The Gridiron Warrior Podcast

Scott Leech | D1 Football Strength & Conditioning Coach
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Football
  • Updated Weekly

Real-world football strength and conditioning for the coaches who do it all. Hosted by Scott Leech, Division 1 S&C coach at the University of Rhode Island. Each episode gives high school football coaches and strength coaches proven systems for the weight room, speed training, and game-day physicality. Blunt, practical lessons from a coach who lives it every day. Stop guessing. Start training with purpose.

  1. 2d ago

    Mental Training for Football: Focus Drills, Flow State, and Better Sleep | Cyrus aka The Mental Level

    Cyrus aka The Mental Level. Severe ADHD forced him to learn focus the hard way. Now he trains athletes to lock in on command, and he brought football coaches a complete starter protocol. We get into the pre-practice focus drill (seated, eyes open, two focus points, no fidgeting), why athletes get hit with sudden drowsiness the moment they sit still, how to make flow state show up more than once a season, the Phil Jackson team-breathing play, and why yelling "focus up" buys you about five seconds. Then the plot twist: the back half is for the coach who cannot come off the gas. Rest as a skill, the 10-minute lights-off routine, and the revenge tour your brain runs when your head hits the pillow. Timestamps: 3:03 The mental side nobody trains 3:55 Severe ADHD to The Mental Level 5:00 Guided vs self-guided meditation 7:05 Meditation is S&C for the mind 8:30 Two focus points: the ADHD athlete hack 11:55 Running it at camp: sit them up, eyes open 12:20 Drowsiness is a defense mechanism 13:35 The baseline protocol step by step 16:15 Flow state: stack the deck 19:05 Phil Jackson and team flow 21:40 "Focus up" buys you five seconds 27:45 Plot twist: this half is for you, Coach 31:20 Rest is not nothing 35:45 Sleep and the revenge tour Find Cyrus: The Mental Level on YouTube and Insight Timer. Coaching: thementallevel@gmail.com Follow me: @sleech72. TrainHeroic 90-day free trial: trainheroic.com/gridironwarrior Join the Gridiron Warrior Insiders. $1 first month.

  2. Jul 31

    The Man Behind The Morning Rep: How Strength Coaches Should Actually Use AI | Gridiron Warrior Podcast

    Drew Fopeano is the man behind The Morning Rep, the free daily email that puts strength and conditioning news, job openings, and events in coaches' inboxes every morning. AI finds it, summarizes it, and writes it while he sleeps. He built the whole thing in under a year with no coding background, and it is adding hundreds of subscribers a week. We get into where coaches should start once they stop using AI like a Google search: projects, connected apps, and making it interview you. The ChatGPT flyer problem and the voice note trick that teaches Claude your stances. The scheduled task that proofreads Drew's newsletter at 10 PM every night. The 95/5 rule of building your own AMS, and the fail-safes you only learn after somebody fat-fingers a body weight by 100 pounds. Plus the two things neither of us will let AI touch, the Rich Burnett Plyomat story, my hydration testing dashboard, and NotebookLM, the tool most coaches have not opened yet. Timestamps: 3:03 Meet Drew: the man behind The Morning Rep 3:40 Kinexon years and the S&C news gap 6:25 What's inside The Morning Rep 8:35 Getting past the Google-search stage 11:05 The ChatGPT flyer problem + voice notes 13:15 The 10 PM AI proofreader 16:15 Building your own AMS: the 95/5 rule 20:25 Should AI write your programs? 22:30 Why strength coaches keep their jobs 25:05 Getting your app live: Supabase and Netlify 29:40 Rich Burnett rebuilt Plyomat with Claude 31:45 The hydration dashboard story 34:40 Advice for hesitant coaches 36:20 Try NotebookLM next Follow Drew: @themorningrep. Subscribe free: morningrep.com. Follow me: @sleech72. TrainHeroic 90-day free trial: trainheroic.com/gridironwarrior Join the Gridiron Warrior Insiders. $1 first month.

