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Anez Cooper's Transformation

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TheOriginalCane said:
It was Russell Maryland. Overweight kid from a Chicago high school who was only identified and recruited after another kid at his HS stiffed us.

While Tez transferred to UM from a Mississippi JuCo and may have not been in the best shape in HS, I don't think he arrived at UM in terrible condition.
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Thanks.

You know we often disagree on the best DT ever at UM with so many to choose from. But the combo of Kennedy and Maryland in ‘89, with Jimmie Jones as a backup, and future NFL player, has to be the greatest collection of talent at that position ever for any school.
 
JD08 said:
I seem to recall a story about someone helping Cortez Kennedy with conditioning.
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Tez was so big, he was always prone to being a bit over, but he was NOWHERE near as out-of-shape as Russell Maryland out of HS.

Trust me, Tez first enrolled at UM when I was there in school, and he didn't look sloppy. Big...yes. I think the story you are referring to with Tez might involve Zo locking the refrigerator.

But you could definitely see the transformation in Russell from his first year until he left UM. In fact, that was one of the "storylines" about Russell, he was tapped into multiple UM honor societies when I was at UM, and it was for both his transformation as well as his leadership. That guy truly improved in his time at UM.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
Tez was so big, he was always prone to being a bit over, but he was NOWHERE near as out-of-shape as Russell Maryland out of HS.

Trust me, Tez first enrolled at UM when I was there in school, and he didn't look sloppy. Big...yes.

But you could definitely see the transformation in Russell from his first year until he left UM. In fact, that was one of the "storylines" about Russell, he was tapped into multiple UM honor societies when I was at UM, and it was for both his transformation as well as his leadership. That guy truly improved in his time at UM.
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I don't doubt it. I'm just thinking I read something about Tez in Feldman's book or one of Martz's.
 
AtlAtty said:
Thanks.

You know we often disagree on the best DT ever at UM with so many to choose from. But the combo of Kennedy and Maryland in ‘89, with Jimmie Jones as a backup, and future NFL player, has to be the greatest collection of talent at that position ever for any school.
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It's all good, and I freely admit my biases towards the old-school guys. Some of it was "they were my classmates", but it also had to do with the TERRIBLE conditions with which they achieved greatness.

The old Hecht sucked. The apartments sucked. The weight room stank, and the grass on Greentree could lacerate your skin. And don't even get me started on "the Training Table", it was just the backside of the old "Ibis/Hurricane" cafeterias, they just gave the players unlimited amounts of food.

So, yes, when people debate "Ed Reed vs. Sean Taylor", I'm like "what about Bennie Blades, motha****as?"

You might never EVER see a greater run of college/NFL talent, from about the mid-70s to the mid-90s, that was paired with the WORST facilities imaginable, AND they earned 4 rings.

And with all due respect to the great @SWFLHurricane , he will be the first to tell you that by the time Butch came around we were SLOWLY starting to fix those issues, though it certainly took off in the 2000s and beyond when it comes to the Hecht, the living arrangements, the eating arrangements, the practice fields, and the weight room. I'm not saying Butch had it easy, he did not, but it was nowhere near as bad as when Howard took over.

If anyone has the chance to find/buy the Jim Martz book, please do. I don't know if you can find it in your local bookstore under "Sports" or "Horror".
 
JD08 said:
I don't doubt it. I'm just thinking I read something about Tez in Feldman's book or one of Martz's.
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Sorry, I added a sentence after you quoted the post, I think the story you are talking about may involve Zo (or Randy?) putting a lock on Tez's refrigerator.

I also just alluded to this in another post, but we had no real "nutrition" program back then. Trust me, I lived in Eaton, I used to see all the delivery drivers going to the football apartments with D'Pizza, Great Sub Connnection, Herbies, you name it.

And the "training table" was just "all-you-can-eat". It was NOT anything super-nutritious, it was the same food the regular student body was getting, just way more of it.
 
AtlAtty said:
This a Cortez Kennedy level of transformation in body. Tez turned into a 1st round pick and, for my money, in the same conversation as Brown, Sapp, Maryland and Wilfork.

Or was it Russell Maryland who lost all the Weight? @SWFLCane help me out.

Where there is a will, there is a way.
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it was both, but it was Russell who mentored Tez before his senior year in 89, taking him running, locking up his fridge, etc

Ive never seen a player make a one-year turn-around like Kennedy did from the 88 season to 89. He actually took the starting spot from a very solid Jimmie Jones, who ended up having a long, lucrative NFL career...
 
