Why Georgia Tech coach Geoff Collins called Notre Dame strength coach Matt Balis a ‘beast’
College football coaching trees have roots that extend well beyond the average front yard. They’re all over the country. Notre Dame’s strength and conditioning coach Matt Balis is well aware. His roots run deep.
The Georgia Tech coaching staff has been heavily influenced by Balis, for instance.
Balis was the strength and conditioning coach at Mississippi State from 2009-13. Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins was the co-defensive coordinator there from 2011-12 and the defensive coordinator from 2013-14. He has two former support staffers from Starkville on his current staff in Atlanta.
Why? Largely because of Balis.
“Just a beast,” Collins said of Balis on the Inside the Garage podcast. “Just worked and loved the players and was relentless at every single thing he did. Every coach and player in the program said Matt Balis was one of the biggest reasons that we reached the heights that we reached.”
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Mississippi State was the No. 1 team in the country for much of the 2014 season. Of course, current Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott had much to do with that. But the Bulldogs were physical on both sides of the ball, and that stemmed from what Balis put them through in the weight room.
Notre Dame football
Current Georgia Tech strength and conditioning coach Lewis Caralla was Collins’ “get back” coach in his first year at Mississippi State. Essentially, he was a Balis disciple tasked with making sure Collins didn’t do anything excessive on the sidelines. He reported directly to Balis, his boss, on the daily. Now his own boss in the strength and conditioning department, he’s just as intense as Balis.
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Maybe even more so.
“You kind of see the exact same style with coach ‘Lew,'” former Notre Dame safety and current Georgia Tech safety KJ Wallace said. “He does all the workouts before us. He told me the other day he’s up at 2:30 in the morning. He gets to the facility at 3. Everybody is sleeping. Everybody is getting REM sleep at that point. He’s there doing the workouts.”
In Collins’ second year at Mississippi State, current Georgia Tech player development coach Chad Smith was Collins’ “get back” coach. He also reported directly to Balis at the time. Thomas Stallworth, the Atlanta Falcons’ head strength and conditioning coach, was also mentored by Balis at Mississippi State.
Balis has been at Notre Dame since 2017. He’s been largely credited for helping Notre Dame go from 4-8 in 2016 to 10-3 the very next year. When former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly left for LSU last year, Balis was a “glue guy.” He emphatically announced to the team he’d be staying in South Bend. Then he was the one to introduce Marcus Freeman as the Irish’s next head coach.
Balis is a fixture at Notre Dame. Given his ability to influence others, that’s no surprise.