  3. Jul 23

    Oklahoma State's S&C Coach: Why Strong Kids Can't Play Football | Bryan Kegans

    Bryan Kegans runs football strength and conditioning at Oklahoma State, and he has not tested a 1RM in three and a half years. We get into the road from middle school PE teacher to Power Four strength coach, why the strongest kid in your weight room might be the worst player on your field, and the foot training research that cut lower leg injuries 2.5x. Bryan breaks down the foot dome drill his athletes run every summer, his low bar squat non-negotiables, money sets that replaced testing weeks entirely, and the day a deep squat ended a player's career. Then he goes somewhere most coaches will not: what it cost him to share his movement work publicly when his own community turned on him. (Note: I am aware of the technical difficulties of this episode! We did the best we could while battling connection issues.) Timestamps: 3:05 Meet Bryan Kegans 3:52 The whole road: Texas HS to Oklahoma, USC, and Oklahoma State 9:17 Coaching as a calling. Chase elite, elite comes with scars 12:08 The GOATA story 21:05 Your foot is a core: the 2.5x injury stat 23:30 The foot dome drill 28:45 No excuse for crap movement. No excuse for being weak 31:39 Low bar squat non-negotiables 33:30 Money sets: 3.5 years without a testing week 38:06 Rotational upper body training 42:29 Getting hated for sharing your work Follow Bryan: @bkegans. Follow me: @sleech72. TrainHeroic 90-day free trial: trainheroic.com/gridironwarrior Join the Gridiron Warrior Insiders. $1 first month.

  4. Jul 7

    Football Strength and Conditioning at Navy | Chaos Training & Strength Coach Advice with Jim Kiritsy

    The Gridiron Warrior Podcast: football strength and conditioning insights from Coach Jim Kiritsy, Director of Football Strength and Conditioning at the United States Naval Academy. Strength coach tips, strength coach advice, and behind-the-scenes strength coach insights from one of football's most respected strength coaches. Why do Navy's football players never look gassed in the first 10 minutes of camp? Because Coach Jim Kiritsy built chaos training to fix the exact problem most programs ignore. He breaks down his inside-out training objectives, why a coach-led team caps at a B-plus, and why the weight room is the last bastion of delayed gratification. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro and Sponsors 03:00 Episode Preview 04:00 From Northbridge to Navy: Coach Jim Kiritsy's Story 08:00 Building Training Objectives Inside-Out: Start With Why 11:00 Cultural, Behavioral, and Technical Objectives 18:00 The Summer Summit Preview: Extended Warm-Ups and Lateral Prep 23:00 Chaos Training: How Navy Survives the First 10 Minutes of Camp 28:00 Time on Feet: Why Two Hours in the Sun Matters 30:00 Player-Led vs. Coach-Led: The B-Plus Ceiling 35:00 Neck Training and Iron Neck 38:00 Teach, Mentor, Train: Why Kiritsy Does This 41:00 The Weight Room: Last Bastion of Delayed Gratification 44:00 Where to Follow Coach Kiritsy #FootballStrengthAndConditioning #StrengthCoach #StrengthCoaches #StrengthCoachTips #StrengthCoachAdvice #FootballCoachesInsights #NavyFootball #GridironWarrior #FootballCoach #HighSchoolFootball #StrengthAndConditioning #FootballTraining

  5. Jul 2

    The Summer Summit: A Hands-On Football & Strength Coaching Clinic for High School Coaches | Gridiron Warrior 2026

