Kornacki: Tolbert Brings Championship Mentality to Weight Room
1/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan's new head strength and conditioning coach, Kevin Tolbert, has returned to the place where he helped make a significant impact.
Tolbert assisted long-time head strength and conditioning coach Mike Gittleson in making the Wolverines bigger, stronger and faster from 2001-07 under Hall of Fame coach Lloyd Carr.
Michigan won two Big Ten championships and went 64-24 in those seasons, and had eight NFL first-round picks -- including offensive tackle Jake Long, the No. 1 overall selection in 2008. Running back Chris Perry (2003) and wide receiver Braylon Edwards (2004) won Chicago Tribune Big Ten Player of the Year awards, and there were 11 All-American picks.
Those were good days, and Tolbert is anxious to do his part in returning the Wolverines to great heights.
"I am so excited that I don't think I can stand it," Tolbert said. "It's great to be back home. Michigan is where I raised my kids. God-willing, hopefully, we can be a part of bringing Michigan back in the national discussion of things."
Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh brought in Tolbert to be the assistant strength and conditioning coach at Stanford in 2009, and he became the head coach in that area in 2010, when Stanford went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl with quarterback Andrew Luck.
When Harbaugh became the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, he took Tolbert with him as that team's assistant strength and conditioning coach. The Forty-Niners went to three NFC Championship games in their four seasons together, reaching Super Bowl XLVII.
So, Tolbert has worked in the weight room with more than his share of champions. What's the key to accomplishing big things?
"It's an attitude," said Tolbert. "It's not what you say sometime if you're raising kids. They aren't my kids, but they are my kids -- if you get what I'm saying. It's not what you say; it's what you do. So, not only talking the talk but walking the walk.
"If everyone buys in -- it's coaches, players. We all get on that oar and we see we make progress. But things aren't always going to be linear. Just because you put in 'x' doesn't mean you get out 'x.' So, we all just have to be committed to the process to do what we have to do to win."
Back in Ann Arbor, Tolbert is excited to get started and put the Wolverines through the tasks of winter conditioning.
"Getting to know the players is the first thing," said Tolbert, "and establish a relationship with them, and get down to business. There's no magic. The magic is what you do every day -- you grab your hard hat, lunch box, get to work. No secrets. It's real simple. I used to watch my dad get up every day at 4 in the morning, get up the next day and do it again. And that's what I'm about."
Tolbert also was an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Detroit Lions (2008) and was a volunteer coach with the Philadelphia Eagles (1996-97). He was the University of Miami Hurricanes weight training and conditioning coach for three years before first coming to Ann Arbor.
He's a 1981 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and was a three-year letterman as a wishbone formation fullback for the Midshipmen.
Weight lifting became an obsession for Tolbert when he was in middle school, and he learned to compensate for not being the tallest athlete by being one of the strongest. He's also a student of the history of weight training.
• Tolbert Named Director of Football Strength and Conditioning
