Boogie Huntley 'huge fan' of new team nutritionist Yimy Rodriguez
News broke earlier this week that South Carolina has hired former Chicago Cubs staffer Yimy Quepo Rodriguez as the football program’s new director of nutrition, replacing Kristin Coggin who left earlier this year to take the same role at Nebraska.
A day later, South Carolina redshirt junior defensive lineman Alex “Boogie” Huntley joined the Gamecock Central crew for an appearance on the Garnet Trust Hour on 107.5 The Game and gave the first public thoughts on Rodriguez and his style.
“I’m a huge fan, honestly,” Huntley said Thursday. “I love everything he has said to us. I love his nutritional beliefs, what he thinks we should do. I agree with everything. We had a meeting yesterday and it was around an hour meeting, me and him just talking about what my plans are, what I should be doing, what he thinks I shouldn’t be doing. And there wasn’t one thing he said the whole time where I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t like that.’ I’m telling you, everything he said, I have previously wanted to do or supported. So I’m super excited about this guy. I think he has huge plans. And I’m really, really excited to keep working with him.”
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Rodriguez, who previously served as Coordinator and Performance Dietitian for the Cubs and before that as lead Sports Dietitian at the University of Rochester, is already making an early impact as he meets with each player individually.
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“Teaching me about, what am I eating?” Huntley said. “Plate sizes, serving sizes. He was telling me he kind of likes to (measure) things that are by hand or like serving sizes, just so it’s easier for us. We don’t have to pull out our phone and be like, how much is one chicken, so it just makes everything a lot easier. And when you know things, it’s easier to do things (because) you know the purpose why you’re doing it. What’s this going to help me with? And so that’s what he’s kind of showing me and gonna show all the team. So I’m a huge fan.”
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Huntley, who has always been conscientious and deliberate about what he fuels himself with, says the plan is for Rodriguez to help each player to formulate nutrition path that fits his individual needs.
“I know everybody’s body is so different, some people work off certain things better than others do,” he said. “And I think with him our big goal that I told him is body composition. My weight’s good, everything’s good. It’s just, I want to keep toning in my body, I want to keep building muscle, losing fat. And he kind of gave me — he just sent me this morning — a great plan to do it. How many times I need to be eating. I’ll probably eat around six times a day. High protein. High, high protein. All these great things that I love, just teaching me more about foods.”