    The Gridiron Warrior Summer Summit is the hands-on football and strength & conditioning coaching clinic built for high school coaches who do it all. Saturday, July 18, 2026, inside the University of Rhode Island's Division I weight room and turf facility in Kingston, Rhode Island. In this solo episode, Scott Leech breaks it all down: who the Summit is for, the full speaker lineup, why every session is live and hands-on with no death by PowerPoint, and how to grab one of the last seats before they're gone. REGISTER HERE 👉 https://www.scottleechtraining.com/summit Only 100 seats. About half are already taken. This is the one clinic that puts football coaching and strength and conditioning under the same roof. Warm-ups, special teams, offensive line play, chaos training, in-season tackling progressions, and neck training for concussion resilience. All in one day. All things you can install at August camp on Monday. WHO IT'S FOR High school football coaches. Strength and conditioning coaches. And especially the coach who has to wear both hats, run practice, then run the weight room. THE 2026 SPEAKER LINEUP Jack Dustin (Endicott College) — Win Before the Whistle: rethinking the warm-up and building speed work into itNic Keene (UNH) — Programmatic special teams: drills and circuits for the hidden third of the gameDante Scarnecchia (NFL) — The Standard of Offensive Line Play, taught hands-on by a 6x Super Bowl champion and one of the most respected offensive line coaches in NFL historyJim Kiritsy (U.S. Naval Academy) — Chaos training: lateral movement and change of direction to get athletes ready for campAndy Ryland — In-season tackling progressions: how to make your tackling drills harder and better as the season goes onScott Leech (URI) — The Armor Building Protocol: how to train the neck and traps in-season, plus vision training for collision preparationEVENT DETAILS 📅 Saturday, July 18, 2026 📍 URI Weight Room & Turf Facility, Kingston, Rhode Island 🚪 Doors 7:00 AM | First session 8:30 AM 🍖 Lunch provided (Black Dog BBQ) 🎁 Swag bag, T-shirt, and raffle prizes (Plyomat, Iron Neck, custom belt, and more) TIMESTAMPS 0:00 What the Gridiron Warrior Podcast is all about 0:25 Sponsor: TrainHeroic (free 90-day trial + 2 free 12-week programs) 2:00 Sponsor: Plyomat jump training system 3:00 Welcome + why the Summer Summit matters (Saturday, July 18, Kingston RI) 3:50 Who it's for: football and strength coaches under one roof 4:45 Built for the high school coach who wears both hats 6:00 The venue: inside URI's D1 weight room and turf 7:00 The schedule: doors at 7, first session at 8:30 7:25 Why every session is live and hands-on (no death by PowerPoint) 9:30 The origin story: Paul Pasqualoni and the "just coach them up" idea 11:00 Session 1: Jack Dustin (Endicott) rethinks the warm-up 11:40 Session 2: Nic Keene (UNH) on programmatic special teams 13:00 Keynote (11 AM): the standard of offensive line play 14:30 Halftime: lunch from Black Dog BBQ 14:55 Session 3: Jim Kiritsy (Navy) on chaos training for camp 15:45 Session 4: Andy Ryland on in-season tackling progressions 16:45 Session 5: Scott Leech on armor building (neck & traps) + vision training 18:00 The sponsors: Perform Better, Iron Neck, Rogers, Plae, Enduraphin 19:20 Swag, raffles, and giveaways 20:10 Why this Summit is different 20:55 Final call: only ~50 seats left and how to claim yours SPONSORS Perform Better (title sponsor), TrainHeroic, Plyomat, Iron Neck, Rogers Athletic, Plae, Abacus Sports, and Enduraphin. Start your free 90-day TrainHeroic trial and get two free 12-week programs from Scott 👉 https://www.trainheroic.com/gridironwarrior CONNECT Register for the Summit: https://www.scottleechtraining.com/summit Comment or DM "SUMMIT" on Instagram and I'll send you the link. Gridiron Warrior helps high school football and strength coaches run the best possible programs for their athletes: simple, practical, real-world coaching that transfers from the weight room to the field. — Keywords: football coaching clinic, football coaching clinic 2026, strength and conditioning clinic, high school football coaching, high school strength and conditioning, football coaches clinic Rhode Island, offensive line play, tackling drills, special teams drills, football warm up, speed training for football, neck training football, in-season football training, Gridiron Warrior, Scott Leech #FootballCoaching #StrengthAndConditioning #HighSchoolFootball #FootballCoach #GridironWarrior #CoachingClinic #OffensiveLine #Tackling #SpeedTraining #SandC

  6. Jun 19

    Build the Dogs: Why Football Conditioning Is NOT Just Running | Coach Tyler Franklin

