The average man is recommended to consume 2,500 calories in a day.

CMU offensive tackles Jake Olson and Rocky Weaver are not average men.

Last summer, in an attempt to gain the necessary weight to anchor the offensive line, Olson and Weaver’s calorie intake exceeded expectations.

“We were pushing 10,000 in the summer,” Weaver said. “There were times we’d go over 10,000-12,000 (calories in a day).”

Strength and conditioning coach Dave Lawson, who has closely monitored the duo’s entire weight gaining exhibition, said he would be happy if they consumed 5,000 calories per day.

But Weaver, now 270 pounds, and Olson, 280 pounds, took it upon themselves to get to a suitable weight. After graduating high school in 2007, Olson was a 6-feet, 8-inch, 224-pounder. Weaver, at 6 feet, 5 inches, weighed 220.

Upon the graduation of Andrew Hartline and Greg Wojt, the team’s two starting offensive tackles last season, coach Butch Jones needed to find replacements.

“When you’re putting together an offensive line, it starts at the tackle position,” he said. “People call them bookends, and they’re hard to find — they’re hard to come by.”

Olson and Weaver were pegged as the replacements once the 2008 season finished.

A light past

Jones saw potential in the two underclassmen. They showed him athleticism rare for the tackle position — but there was a problem. By the time the Motor City Bowl was over and the offseason arrived, his replacements failed to tip the scale past 255 pounds, well shy of the typical weight for any offensive tackle in Division-I football.

Weaver and Olson were asked to gain a lot of weight, and gain it quickly.

Olson delayed his enrollment after high school because of a knee injury in 2007 that forced him to move back home.

While Olson was pegged as a pass-protecting left tackle since his time at Hartford Union High School in Hartford, Wis., Weaver saw a different future. A wide receiver at Harper Creek High School in Battle Creek, Mich., the 6-feet, 5-inch, 220-pound Weaver was projected to play tight end at the college level. After gaining interest from schools around the Big Ten, his stock dropped, but Weaver found a home at Central Michigan.

After redshirting in 2007, Weaver was CMU’s starting tight end in 2008. Olson, who delayed his enrollment, redshirted last year.

Gaining weight

Weaver was asked to make the transition from a pass-catching tight end to right tackle after the bowl game.

“We looked at him and saw the size potential and thought that his athleticism he had at tight end would make him that much more attractive at the tackle position athletically,” Jones said.

With the graduation of Hartline and Wojt, Olson already had an idea of what was to come.

“I kind of knew it was coming,” he said. “They needed me to gain the weight to be ready for it.”

But before the coaching staff began to stress gaining weight to both individuals, Jones said he was enamored by their growth potential.

“Both of them obviously had the height that you look for,” he said. “You try to look at their waist, their necks, their traps, their shoulders. Kind of the their wing span. All those things that go and you try to look at how they’re going to (develop).

Lawson has monitored Olson and Weaver’s weight closely since the decision was made. In January, Weaver was up to 243 pounds and Olson weighed 255. Their weight was too light to man the desired positions.

“It’s a stress because the coaches need them at a certain point,” Lawson said. “If Jake still weighed 230 (pounds), our quarterback would probably be in a neck brace right now.”

An emphasis was put on making sure they put the weight on correctly in order to maintain their athleticism and remain healthy. Lawson said he wanted Olson and Weaver to put on between a pound and a pound-and-a-half per week. But in order for that to be healthy weight, agility and explosion drills — vertical jumps, broad jumps, change-of-direction drills, other running, etc. — were stressed.

“That way, the body adapts to that weight while still doing those movement things,” Lawson said. “The body can’t handle putting on 20 pounds without (those drills). Then you’re looking at injuries and other things.”

Snack time

But the main focus was packing calories into the body, something the two embraced.

“You snack all the time. When you get bored, you snack. You try to eat as much calories,” Weaver said. “I mean, we were putting cream cheese in between Pop-tarts. Waking up in the middle of the night and eating peanut butter and jelly, milk.”

Olson said he would prefer to avoid some of the foods in his previous diet.

“I can’t even eat peanut butter and jelly anymore,” he said.

Instead, Olson’s current favorite is the 89-cent burritos from Taco Bell. Weaver said he still enjoys Little Caesars Pizza.

And while Weaver said the duo tries to stay away from too much sugar, Olson said calorie intake is the key.

“When you’re gaining weight, you got to eat whatever you can,” he said.

That is something Lawson stressed from the beginning. He said a woman was brought in to attempt to monitor the amount of calories they burned during practice and workouts. She could not compute the calories players burned in the weight room alone.

“We play very fast-paced (and) our lifting mimics that,” Lawson said. “We don’t lift slow, where they do a set and then they sit down for five minutes. They’re doing an injury prevention exercise that’s a different body part, and then an abdominal or low-back exercise. Then they get back into their next set.”

Because excessive calories are being burned during workouts and practice, Lawson said he expects Olson and Weaver to consume as many calories as possible, sometimes regardless of nutritional value.

“There’s times I’ll tell them, ‘Don’t make McDonald’s breakfast, lunch and dinner, but go ahead, go at 8 o’clock at night and get yourself a double cheeseburger. Go ahead and eat an extra piece of pie.’”

But there are consequences to gaining weight. Olson said he cannot afford pants at a reasonable price anymore to fit his 42-inch waist.

“I don’t even know the last time I found jeans under $90,” he said.

And Weaver has difficulty finding the right size at all.

“My biggest problem is my waist is like a 38, but my legs will not fit a 38,” Weaver said. “So I wear like a 40, 42.”

Weight room

Their appetites also have to be high for training. Lawson said his training philosophy is mixed to hit different needs.

“We don’t just do Olympic lifts. We don’t just do high-intensity,” he said. “All forms come together. You got high-intensity, you got Olympic lifting. Certain bodybuilding things go into it.”

Although the training regimen is designed to put mass on the players’ bodies, other factors are heavily involved.

“Our philosophy, we’re more of a total athlete development,” Lawson said. “I got to worry about their speed, their quickness, their change of direction, their explosiveness, their injury prevention, their endurance,” Lawson said.

During the summer, Lawson would put a target weight in the middle of a sniper target or a bulls-eye. Every week, Olson and Weaver, among others, weighed in. If they made their weight, training stayed the same. But if they missed, they had consequences.

“If you’re under it, then you’re going to do a high-rep, high-volume bodybuilding workout,” Lawson said, “which none of them like to do.”

Olson said they do those workouts enough, and it was enough motivate to continue gaining mass.
“You won’t be able to move (after bodybuilding workouts),” he said.

Making progress

Maintaining weight has been a chore since the start of the season. Olson said he has not gained any weight since the start of the season. Weaver’s weight dropped five pounds.

“I can’t eat after games. Especially on Sundays after games, I just can’t eat,” Weaver said. “I mean, go out … go to Ponderosa. You only have two plates, when usually we go until four or five (plates).”

But Mondays, with no practice, serve as a big eating day. The offensive line also has a weekly tradition to dine together at a different restaurant each week.

Olson said he expects to put on more weight after the season. He hopes to be at least 300 pounds by next season.

“He’ll eventually probably get there (300 pounds) just because of his frame and his work ethic,” Lawson said.

And Jones said he is thankful for the sacrifice both individuals made to lock the foundation of his offensive line for a few years.

“To ask people to put weight on like that, it takes sacrifice,” he said. “And it may be waking up at three in the morning and making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I could never imagine eating that much. I just couldn’t. I kind of shake my head.”

E-mail the author: Andrew Stover