Klein shapes Huskies for grueling season
By JEREMY WERNER
DeKALB – The Northern Illinois football players are familiar with the voice, the refrain, the drill sergeant-like control as they toil through another gut-busting core workout.
“Up! Up! Up! Up!”
Among about 50 Huskies defensive players during an August training-camp workout, Eric Klein is the commanding presence in the 12,500 square-foot, state-of-the-art Strength and Conditioning Center at the 3-year-old Yordon Center.
Klein’s not as carved as the 18- to 23-year-olds who surround him, but the former Division III football player still has the broad build – plus the biker-style shaved head – that could intimidate most walking down a dark alley.
His knowledge of the human anatomy and understanding of the young male psyche adds to his credibility among the NIU players he puts through shirt-drenching workout routines most of the calendar year.
NIU coach Jerry Kill says Klein – who joined Kill as a position coach at Saginaw Valley State, Kill’s first head coaching gig, fresh out of college – is one of the key ingredients to his .626 winning percentage during his 16 years as a college head coach. Because of NCAA rules, the NIU director of sports performance actually spends more time with the Huskies than the head coach.
So Klein is not only the molder of bodies, he’s the eyes, ears, motivator and support line of the staff for the many months the position coaches, coordinators and Kill are restricted in their interaction with the NIU players.
“Coach Klein, he’s the guy that keeps everything running,” senior running back Chad Spann said.
‘Out of the box’
Klein is the man behind Spann’s improved speed – the Huskies’ leading rusher said he trimmed his 10-yard dash time from 1.52 seconds to 1.45 seconds during the offseason – Alex Kube doubling his squat in the past three years and keeping Jake Coffman – a 26-year-old defensive end who calls himself an “old, stiff man” – agile and strong enough to beat hulking offensive tackles.
How does he do it?
“I’m not going to tell you all the secrets,” said Spann, who was able to bench press while recovering from a shoulder injury this spring because of a Klein “secret.”
But Klein doesn’t just put weights in front of the players and tell them to lift as much as they can.
“He’s out-of-the box a little bit,” Kill said.
Klein’s tools include the typical: benches, squat racks, dumbbells and 45-pound plates. But he also mixes in exercise bands, hurdles and other gadgets.
And then there’s the Ultimate Huskie Championship Series.
The summer-long competition pits the offense against the defense in an array of events, including strongman events such as tire flips, sled pushers, farmer’s holds (holding weights by your side as long as possible) and hang cleans.
On the line: a wrestling-style championship belt that hangs in the window of Klein’s office inside the weight room. The defense won the competition last summer.
“The competitive nature of it brings out the best in some of the guys,” Klein said.
All of it adds up to a program that might not build Hulk Hogans.
“I’m more interested in them being the best football player they can be and not the best lifter,” Klein said. “I think they need to be the best football player, and to do that there’s a lot of things that go into it: lifting weights is part of it, being flexible is part of it, being agile, being fast, being in good condition.”
But Klein’s biggest impact, Kill said, is best seen on the shortened injury list. Kill said more than 20 players were injured in his first training camp at NIU. Last year’s injuries could almost be counted on one hand because of Klein’s stretching and core routines, Kill said.
Kill said he has recruited players knowing Klein will fill them out, so the NIU coaches prioritize speed and agility over size when scouting high school players.
“When we first went to Southern Illinois, we couldn’t beat anybody in recruiting, so we decided we were going to recruit speed and body types and we’re going to have a good strength coach to build them,” Kill said. “That’s been our philosophy, and it’s worked.”
Klein’s grueling direction seems to have paid off on the field as several NIU players said they have more endurance under the NIU strength coach.
“The guy that’s in the best football position in the fourth quarter is going to win,” Klein said.
Wanted man
Kill heard about Klein through a former Southwestern College teammate and has been able to keep the Carleton graduate on his staff for the 17 seasons since, despite interest from other programs.
Klein – who became well-known for his work with the SIU basketball program under former Saluki coaches Bruce Weber, now at Illinois, and Matt Painter, now at Purdue – was asked by Iowa to apply for their men’s basketball strength coaching position a few years ago (he wasn’t offered the job) and has been contacted by several other schools.
But Klein said it would be hard to leave football and even more difficult for a strength coach to leave his head coach.
“When you get into this profession, you’ve got to be able to know what the head coach wants, and you’ve got to be able to understand where the program in general is going,” Klein said. “Nowadays, when coaches move, the strength coach is someone they want to take with them because our contact with the athlete far exceeds the contact they have.”
And Kill wants to keep Klein around his student-athletes as long as possible for simple reasons.
“Coach Klein has definitely made me a better player,” Coffman said.