    Most coaches still think conditioning means running kids into the ground. Coach Tyler Franklin says that is the lie that has your players breaking down by week three. In this episode of the Gridiron Warrior Podcast, Scott Leech sits down with Coach Tyler Franklin, strength and conditioning coach at Murray High School in Kentucky and the NHSSCA 2023 Coach of the Year. Tyler is the author of "Build the Dogs," and he breaks down a smarter way to think about conditioning and capacity for football and strength coaches at every level. This one is a clinic. Here is what we get into: - Why conditioning is not just running, and the mindset shift most coaches have to make - The 5 Levels of Capacity: structural integrity, aerobic base, repeat power, mechanical breakdown, and the mental side - The Capacity Test that shows you the real limiter holding an athlete back - The 5 Types of Dogs on every roster: Stable, Power, Engine, Chaos, and Silent, and how to coach each one - A simple 4-phase build: Build the Frame, Build the Engine, Build the Bite, and Govern the Chaos - The coaching language that builds athletes up instead of breaking them down - The honest truth about using AI to organize your own coaching knowledge into a product If you coach high school football, run a weight room on your own, or train athletes in the private sector, you will walk away with something you can use this summer. ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 Sponsors (TrainHeroic + PlyoMat) — interview starts at 3:07 03:07 Meet Coach Tyler Franklin (Murray HS, KY | NHSSCA 2023 Coach of the Year) 03:58 From college grad assistant to building a high school strength program 05:58 "Build the Dogs" vs. "Feed the Cats": why capacity keeps you in the fight 07:56 Why he wrote the book (and how he used AI to organize it) 11:22 The mindset shift: conditioning is NOT just running 11:37 The 5 Levels of Capacity, broken down on a live client 15:47 The "Patriot Test": continuous running he borrowed from the Patriots 18:07 Finding the limiter: the coordination leak nobody talks about 20:56 Sponsor: Enduraphin 21:48 Limiters by position: big guys vs. skill guys 22:24 The 5 Types of Dogs: Stable, Power, Engine, Chaos, Silent 25:35 How a D1 stud turns into a "Chaos Dog" under fatigue 26:24 The 4-phase build: Frame, Engine, Bite, Govern the Chaos 31:52 Coaching language: cue what you want, kill "don't get sloppy" 36:04 Why he coaches: "You can't cheat the weight room" 38:36 Where to find Coach Franklin and grab the book 39:13 Wrap-up 39:32 Join Gridiron Warrior Insiders 🐶 GET COACH FRANKLIN'S BOOK + FOLLOW HIM Instagram: @TFranklinPerformance Book "Build the Dogs": [https://buy.stripe.com/5kQ28teu3brO1Huf4Z2go00?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnjG10g8On3chZ-t423OERy7l87UjLvzkQ8i9V9aUpXE9ReyyRtwYoCTxeKs8_aem_YWdncwBwlc1lfNMuu6SfHpnz1fiI&brid=YWdncwES50_3iIyp8XObjNIjG8DN] 🔥 GRIDIRON WARRIOR INSIDERS Weekly Film Study, the Wildcat Webinar series, early podcast episodes, equipment-room discounts, and 50+ coaches getting better together. First month is $1. 👉 scottleechtraining.com 🎙 SUPPORT THE SHOW (and our partners) TrainHeroic: 90-day free trial at trainheroic.com/gridironwarrior, plus two free 12-week programs (reply to your welcome email to claim them) PlyoMat: jump and speed feedback you can use every day Enduraphin: performance nutrition, team pricing available 📩 The Leech Letters (weekly email for coaches): scottleechtraining.com Keep the Fire Burning, Leech #footballcoach #strengthandconditioning #gridironwarrior

  7. Jun 8

    Football Strength and Conditioning Podcast | The Thousand Pound Club That Predicts a State Title | Coach John Marshall

    The Gridiron Warrior Podcast delivers football strength and conditioning insights for high school and college coaches. Every episode brings real strength coach advice from the people doing the work. In this episode, head football coach and strength coach John Marshall breaks down how he built Randolph High School from 17 kids on the roster to a two-time Massachusetts state champion using a weight room system he calls the Thousand Pound Club. Marshall is a strength coach, head football coach, and athletic director. He took over the program in COVID. Five years later he has been to three state title games, won two, and placed 12 athletes at the NCAA level. His Thousand Pound Club uses four lifts. Squat, bench, hex bar deadlift, and power clean. The total predicts the season. 12 guys in the club means a playoff team. 15 means Final Four. 17 means Super Bowl team. Inside this episode: The football strength and conditioning system Marshall uses to develop multi-sport athletes How he runs 6 a.m. weight room sessions for football, basketball, and track athletes at the same time The strength coach tips that turned a small school into a state powerhouse Why he refuses to make athletes pick between sports How the Gridiron Warrior Contact Prep course changed his tackling The blocked punt that won Randolph their first state title If you coach football at the high school level, this episode gives you a Thousand Pound Club blueprint, off-season programming for football strength and conditioning, and a culture model that produces championship teams without elite talent. Coach Marshall is presenting live at the Gridiron Warrior Summer Summit on July 18 at the University of Rhode Island. If you want football coaches insights from strength coaches and head coaches who are actually winning at the high school level, register at [LINK]. --- SPONSORS TrainHeroic. The platform I use to write football strength and conditioning programs and deliver workouts to athletes and teams. Start a free 90-day trial at trainheroic.com/gridironwarrior and reply to your welcome email. I will drop two 12-week training programs into your account. Plyomat. SwitchMat jump training tech for high school and college strength coaches. Instant feedback on jump height, contact time, and RSI. --- CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:33 Sponsor: TrainHeroic 01:32 Sponsor: Plyomat 03:08 Why Coach Marshall is on the show 04:05 Welcome Coach John Marshall 04:30 Taking over Randolph in COVID with 17 kids 05:00 Three state title games in five years 06:15 Why he coaches: Marine background and giving back 08:30 The weight room as the backbone of the program 09:00 The Thousand Pound Club explained 09:30 How the Thousand Pound Club predicts the season 10:15 6 a.m. workouts and the multi-sport athlete philosophy 11:00 Why you never make athletes pick between sports 12:00 The four lifts inside the Thousand Pound Club 12:45 The plyometric box test and the freshman bench rep test 14:30 Standards in the transfer portal era 16:00 Leaders create clarity: the Jocko principle 17:00 Implementing the Gridiron Warrior Contact Prep course 19:30 Competition Thursdays and the off-season point system 20:30 Why a head coach has to give up control 22:00 Blending contact prep into the lift 24:00 The Summer Summit pitch and why it is hands-on 26:00 If I am bored, the kids are bored 27:30 No lines, no lectures 29:00 Why scheme matters less than coaching the details 30:00 The blocked punt that won the 2021 state title 32:30 Where to follow Randolph football 33:00 Eighth graders asking when do we get in the weight room 33:45 Outro --- CONNECT WITH COACH JOHN MARSHALL Instagram and Twitter: @RHSBlueDevilFB JOIN THE GRIDIRON WARRIOR INSIDERS The strength coach community for football coaches who want weekly Film Study, Wildcat Webinars, unreleased podcasts, and discounts on every course in the equipment room. 50+ coaches inside. [INSIDERS LINK] --- The Gridiron Warrior Podcast is the football strength and conditioning podcast for high school and college coaches. New episodes weekly. Real strength coach advice from coaches in the trenches. Keep the Fire Burning, Leech #FootballStrengthAndConditioning #StrengthCoach #FootballCoaches #HighSchoolFootball #StrengthAndConditioning

