For strength coach Kiero Small, it's all about details in setting foundation for Purdue football
Success is all about the little things. Just ask Purdue Director of Football Strength and Conditioning Kiero Small.
“Nothing is too small,” said Small. “Life is all about the details. Not just football.”
Like making your bed.
“No matter how your day goes, when you come back to that made bed that night, you’ll feel like you’ve accomplished something,” said Small.
Small has been busy this winter imparting lots of details to the football team as he puts them through conditioning. Spring football looms. And the new Boilermaker assistant has been, in football parlance, “grinding.”
Small belies his last name, packing well over 200 pounds on a 5-8 frame, an imposing presence as he strolls the cavernous weight room of the Kozuch Football Performance Complex. Heck, he’s almost as wide as he is tall, the perfect build to be a knock-’em-backward fullback. And, that’s exactly what he was in college and the NFL.
It’s Wednesday in February, an off day. But players buzz around a small city of squat racks, coming in voluntarily to do some soft-tissue work, as Small puts it.
“How you doing, Coach ‘Ro?’ said tight end Charlie Kenrich.
Small smiles and nods.
“That’s what everyone calls me,” said Small, a youthful 33-year-old who looks like he still could bang out 30 reps at 225 pounds on a nearby bench.
The affable Small is cultivating a nurturing environment. He wants his office–this weight room–to be a welcoming place. Players will be here a lot as Small helps first-year Purdue coach Ryan Walters mold his maiden squad. This is where Small preaches his gospel of iron.
“How your locker is,” said Small, “how you go about your business, I think that carries over to the game of football. It’s a very attention-based game. And the better we can practice that throughout our training, it’s huge.”
The strength coach is a key hire for any head coach. He’s the assistant who physically molds the team, while also shaping their minds. Some argue the strength and conditioning coach is the most important assistant.
“Everyone has an important role in this building,” said Small. “That’s why they are here. We do spend a lot of time with the players. I tell recruits on recruiting visits, you’ll spend more time with me and my staff than anybody on campus. So, I want to make sure that time is well spent.”
Plenty of bonding is going on now between the players, Small and his four assistants: Nate Rock, Austin Winfree, Greg Robinson and Myles Quimby. The message Small wants to send players?
“Be who you are capable of being,” he said. “Be able to repeat that every single day. We don’t expect them to be able to do it right now. But that’s what we’re working towards.
“Always being ‘a work in progress’ is up on the board in my office. It’s up on the board in (this conference room). And it’s just a reminder to our staff and our guys.”
And, sweat the details … like keeping the locker room clean.
“There are going to be days when you have a good day of practice or a bad day of practice,” said sixth-year senior offensive tackle Eric Miller. “Even on those bad days, when you go back to your locker and you see that it’s set up the right way, it’s clean, you can at least look at that and say ‘Hey, I got that one detail right today. I got something right and carry it over into the next day.’
“Attention to detail is very big for him. It’s not about how much weight can I throw on the bar. It’s to make this movement very controlled and look the way that he wants it to look, making sure that you’re focused on the little things. There is no detail too small from how you line your shoes up to where you put your water bottle down. So, it’s kind of going from the ground up.”
Small got his start in coaching at Arkansas, volunteering in 2016 in the weight room for Razorback strength coach Ben Herbert before becoming full-time in 2017. Small followed Herbert to Michigan, where Small worked the last five seasons. How did Small land at Purdue?
“Some people Coach Walters knew, some people I knew,” said Small. “We had conversations, talked about what he wanted the weight room to look like, things he believed in, things of that sort. We talked, just to get an understanding of who I am, who he is.”
Just like that, this native of Baltimore who played in the SEC found himself in West Lafayette helping Purdue build a better version of itself.
Small is the embodiment of making the most of what the good lord blessed you with. He boasts a barrel chest that would be the envy of any bouncer. It’s perfect for delivering devastating blocks as a fullback, which is what Small did for three dirt- and grass-stained seasons (2011-13) at Arkansas.
He earned every one of this 152 career rushing yards and four TDs in Fayetteville. And as a blocker, Small’s mantra was simple: See defender. Knock defender backward. Tape don’t lie. Just watch his YouTube highlights. And Small was even nifty enough to catch 20 passes with a TD for the Razorbacks.
His improbable story gets even better: Small was a seventh-round pick of the Seahawks in 2014, enjoying a cup-of-coffee career that also saw him on the roster of the Browns and Ravens. Now, Small looks to make his mark at Purdue.
“There are certain lessons you can learn in the game of football and in a weight room environment, in a training environment, that it’s hard to learn outside of,” said Small. “So when you can teach those lessons and learn those lessons through this game, it’s amazing.
“We tell the guys all the time, if you’re gonna come in and invest your time and energy, we want you to get a return on that investment.”
And it all starts by heeding the details.
