Indiana Strength Coach Derek Owings Takes Curt Cignetti Philosophy Into Weight Room

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Derek Owings, Indiana’s strength and conditioning coach for football, was once big into golf. The one-time tight end at Mercer was allegedly a long hitter off the tee, too.

“I can still hit it, you know, I just don’t get out there as much as I used to,” Owings told host Don Fischer during the Inside Indiana Football radio show Wednesday.

That’s because Owings is extremely devoted to his job. When he’s not working with Indiana’s football players to improve their bodies and health, he’s reading about what he can do to improve his own craft in the strength and conditioning business.

“I kind of just junky in my profession. Man, I’m always trying to learn, read, educate myself. I always feel like if I’m not improving, somebody’s outworking me. And I think everything that I learn, I can pour back into our student athletes. And that’s ultimately why I feel like I’m on this planet,” Owings said.

Owings relayed to Fischer that he’s always wanted to go into coaching. His passion for strength and conditioning was triggered when he was a player.

“When I was in high school, I thought I wanted to be a football coach. (Then) I fell in love with the process, the training,” Owings said. “I kind of flip from wanting to be a football coach to a strength coach, you know, train kids, develop them, understand how important health is during their career, but also life after football, teaching them what to eat, when to eat, why to eat, those things, proper training. And, you know, something I fell in love with, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

Owings has the kind of personality needed to devote himself to his profession. He’s all in, all of the time.

“I was an average athlete, maybe above average, but everything I did … I worked as hard as I could, you know, I was that kid that would, you know, bring my food scale into the cafeteria and I was measuring out foods like I knew what I wanted to do and kind of how to get there,” Owings said.

“I don’t want to say I was born to do this, but I got a kind of certain level of OCD and how I want things done, and how we’re going to run things,” Owings added.

Owings said his priorities in training are to train through a full range of motion, prioritize speed, joint integrity, joint health and nutrition. Owings said his mission is to build a foundation and it’s important that athletes work at a consistent tempo and with similar techniques.

“Unless there’s an orthopedic issue, nobody’s lift should look different. A squat should look the same. And we’re going to hold those kids to that every single day,” Owings said.

Owings is part of Indiana’s new staff of coaches under first-year head coach Curt Cignetti. He’s also one of seven coaches who worked under Cignetti at James Madison.

Obviously, Owings has Cignetti’s trust and was brought to Bloomington to help foster the culture that Cignetti wants to build. Few coaches work so directly with the athletes than the strength coach does, so Owings has had a crucial role in the transition.

What Owings likes about working with Cignetti is that once trust is established, Cignetti usually lets his assistant coaches carry on with their jobs.

“I think that’s my favorite part about (Cignetti). ‘Hey, this is what I want. These are my expectations. Now, go train them how you need to.’ And he does the same thing with the rest of the staff, too. He gives us a lot of ownership inside our department,” Owings said.

Like so many of the coaches who came with Cignetti, Owings projects confidence in what their system entails. Because of that, much of the onus for player improvement is put on to the shoulders of the player himself. Accountability is a big deal in the Indiana program, and that includes the weight room. Owings has a staff of four assistants who help keep everyone in line.

“Coach and myself are going to write a plan that’s going to be as good as anybody in the country can. We’re going to maximize your development,” Owings said.

“But when you’re outside of this building, what are your eating habits? What are your sleeping habits, what are your partying habits? What are you putting inside your body? And those are the kids that really want to buy in and be as good as they can be,” Owings added.