Dr. Tom Gormely shines a light on Colin Hurley's talents

On Friday, LSU landed a commitment from one of the nation’s best quarterback prospects when Florida’s Colin Hurley shut down his recruitment and got on board with the Tigers.

Hurley also revealed his decision to reclassify from the 2025 class into the 2024 class, meaning next season will be his final year of high school football at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Fla.

Dr. Tom Gormely, who has worked closely with Hurley since he was 10 years old, shared the following with On3 and The Bengal Tiger about what LSU is getting in Hurley.

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Tom Gormely is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, ABPTS Board-Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist, and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. His career has spanned the spectrum of sports performance; working as a physical therapist, a strength and conditioning coach and a skill acquisition coach. Tom is a licensed physical therapist with a background in baseball, quarterback training, and high-level sports performance. 

He has served as a strength coach, therapist, consultant, presenter, and educator for athletes from the MLB, MiLB, NFL, NFL Combine, USOC, NCAA, Crossfit Games and USA Powerlifting. He has collaborated and consulted with multiple professional and NCAA teams on performance program design, injury risk reduction, throwing performance development and biomechanics. He currently works both in person, and remotely, with MLB, MiLB, and NFL QB training clientele.

Dr. Tom Gormely, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS 

Director of Sports Performance & Science Director of Sports Medicine 

This document is on behalf of Colin Hurley as it pertains to my words, beliefs, and descriptions on what makes 1. Colin Hurley Talented as a Quarterback, 2. My history and relationship with Colin Hurley, and 3. What I believe Colin Hurley brings to a football team, including that of LSU. The information in this document must not be altered, materially changed, or used out of full context without first asking for editorial consent from Dr. Tom Gormely. 

Intro

I have come to know Colin Hurley over the past 4+ years as the one who handles his sports performance, skill acquisition, skill development, re/pre-hab, and throwing progression/development. Colin has consistently trained with me 3-5x weekly over the past 4 years without ever missing extended training time, and for that matter missing even a training session. Along with his training demands he has also demonstrated a consistently high work ethic in school, attention to detail with his nutritional programming, and focus on his recovery modalities. For all intents and purposes, Colin has treated himself like a professional athlete from the time he was essentially 11 or 12 years old. This is with great guidance from his family and support from both his mother and father; and with that support it has allowed myself a great deal of freedom and autonomy to challenge Colin at the highest level. Unlike other youth and high school athletes, Colin has had the ability to grow and develop around our professional cohort. We train dozens of NFL QBs, Professional Baseball Players, and NCAA QBs and NCAA Baseball Players yearly. Colin has grown up around professional athletes and the competitive environment in which he has been able to develop has served him well in not only the physical development of his body and throwing but also his ability to converse, lead, and interact with other alphas. I think it’s obvious through watching film and seeing Colin’s abilities as a quarterback that he has unique physical traits and capabilities. The real question is how did Colin develop himself into a physically mature and powerful athlete with such an advanced understanding of movement efficiency, arm speed, and throwing sequencing at a young age. I believe the answer to what makes Colin a special quarterback is multifactorial. If I was asked to pinpoint the main factors that make Colin a high-level thrower and dynamic quarterback I must first talk about his physical characteristics and traits but only in the context of his consistency and competitiveness. 

What makes Colin Special

Physically Colin can measure up with any athlete, let alone quarterback, in the country. At 15 years old he has an incredibly well rounded base of strength and power. However, over the past 2 years or so we have really challenged him to improve his power production, twitch, speed, and rotational velocity. For me, I get most excited at the way Colin approaches his development and the challenges of improvement. Colin trains alongside NFL QBs, NCAA QBs, MLB players, and other professional athletes daily. In our facility, due to the training tier Colin has developed in, he isn’t special and I say that in the best way possible. Colin is able to go toe to toe in effort, strength, power, speed, and competitiveness with our pro guys and he never backs down from a challenge. It’s hard to explain without someone experiencing the way he is able to lead a room full of 20+ year old professionals and garner their respect, challenge them, build professional banter, and physically compete against them. For example, Colin is in our pro athlete fantasy football league and just the other day he’s navigating trades during his training session with MLB players, albeit trying to fleece them in value in return. He’s incredibly smart, incredibly witty, fiercely competitive, and the guys love being around him, they love rooting for him and supporting him, and he garners their respect. If anyone knows anything about locker rooms, training rooms, or performance facilities the highest honor for a competitor and indication of an athlete’s work ethic is how well the guys like to banter with you, Colin definitely gets this fair share of the teasing but he can surely give it back too. Colin may only be 15 but the past 4 years of development, training, and attention to detail day in and day out has earned the respect of his peers, his competitors, and our professionals. Not to mention the kid can put up incredibly impressive strength and power numbers. 

