For most college football coaches, summer is the easiest time of the year.

Not so for Chris Dawson.

Kansas University’s first-year director of strength and conditioning awakens at 3:30 a.m. each morning and reports to Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center by 4.

Four days a week, Dawson and his staff put the Jayhawks through a 21/2-hour regimen of running and weightlifting. Players come in shifts with groups at 6 a.m., 8:30, 11 and 2 p.m.

“I don’t have any trouble sleeping at night,” Dawson said. “I assure you of that. If I’m here past 7, it’s late. By 8:30 or 9 I’m ready to shut it down.”

Not that he’s complaining. Dawson, 31, developed a passion for weight training at Oklahoma as a walk-on linebacker who earned a scholarship and played in two bowl games.

“I wasn’t good enough to not be in the weight room working hard, doing speed work and extra conditioning,” he said. “I wasn’t good enough to rely on God-given talent.”

Dawson characterized himself as an “intense” player. His approach isn’t different as a coach.

“I got the most out of my ability,” said Dawson, who played for Gary Gibbs at OU from 1991-94. “I did the most I could to develop it. I was an overachiever. I was average performance-wise. I did what I was coached to do because that’s all I was capable of, but I worked very hard at it. I have no regrets and feel like I got the most out of what I was given.”

Dawson hopes to inspire the same kind of effort from a KU team that was 2-10 last season and hasn’t had a winning season since 1995. Dawson was a graduate assistant in OU’s weight room that year when Kansas boomed the Sooners, 38-17, in front of 74,639 fans in Norman, Okla.

Kansas University football players gather at midfield before breaking into groups for position drills. The Jayhawks practiced in the early morning hours Thursday at Anschutz Sports Pavilion.

Times have changed

“It was a well-coached team with coach Mason here,” said Dawson, who was head strength coach for Glen Mason at Minnesota the last two years. “The perception declined quite a bit after that year.”

Kansas has endured two coaching changes and seven straight losing seasons since the Jayhawks were 10-2 in Mason’s penultimate season, 1995.

“You have to get them to set new expectations, new goals,” Dawson said. “I hate for them to put limits on themselves, but so often they do. Probably the biggest problem is they listen too much to what other people think. I want them to dream and think big, and we will. We’ll make a lot of big strides this year.”

Under NCAA rules, strength coaches are the only members of the staff allowed to work with players between the end of spring drills and the start of preseason practices.

“My responsibilities are 10-fold during the summer,” Dawson said. “The coaching staff can’t work with the guys, so I’m the guy that sees these kids every day.”

The Jayhawks aren’t complaining.

KU quarterback Bill Whittemore, left, and safety Zach Dyer wait for their rotations on exercise equipment. The pair lifted weights Thursday at the Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center.

“He’s awesome,” said sophomore linebacker Gabe Toomey, who transferred from Iowa Central Community College this summer. “Coach Dawson’s a great guy. He expects a lot out of you, which is good. He pushes you, but he’s a real positive guy who motivates you, too. He makes you want to work for him. He makes you realize it’s a team effort, and that’s really united the team.

“The atmosphere is really intense. You get a lot of work done in here. This is really where the success starts.”

Winding road

Dawson knows about success. He has also experienced his share of disappointment.

He saw his coach fired at OU after the 1994 season. Gibbs had a .656 winning percentage and never had a losing season in six years, but that wasn’t good enough for Sooner fans accustomed to the legendary Barry Switzer.

Dawson was a graduate assistant in OU’s weight room during coach Howard Schnellenberger’s “first and only year” in 1995 and was promoted to assistant strength coach under John Blake the following year.

Blake also got the boot after three losing seasons, but Dawson was still at his alma mater for coach Bob Stoops’ first two seasons — including the Sooners’ national championship run in 2000.

“Probably from the outside you go, ‘Holy cow. Boy, that’s bad,'” said Dawson, who worked with four head coaches and three head strength coaches at OU. “I saw the full spectrum. At the time, it was bad. But at the same time, there were a lot of good things that came out of it. I met more coaches and saw more different philosophies on how to coach kids — whether it be Xs and Os on the field or strength and conditioning — in that short amount of time without ever having to leave. That was a big deal. I was able to stay in school and get my master’s.”

One of the many coaches Dawson worked with at OU was assistant Mark Mangino, now head coach at Kansas.

XFL gamble

By the time Dawson left Oklahoma, he was head strength coach for the men’s basketball team and an assistant for football. He took a gamble on a new league, however, and accepted a job with the Las Vegas Outlaws of the XFL.

He stayed 12 weeks.

“I felt like I needed to get out of that situation,” he said.

Good thinking. Dawson bolted from the troubled league before Vegas ever played a game and was long gone before the XFL went belly up.

He spent a few months with former OU strength coach Joe Juraszek on his staff with the Dallas Cowboys before accepting an offer to be Mason’s head strength coach at Minnesota.

The well-traveled Dawson is KU’s third head strength coach in three years. Former Florida assistant Mark Smith spent only one year at Kansas before rejoining mentor Steve Spurrier on his staff with the Washington Redskins last winter.

¢ KU’s summer training starts early¢ Photo gallery¢ Audio clips¢ Andersons dedicate ‘awesome’ strength center (4-20-03)¢ Strength and conditioning center: KU offers sneak peek (2-19-03)¢ 6Sports video: Strength center to be completed by end of March (2-19-03)¢ 6Sports video: Bill Whittemore is the man for Jayhawks (7-18-03)

“I think the biggest thing they struggle with when you have that much turnover is their trust of a coach,” Dawson said. “I think more than anything, trust and consistency is important. In order for them to get the most out of the program you’re going to go in and set up and work with them in, they have to be able to trust you. If they don’t trust you, they’re not going to reach their maximum potential.”

Sitting in his office in the new Anderson Center, Dawson sounded like he might stick around a while.

“I love this conference,” he said. “I love college football. I have no problem staying in Lawrence. They could bury me here. I’ve had a great time in Lawrence. I like the university, and I really like the town.”

Fiance now here

His fiance, Lisa Barnes, moved from Minnesota and works as a trainer at Lawrence Athletic Club and also is a manager at JB Stouts Sports Bar and Grill.

“She stays busy,” he said, “much like myself.”

Dawson, who helped Minnesota reach the Music City Bowl last season, was named KU’s director of strength and conditioning Feb. 7. He left a former KU coach to come to the real thing.

“They both have very strong personalities,” Dawson said of Mason and Mangino. “A lot of people told me when I went to Minnesota, ‘Coach Mason is hard to work for.’ Of course, people say coach Mangino is very demanding. … I don’t have a problem with coach Mason or coach Mangino.

KU punter Curtis Ansel, center, hustles during a workout at Anschutz Sports Pavilion.

“What are they going to tell me, that I need to be here more hours than I already am? I don’t even look at it like that. I can’t remember a time when I counted hours. If you have a passion for what you’re doing, I don’t think anybody’s boss could have a problem with that.”

Dawson’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed by his new boss.

“Chris had done a phenomenal job of preparing our players for the 2003 season,” Mangino said. “His attention to detail and work ethic are exactly what you need to build a successful football program.”

Players report Aug. 3

Dawson’s work load will ease a bit when summer workouts end July 25. After a week off, players will report Aug. 3 and begin practicing the next day.

During preseason camp, players work out with the strength coaches twice a week. For most players, that number increases to three times a week during the season while red-shirt players go four days a week.

Dawson is confident the work will pay dividends.

“This group works harder than any group I’ve been around — be it Minnesota, Oklahoma or whatever,” he said. “That’s the first step in building a program. No doubt about it. We’ll be much improved.”