Last year while Notre Dame was struggling to a 4-8 record with losses to teams that the Irish should’ve beaten, it became more and more evident that things needed to change in the offseason in some capacity.
Enter Matt Balis.
Balis was formerly the head strength coach at schools such as Mississippi State, Virginia, and UConn before being named the Director of Football Performance at Notre Dame in January. Balis was brought it to revamp the strength program to ensure that Notre Dame was never a program that would be pushed around or out-physicaled the way they were in 2016 again. Obviously, the Irish have played zero games since Balis was hired, but there has been visual evidence that what he has attempted to implement has shown quick results.
Body by Balis💪🏿 Trust in the process and work!! 2 month transformation ☘️☘️ pic.twitter.com/Ui2PvMkASf
— DJ Morgan (@deundraymorgan) April 9, 2017
Sophomore Safety DJ Morgan certainly added some bulk over the past couple of months.
Trust in the process 🍀#BodyBuiltByBalis pic.twitter.com/8fdQGJRZA0
— Tough Choices (@TevonConey) April 8, 2017
Tevon Coney looked scary, like an entirely different person, honestly.
A look at the ND process rn 😏🍀🍀#balis pic.twitter.com/m9AphHvyYu
— #29…k_Jugga (@KevinStepherson) April 8, 2017
Sophomore WR Kevin Stephenson added nearly 12 pounds of muscle in a short span of time as well.
With all of these short term changes that the program has seen physically in the strength program it should make for an interesting summer as well. The Irish should be able to continue to become stronger and change the identity of the program.
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