One of the most integral parts of any college football team lies in its strength and conditioning program. Touchdowns are not always scored in the fall and quarterbacks are not always sacked through four quarters of play. Much of the work that goes into on-field success is conducted during the offseason beyond the bright lights and without tens of thousands of fans looking on.

At Rutgers, those victories begin inside a state-of-the-art weight room that is part of the Ron and Joanna Garutti Strength and Conditioning Center inside The Hale Center. That is the setting for head strength coach Kenny Parker as he leads the Rutgers football teams through a year-round workout regimen.

While there is a great deal of exercise science that goes into the design of those workouts, Parker values a couple of other attributes.

“I think it is attitude and effort by far. It is what you put into it,” Parker told Scarlet Nation. “You could have the most guru football player, the most guru trainer who might say the 85 bears did this type of lifting. But if they don’t put in the work, it doesn’t really matter.”

As part of the strength and conditioning training program, Parker takes the time to explain the process to the players.

“We teach the kids the why,” said Parker who played at the University of Florida and was previously on the strength and conditioning staff at Ohio State. “If they get on the squat bar and they ask why they are doing a heavy weight, we explain the why. We are showing them and teaching them the why; doing direct teaching by making them say it back to us so they get it.”

And how has that resonated with the players?

“He is very detailed on how he explains the why,” said junior defensive lineman Willington Previlon, who has put on roughly 75 pounds over the last three years in the program. “He wants us to know why we are doing things and that there is a reason.”

Parker is involved early in the process as he can provide the coaching staff an idea of how a prospect will look a couple years into his stint at Rutgers.

“We try to get an idea of how big can he be,” Parker said. “Is he already filled out? Some kids come out of high school and they are very well put together. Some kids are not going to get much bigger and then some kids are as big as a pretzel. You can put a lot of weight on them. But just because you put a lot of weight on them doesn’t mean you should. So we take our time with it and slowly get them developed as best and as safely as we can.”

Over the course of the last year, Parker’s had a hand in helping the development of a lot of players. Tight end Travis Vokolek came to Rutgers as a long and wiry 200-pound freshman in June of 2017. Now, Vokolek is 245 pounds and poised for a breakout season as a Rutgers sophomore.

“Coach Parker put me through a great program in strength and conditioning. I worked my behind off in the spring, trying to get bigger,” Vokolek said.

However, Parker is not measuring success by pounds and weights. He makes it a point to show the players that he genuinely cares about them.

“My dad instilled that in me,” Parker said. “My dad is my brother, my father, my hero. He and my mother hounded the mess out of me to make sure I did right. When I did right, they praised me and when I did wrong, they made sure I was disciplined. As much as I can, we do it here the same way. We honor players when they are doing right. And when they do wrong, we are going to make sure they do right and nip it in the bud as fast as we can.”

Rutgers redshirt freshman Tijaun Mason was helped along by Parker when he came down with a shoulder injury last summer that sidelined him for the fall. He credited Parker with not allowing that setback to weigh on him.

“I was in a bad spot and then Coach Parker was telling me that I got four more years so I have nothing to worry about,” Mason said. “I stood behind his word.”

Parker’s relationship with the players also extends outside of the weight room.

“I have a really good relationship with Coach Parker,” said senior defensive end Kevin Wilkins. “In the month of May, we went fishing a couple of times. We are very close and he always keeps it honest with me. He is a good guy. I would consider him like a father figure to me.”

Looking ahead to this season, success on the field is going to be celebrated by the players responsible for putting points on the scoreboard and making key defensive stops. Behind those plays, there is Parker, who is using more than his impressive resume to get the most out of these players.

“I want to make sure these kids know that we love them, we care about them and we are going to hound the mess out of them until they reach their full potential,” Parker said. “As much as I can, I treat them like my sons or my little brothers. I hope they know that we care about them.”