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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 19 • 27 BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com W hen there's seemingly noth- ing left to give, when players are tired from a grueling training ses- sion, when their thoughts are drift- ing toward anywhere-but-here, that is when Duane Carlisle cranks up the intensity. At the end of each workout in Purdue's winter conditioning pro- gram, Carlisle, the director of sports performance, has players line up and asks them to perform a specific drill flawlessly for two reps. If they don't, the group keeps going until everyone gets it right. Carlisle calls it the Boiler Drill, but it's also known as the "focus and fin- ish" portion. "It's a grunt type of thing," Car- lisle said as the program entered its third week. "Guys are fatigued, they're tired, it's at the end of the workout. They've got to go through it. (It's about) being able to focus through fatigue, when they're tired and they've had enough. It's the whole 'and then some.' They've got- ten to that breaking point. We want 'and then some.' And then some." There's a reason finishing is a fo- cus of the offseason program. After taking a step under Darrell Hazell by competing in more games last season, the Boilermakers' next move must be to actually win a high- er percentage of those tight games. So Carlisle and his staff spent about 40 hours evaluating last year's programs and then made a power point presentation to Hazell with ideas for 2015. Hazell made recom- mendations, too. "The three objectives that came out of our meeting was to build a championship mindset, to improve physical capacity and to improve life- style habits. Within that, Coach Ha- zell narrowed it down to 'finish' and 'work,'" Carlisle said. "So that's kind of the mantra for our winter condi- tioning going forward in terms of all the things we're emphasizing. Our program is built around those two things and the bigger picture things are the championship mindset, im- proving physical capacity, strength, power, speed, agility, and then the lifestyle habits, their nutrition, their sleep, their recovery, aligning your choices with your goals." The players constantly are re- minded of the goals — the shirts they wear to train say "work" on the front and "finish" on the back. And they're expected to showcase both for at least four days a week during the program. That's how many days are required — and they take up the eight-hour NCAA-allowed time for workouts. But Carlisle also has a pair of optional training days, a "speed school" and a "bend and balance" workout. Through the first two weeks of the program, every player had attend- ed the optional workouts, Carlisle said. "Coach Hazell very much knows the kind of player he wants. Those guys who are coming in reflect that, love football, high-character guys, love school, hard-working guys," Carlisle said. "They're Boilermakers. They're the kind of guys who are the blue-collar guys, roll their sleeves up, Offseason Program Fosters Finishing F O OT BA L L : N E W S A N D N OT E S Tom Campbell Duane Carlisle and his sports performance staff are pushing a winter conditioning program that aligns with Coach Darrell Hazell's mantra of "work" and "finish."