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JD08 said:
And something about half a veggie sub for lunch.
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Yeah...the good old days...

3 "all-you-can-eat" cafeterias, one at Mahoney-Pearson, one at Hecht-Stanford, one in the UC (Hurricane Cafeteria, it was "supposed to be" for Eaton)
1 Eye cafeteria, essentially a Burger King (no joke)
1 Rathskellar, just bar food
1 Ibis cafeteria, just an "a la carte" version of the others, though they had a sandwich area and a couple of other things, it was a forerunner of the food court
1 Force Five convenience store
1 Law School "Subway", they made the sandwiches at the Riviera Subway and brought them over to a refrigerator, later they had a "real" Subway

That was it. Those were our choices in the 1980s and early 90s. No food carts or food trucks, no other choices but to go off-campus.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
Yeah...the good old days...

3 "all-you-can-eat" cafeterias, one at Mahoney-Pearson, one at Hecht-Stanford, one in the UC (Hurricane Cafeteria, it was "supposed to be" for Eaton)
1 Eye cafeteria, essentially a Burger King (no joke)
1 Rathskellar, just bar food
1 Ibis cafeteria, just an "a la carte" version of the others, though they had a sandwich area and a couple of other things, it was a forerunner of the food court
1 Force Five convenience store
1 Law School "Subway", they made the sandwiches at the Riviera Subway and brought them over to a refrigerator, later they had a "real" Subway

That was it. Those were our choices in the 1980s and early 90s. No food carts or food trucks, no other choices but to go off-campus.
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One had a Pizza Hut when I was there.
 
k9cane said:
it was both, but it was Russell who mentored Tez before his senior year in 89, taking him running, locking up his fridge, etc

Ive never seen a player make a one-year turn-around like Kennedy did from the 88 season to 89. He actually took the starting spot from a very solid Jimmie Jones, who ended up having a long, lucrative NFL career...
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Jimmie had some other issues too, he had to work in the summertime to make extra money, kid's family was dirt-poor.

Tez definitely got into BETTER shape, but he was nowhere near Anez Cooper/Desmond Fatson levels of huge. Tez just...liked to eat. Outside of the regular season, he was up-and-down with being in ideal football shape year-round.

Maybe I only had classes with Tez during the fall semester... :ROFLMAO:
 
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AtlAtty said:
Thanks.

You know we often disagree on the best DT ever at UM with so many to choose from. But the combo of Kennedy and Maryland in ‘89, with Jimmie Jones as a backup, and future NFL player, has to be the greatest collection of talent at that position ever for any school.
Click to expand...
I still say Jerome was the best DT ever at Miami but that '89 DL was almost unfair to play against.
 
Guys like Cooper, Bain, Mauigoa, Kelly, Joseph, Fletcher, etc make me really excited about the kind of kid Mario recruits.

People have said he’s a “star *****” but I think he’s put a huge focus on kids with the right mentality and approach as well as physical potential.

He’s not the greatest game day coach but if he builds a locker room full of guys like these he’ll have us back in the national conversation every year 100%.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
It's all good, and I freely admit my biases towards the old-school guys. Some of it was "they were my classmates", but it also had to do with the TERRIBLE conditions with which they achieved greatness.

The old Hecht sucked. The apartments sucked. The weight room stank, and the grass on Greentree could lacerate your skin. And don't even get me started on "the Training Table", it was just the backside of the old "Ibis/Hurricane" cafeterias, they just gave the players unlimited amounts of food.

So, yes, when people debate "Ed Reed vs. Sean Taylor", I'm like "what about Bennie Blades, motha****as?"

You might never EVER see a greater run of college/NFL talent, from about the mid-70s to the mid-90s, that was paired with the WORST facilities imaginable, AND they earned 4 rings.

And with all due respect to the great @SWFLHurricane , he will be the first to tell you that by the time Butch came around we were SLOWLY starting to fix those issues, though it certainly took off in the 2000s and beyond when it comes to the Hecht, the living arrangements, the eating arrangements, the practice fields, and the weight room. I'm not saying Butch had it easy, he did not, but it was nowhere near as bad as when Howard took over.

If anyone has the chance to find/buy the Jim Martz book, please do. I don't know if you can find it in your local bookstore under "Sports" or "Horror".
Click to expand...
Butch however, had it way worse in other areas. Yes, the weight room, locker room etc...we're an absolute abomination when Howard took over, but they certainly weren't that much better during Butch's tenure. The administration held Howard in High esteem, whereas, they Loathed Butch. They never in a Million yrs thought Butch would end up building what he did.
 
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