New strength coach Mark Hocke instills 'pirate mentality' in Gators program

When the Gators started phase one of their offseason program in January, new director of strength and conditioning Mark Hocke sent out a pirate flag GIF on Twitter.

Hocke also frequently uses the black flag emoji in his tweets, including on the team’s first day of phase two.

“Nobody’s safe,” Hocke posted Feb. 11. 

He wasn’t referring to his players.

That was the pirate in him talking, as were those emojis. 

“It’s a black flag mentality, right? Attack or be attacked,” Hocke explained to Gators Online. “I think that’s the biggest thing, you want to show up with that pirate mentality. We’re trying to pillage the village for gold. 

“You put that black flag up, that goes back to the old days of the pirates in the ships. It was kind of like, that’s a warning call. We’re coming.”

Hocke didn’t pick this up from Pirates of the Caribbean. He credits the origin of his black flag mentality to Florida coach Billy Napier, who worked with him at Alabama and Louisiana. 

 “That’s something coach Napier has come up with,” he said, “and we kind of ran with it.” 

The Gators did a ton of running and conditioning during the first two phases of Hocke’s offseason program. Napier called the first half of phase two the most difficult and challenging thing the players will do the entire year from a mental and physical toughness standpoint. 

Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson dodged that bullet, missing those workouts as he recovered from knee surgery.

“Honestly, I’m kind of glad I wasn’t a part of some of that stuff. Because, those runs that I saw them do, they did look kind of tough,” Richardson said. “It was kind of hard. I feel like it’s helped us because you see guys moving around quicker.”

That’s precisely the objective of the training, which differs from the previous strength staff according to Richardson. He said Hocke has put an emphasis on players being leaner and faster, not bigger. 

“He’s focused on your body a little more. For the last staff, they were trying to get us to bulk up and be a lot stronger. But, Coach Hocke, he wants us to be a faster team,” Richardson said. “Because you can’t really teach speed, but you can get guys’ bodies right so they can move a little faster. And that’s pretty much been their focus. 

“Just getting people right. Making sure they’re sleeping well, making sure they’re eating right. So just getting the body right and allowing us to move a lot quicker on the field. That’s been their main concern.” 

Mark Hocke’s training

Hocke’s goal is to structure his workouts so that the training is more difficult than the competition. Phase two consisted of 15 one-hour sessions, four days a week in the indoor practice facility.

“This is a demanding game, right? It’s a physical game. It’s a violent game,” Hocke said. “So getting under a heavy back-squat bar, that’s demanding, that’s adverse situations. Sprint-repeatability, right? The days of running miles and three hundreds are over. 

“We’re running 40-yard sprints, 20-yard sprints, repeatedly. 25 seconds, hurry-up offense. Can you strain your gut for four to five seconds, rest for 25 seconds with great body language, and then do it again over and over and over?”

Napier said one of the things he’s been most pleased with is how the players responded to the first two phases of the offseason program, and credited Hocke for having them in shape for spring ball.

“I feel like the performance group did a really good job with phase one and phase two. They were in condition and ready to go,” Napier said Tuesday. “They’ve completely bought in and we have had very little resistance. Very excited and certainly, I think that goes back to hiring really good people. Not only people that are experts at what they do, but also sincere, authentic people that care for the players.

“Mark fits into that category. He’s just a very genuine guy that cares for the players, they sense that. He’s also a great leader and we’ve hired a great staff around him, right? So, I felt phase one, phase two, we did about as good as you could expect for the first year. We got a little bit better every day and certainly I thought the same could be said for today.”

As the Gators continue to grow with each spring practice and offseason workout, so too will Hocke’s facial hair.

“We’re gonna try and get this pirate beard rolling for the season,” Hocke said, “and we’re gonna go try and get some gold this fall.”