• Strength coach instilling a new attitude in Baylor football workouts

    Kaz KazadiSince his hiring a year and a half ago, Baylor head football coach Art Briles has gotten plenty of credit for the team’s improvement — and rightly so, I think. Just as coaches get blamed when a team suffers, they should be applauded when a team wins.

    But that’s not to say there aren’t other people contributing mightily to the effort. For instance, there’s Baylor’s assistant athletic director for strength and conditioning, Kaz Kazadi. A former pro football player, Kazadi spent two years as a strength and conditioning coach with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and one year at South Florida before coming to Baylor prior to last season. He brought a new workout program and a new attitude to the team’s training, and the results showed on the field. “You can see what we’ve been able to do because of Kaz,” Briles told ESPN. “He’s done a great job of building our program. I wouldn’t trade him for anybody in the business.”

    (Of course, it helps to have a team leader as talented and as focused as quarterback Robert Griffin, recently named one of college football’s top 10 “workout warriors” by ESPN.)

    Sic ’em, Kaz, RG3 and Baylor football!