,” Isdaner said. “I definitely came into this summer in better shape because of my own accord than I did last summer.”
Isdaner is excited to be part of an offensive line that nearly all pre-season publications point to as being one of the best units in the country. The Mountaineers return all five starters from a year ago and show nine guys that have starting experience.
“I don’t think we have ever had this kind of depth with kids that have started games,” Isdaner said. “I think we have eight or nine up front that have started now and coming into last year I think we only had four. To double that is amazing. It’s pretty much interchangeable now. Everyone can step in and take care of business now just as easy as anyone else.”
While the line has the on-field experience necessary to succeed, they all must adjust to the tactics of new offensive line coach Dave Johnson. Isdaner, who will be working under his third position coach in as many years this fall, will be behind the others because of missing spring ball. While he wasn’t on the field, Isdaner was in the meeting room grasping Johnson’s style.
“I got to watch some of Coach Johnson’s practices and see how he coaches and sit through the meetings,” Isdaner said. “I saw the different techniques and I think that helped out a lot.”
Isdaner expects the first few days of fall camp to be highlighted by the typical growing pains that come when a unit is adjusting to a new coach. After that, however, he tells Mountaineer fans to expect to see the same dominant road graders that have paved the way for the powerful rushing offenses of the past.
“I’m sure the first week or two of the fall will be not difficult, but a little different than what I’m used to. After that you get used to it pretty quickly,” Isdaner said. “Practice is practice. As long as you just get through it and work hard I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