Colin is not just coming into our facility to “workout”. Since 2020 Colin has been slotted directly into our comprehensive QB development system. Essentially since Colin was 13 he has had the same programming design and system tailored to his athlete profile that we use for MLB off-season, NFL off-season, NFL Combine prep. His programming consists of mobility work, stability work, plyometric rate of force acceptance and development, performance lifts tailored to QB specific planes of movement while also focusing on his athlete specific force-velocity profile, arm care routines, maintenance physical therapy, plyometric arm sequence and velocity routines, per and post throw programming, and game speed development. Colins training has always focused on training high level performance patterns first, and not just traditional lifts for muscles. 

Main Synopsis

Yes, Colin has been incredibly fortunate to have the ability to have his development structured alongside a professional model while also being pushed by athletes at the pinnacle of their sport. However, do not mistake this for luck, Colin has earned the ability to train and develop in this environment. His eagerness to learn new skills, develop those skills, master those skills, and then outperform others with those skills is paramount to his success on the field. Colin is detailed, diligent, consistent, and focused on improving himself mentally and physically in a way I’ve rarely seen in any athlete, especially not a high school kid. What makes Colin special is as much about who he is intrinsically, the value he places on himself, his ability to be resilient to stressors, his focus on making himself the best version of himself, his trust into me for a development system, his work ethic, his consistency, and his relentless pursuit of competitive greatness. Colin wants to be great at EVERYTHING: school, interviews, video games, basketball, fantasy football, back squats, sprints, and of course throwing a football. He wants to BEAT you at EVERYTHING. At the heart of Colin’s development, advanced skill set, strength, power, speed, ball velocity, and spin rate is a kid who has a unique personality trait of relentless focus on finding things he enjoys and then attacking improvement with a laser focus, until he beats you. 

Colin has a big arm, highly efficient hip shoulder sequencing, a fluid arm path and timing, impressive velocity, and natural power/athleticism. You can turn on any of his film or catch him live on Friday nights and see his talents on display; he has the ability to make every throw, he has an understanding of how to base throws with his hips and not just his feet, he has dynamic arm angles, and the feel for touch and throttle of different balls. Colin wants to beat you with his brain, understanding, and special arm talents; but don’t be mistaken to think he isn’t a good athlete. Colin can run, change directions, and take hits; but he often looks to be a pro-threat QB, using his ability to dynamically make plays with his feet while being able to expand time to make off-platform strikes down field. Physically and biomechanically Colin doesn’t leave much to be desired. He stacks right up there with our NCAA and NFL QBs in basically every metric including expansive 3D motion capture tracking technology on sequencing. Additionally, Colin has consistently performed in the biggest games, with the highest of expectations, dating all the way back to when he was 13 years old. He commands the respect of his teammates, holds them accountable, and leads by example on the diligence and consistency needed to perform at a high level. Athletes gravitate towards him, they WANT to play with him. Not to mention he carries a 4.0 GPA and is as impressive intellectually as he is physically on Friday nights. I guess that’s what leaders do and what recruiting staffs, GMs, and scouts are looking for as the ‘it’ factor. Somehow, with all of Colin’s training, practice, travel, media time, expectations, and demands; he is able to keep the game a game and have fun with it. His father and I marvel at his ability to stay calm, ALL THE TIME, he’s always the level headed one. Obviously, I am incredibly close to Colin and have forged a great relationship with him throughout the years; watching him grow and develop, while pushing him to excel at all aspects of physical development and QB skill acquisition. Yet, even after 4 or 5 years I am often left in awe of the way he handles football, school, and the pressures that come with being an elite QB prospect with such ease, class, and calmness. If you’re around Colin enough you genuinely have to sometimes stop and remind yourself that this guy is only 15 years old, he is that impressive of a PERSON not just football player. 

Colin will bring Baton Rouge and LSU a no nonsense, low-maintenance, and hard-working quarterback that has validated performance and throwing metrics which stack up with any NCAA quarterback in the nation and rival many NFL QBs. Colin is a leader, a self-starter, and an incredibly consistent worker. He is a simple kid with a tight knit group of support staff and friends; but does not shy away from the pressure of the extroverted requirements of the media and leadership positions. Colin is as good of a person as he is a football player and that is what makes him special. I am excited to continue to push his development and to watch him continue to be challenged both intellectually and cognitively, because Colin is a bright kid and has all the capacity needed to process complex and detailed information. I do think that the next phase of football growth will happen with the staff at LSU.