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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE –– In the McCue Center weight room, University of Virginia offensive lineman Chris Glaser came tantalizingly close to changing colors. In the garage of his family’s home in Westlake, Ohio, he finally made the switch.
The workout gear each Cavalier wears represents the level he’s achieved in director of football development and performance Shawn Griswold‘s strength and conditioning program. Players start at white and, based on testing similar to that used at the NFL scouting combine, can earn promotions to gray, to orange, to blue and, finally, to black.
Glaser rose from gray to orange last summer. To move from orange to blue this year, he needed to bench-press 225 pounds 26 times, “and during our testing [in Charlottesville] I unfortunately didn’t get it,” Glaser recalled this week. “Not because of strength, but because of user error.”
On his 25th and 26th reps, Glaser hit the rack with the bar, disqualifying himself. “Obviously, here it’s earned, not given,” Griswold said. “He easily could have gotten it, but I’m not going to give it to him.”
The 6-3, 310-pound Glaser planned to try again at the McCue Center after spring break, which he spent in Florida. But then the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most on-Grounds operations at UVA, including classes.
Back home in the Cleveland area, Glaser contacted Griswold. Would it be OK, Glaser asked, to send a video of his next attempt to meet his bench-press target? Negative, Griswold replied.
“He wanted to see it in person as much as he could,” Glaser said. And so he set up a Zoom call with Griswold, who virtually checked out the weight equipment and “saw me warm up,” Glaser said.
Then the lifting began. Twenty-eight reps later, Glaser was a member of Team Blue.
“His dad spotted him, and we got to watch it,” Griswold said. “His dad was pretty funny. He was yelling and screaming and counting it out. It was fun.”
Many of Glaser’s closest friends on the team had long since moved out of orange, “and I didn’t want to be the only one not in blue,” he said. “So that gave a lot of fuel to the fire, and it meant a lot when I finally got it. Now I can tote that blue shirt and blue pants around, and those blue socks.”
Head coach Bronco Mendenhall’s players returned to Grounds on July 5. Most had been home with their families since mid-March. During his first month back in Ohio, Glaser had no access to weights at home, and his workouts mainly consisted of body-weight exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, wall sites and squat jumps.
“It’s tough just doing body-weight workouts,” Glaser said, “because you feel like you’re trying your best to stay as strong as possible, but without weights you just can’t keep the same strength that you normally could. Our [strength and conditioning] staff was great. They did a lot of research on how to stay strong without the weights, but it’s just a little different.”
Fortunately for Glaser, the situation was only temporary. One of his father’s friends lent Glaser a rack and some weights. Glaser’s mother’s car came out of the garage, and in went the equipment. Glaser began lifting again, and he also ran a mile each day to keep his weight down.
“I would tell you that the hardest thing for a big guy to do when no one’s watching is run,” offensive line coach Garett Tujague said.
Glaser would not disagree. But he pushed through. “The first run wasn’t too good,” he said, laughing, “but after about a month or two, the time went down. The weight stayed off and I stayed healthy.”
He wasn’t the only offensive lineman who put his time at home to good use. “I think every single one of my guys came back bigger and stronger than when they left, even though they didn’t all have the resources,” Tujague said. “It was a testament to Griz and his staff.”