  8. Jun 2

    Gridiron Warrior Podcast - Chris Murdock

    The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | "Building a Football Culture from Scratch" with Coach Chris Murdock In this episode, I sit down with Chris Murdock, Head Football Coach at Billings Senior High School in Montana. Coach Murdock is the very first "Gridiron Warrior School," meaning he fully outsources his strength and conditioning programming to the Gridiron Warrior system. We dive deep into the logistics of running a high school weight room with limited space, time constraints (50-minute blocks!), and how to get buy-in from administration, other PE teachers, and parents. Chris shares how shifting from a "lifting weights" mindset to an "athletic development" mindset has transformed his program—from the middle school feeder system all the way to varsity Friday nights. If you are a head coach wearing too many hats (teacher, DC, husband, father), this episode is a blueprint for how to get elite S&C results without having to write every single workout yourself. 👇 Timestamps 00:00 – Intro: Train Heroic & Plyomat 03:03 – Who is Chris Murdock? Football in Billings, Montana 06:26 – Why Billings Senior became the first "Gridiron Warrior School" 08:05 – The "Head Coach Reality": Wearing too many hats 10:00 – Managing a crowded weight room (16 platforms, 50-minute classes) 12:15 – Implementing the "Zero Period" football class 14:30 – The shift from "lifting weights" to "athletic development" 17:00 – Using weight room drills to teach tackling & block destruction 19:30 – Logistics: How to run a warm-up and lift in a tight time window 23:30 – Using technology (Projectors & Train Heroic) to streamline the flow 26:00 – Creating competition and leadership in the weight room 29:30 – The Middle School Feeder Program: Building the future 33:50 – The pitch to coaches: Why you should outsource your programming 37:20 – Why we coach: Relationships & the love of the game 39:10 – Where to find Billings Senior Football 40:24 – Join the Gridiron Warrior Insiders 🔗 Join the Gridiron Warrior Insiders Weekly film studies, live Q&As, unreleased podcasts, discounts, and a private community of coaches leveling up together. 👉 ScottLeechTraining.com Keep the Fire Burning. 🔥

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About

Real-world football strength and conditioning for the coaches who do it all. Hosted by Scott Leech, Division 1 S&C coach at the University of Rhode Island. Each episode gives high school football coaches and strength coaches proven systems for the weight room, speed training, and game-day physicality. Blunt, practical lessons from a coach who lives it every day. Stop guessing. Start training with purpose.

Information

  • Creator
    Scott Leech | D1 Football Strength & Conditioning Coach
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Scott Leech Training All Rights Reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Gridiron Warrior Podcast

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