KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — The sun had barely even come up over Bronco Stadium, but there was no shortage of energy from Grant Geib. The team calls him ‘G2’ and anything he says, goes.
For the last five seasons he’s motivated the team through every workout.
“Usually the things that make us better are the things that are really hard,” Geib said. “That push us and stretch us beyond our limits.”
Geib is entering his sixth season as the head strength and conditioning coach at Western Michigan University. It won’t be long before the Broncos are back out on the field to play their first snap of the season, but it’s Geib’s job to make sure they’re ready.
“Push them as hard as they can out of their comfort zone, to be the best version of themselves and reach that ceiling,” Geib said. “I love the opportunity to work with our guys and see them get better and see them grow.”
The weight room component of their training often gets overlooked, but those within the program know it’s one of the most important parts of the game. That’s why they spend nearly 11 months out of the year pumping iron.
“I think this is the foundation for everything that we do,” Geib said. “We work with the guys all year.”
“What he’s been able to do in here, and the way he teaches every little detail of the body and the movement, I mean it’s everything, it’s huge,” said WMU head coach Tim Lester, who has seen the results translate onto the field .
“We’ve seen a guy one year and been like, ‘Physically, he might not be there yet,’ and then you watch him the next year, and they’re making plays, and you’re like, ‘This guy could not do this a year ago.’ That’s when it’s exciting, that’s when you’re fired up,” Geib said.
While physical transformations are some of the easiest to see, there are other things that are not measured by strength.
“The same discipline the extra work that I put in on the football side of things, I put that on the academic side, and I think that’s what helped me turn that around,” senior linebacker Corbin Moment said.
Moment wasn’t able to play in any games in 2019, after he was declared academically inligible. He learned some of his most important lessons in the weight room that year, coming back the following season as a breakout star on the Broncos defense.
“Obviously, I would’ve wanted to play, but I’m happy that I used that time instead of sulked,” Moment said. “I came back better than I was before.”
That’s the same thing they’re hoping to do on the field this season, as they look to build off an 8-5 record. For the Broncos, it all starts in the weight room.
“Every year we’re trying to do the best we can and take it to a higher level,” Geib said.