Watch: Pair of Kansas football players join 600-pound weightlifting club

It appears the tutelage of head strength and conditioning coach Matt Gildersleeve continues to pay off in a big way for the players on the Kansas football roster.

Today, two different KU linemen were able to each squat 600 pounds in front of their fellow teammates.

Redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Tommy Dunn Jr. was the first to pull off the impressive performance.

Dunn was a three-star recruit coming out of high school who played sparingly this past season for the Jayhawks. He recorded 9 total tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 0.5 sacks.

Dunn should have an opportunity to see a big jump in playing time this upcoming season after losing Sam Burt and Caleb Sampson to graduation and Lonnie Phelps to the NFL.

The other player to join the 600-pound club was offensive lineman De’Kedrick Sterns.

https://twitter.com/KU_Football/status/1673713177303842816?s=20

Like Dunn, Sterns is a redshirt sophomore who was a three-star recruit coming out of high school. He didn’t get any playing time this past season, but if he can show improvement on the practice field like he has in the weight room, that may change this upcoming season.

It was an incredibly impressive feat shown by each player and a good sign that Gildersleeve’s teachings are paying off.

Strength and conditioning were a huge emphasis for head coach Lance Leipold when he took over.

Too often in the past has KU looked overmatched physically when lining up against some of their Big 12 foes. Sometimes they’d start off strong, but then waver in the second half.

They need to be able to compete for all four quarters, and strength and conditioning is a critical part of that for players on both sides of the ball.

If the rest of the team is making the kind of gains that Sterns and Dunn showed today, that will only improve KU’s chances this fall.