Teleconference Bullets: Mickey Marotti Details Ohio State's Home Workouts, The Difficulty Of Development, Importance Of Leadership

Spring practice got cut short, forcing players to leave campus and head home prematurely, missing valuable time with the team. Naturally, the dispersal made Mickey Marotti's job as a strength and conditioning coach exceedingly difficult. On Wednesday morning, he hopped on a teleconference with local reporters for 45 minutes to talk about how he has dealt with the unforeseen challenges during the coronavirus pandemic.

Here's a bullet-point rundown of what Marotti said:

• "Just trying to figure out this virtual world and being away from the players. It's been a challenge for all of us." He says "it's been the most challenging thing in my career, no doubt."
• On the challenge of training the Buckeyes: "It's like you're in charge of people but you can't actually be in charge of people." He says instead of giving one message to one group of 30 players, he has to give 30 messages to 30 players.
• "It's no doubt twice as busy as if we were still in the Woody (Hayes Athletic Center)."
• "I think it's a concern every day when I go to bed." He said the good thing is he believes the Buckeyes have great leadership.
• Marotti says when the pandemic ends, you're either going to be better or worse: "So I put a challenge out to our team, our coaches, our staff." He says other people out there are competitors, and they have to ask if others are working harder. "At some point, this thing's going to be over."
• He says the players can't "report objectively" back on their workouts right now due to NCAA rules that make workouts voluntary. "We can't mandate that they do this training." He says they can't watch them train on Zoom or have workouts recorded and sent.
• Players each have a strength and conditioning app on their phones, and they've been able to send bands to them to use in workouts.
• "I think if you look at our roster, we have a lot of guys who have played a lot of football." He says Ryan Day calls it a test every day of "who we are." Marotti says this is a test of the culture of Ohio State football. He also looks at it as an opportunity for growth.
• "I feel pretty good about the three linebackers who are leading that group." He says Justin Hilliard, Tuf Borland and Pete Werner are leaders in the room he feels comfortable with.
• One of the challenges: "We have no idea what the future holds. We have no idea what the season will look like."
• Marotti theorizes that without as much on-field training and practices, Ohio State players could benefit with film work.
• He says he thinks the anxiety from players stems from the fact that they're back at home and were "bouncing off the walls a little bit." He stressed the importance of players getting into a routine.
• On Justin Fields: "As time has gone on, he's really gotten himself into a routine." Originally, when Marotti FaceTime'd him, he'd be just walking circles around his living room. 
• He again says this is the most difficult endeavor of his professional career. People have it worse, he mentions, but "at least in my little world of coaching, it's so hard." He says he had never before been away from a weight room for more than seven days in his career.
• Marotti says Garrett Wilson is an example of someone he's seen grow up during the pandemic. 
• On how many weeks of preseason are needed to begin the season: "To be honest with you, it's really hard to tell because we've never had to do this before." He says the longer they get to prepare them, the better and safer it will be. He says his worry is that if they don't have that time, it'll have a negative outcome. "I think they're still kind of working all those out." He said there are guidelines in place to have a slow progression.
• Matthew Jones, in Brooklyn, had some "really scary stories" he was telling the team. Jones filled two milk jugs with dirt and sand to exercise with.
• Jeremy Ruckert, also in New York, build a squat rack with his dad out of wood. "He was so proud of it." He has an old bar and old weights.
• Backpacks with rocks in them to do lunges, pushing cars and lawnmowers are examples of workouts: "Whatever they can come up with, to be honest with you."
• Marotti says the strength staff has split up the position groups. 
• Using FaceTime has been the best part of this, Marotti says.
• He says they have different workouts: One for players with access to a weight room and others who aren't able to get into a weight room.
• The offensive linemen didn't originally have access to weighted equipment. Right now, though, the linemen do each have access. That's especially important for those players since they're so big. "Right now, we're in a good spot. Feel good about those guys."
• The dietitian, Kaila Olson, is maybe the busiest person on Ohio State's staff, Marotti says.
• Every player has resistance bands of 75 pounds, 50 pounds and 10 pounds sent by the football program.
• Marotti says Nicholas Petit-Frere's gutter fell down because he was outside doing pull-ups. "His mom wasn't very happy with us."
• He says players will get their body fat checked when they get back to campus to compare it to what it was beforehand.
• Estimations on the players' progress: 30 percent are in the best shape of their life, 50 percent are in good shape and 20 percent have fallen behind.
• Marotti says they reached out to former interns running Division-II programs to get ideas of how to handle workouts away from home.
• On if this could bring the team closer together: "I think that's what's happening right now." He says players have made mention of how they're so proud of how hard they work compared to others. "There's a sense of pride about what they've done and what they go through on a daily basis."
• "I really do think it's a test of their character when they're away from their teammates."
• Marotti says it's "really hard to make physical gains" as much as they'd do so in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. But he also thinks players can "make really good gains." He says players really do think they're making progress, and the more they're holding each other accountable, the better they'll be.
• "The Marotti house, they're now fully stocked with bicycles." There are kettlebells, bands and dumbells in the basement. He does the elliptical for at least an hour every day and has read 11 books on it so far. He and everybody else in his house all walk and try to beat each other's step counts.
• On his favorite book while on the elliptical: "The one I do like is Pound The Stone by Joshua Medcalf."
• Wyatt Davis gave "probably the most inspiring talk to a team in a winter program that I've ever heard in my life." He says he and others teared up. He says it was about his development at Ohio State, hitting rock bottom and then getting an opportunity. He says it wasn't about getting his shot; it was about not letting the team and his unit down. Marotti says Davis didn't understand how he understood how players get developed at Ohio State until he played a game and a full season.