Everywhere his eyes take him in the Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center, Kansas University offensive lineman Scott Haverkamp sees something that makes all the grunting and groaning seem worthwhile.

“I just look around the weight room, and guys’ physiques are totally different than what they used to be,” Haverkamp said. “Offensive linemen, granted, are going to have a little bit of a waistline, but they’re starting to slim, starting to get broader shoulders. They’re starting to look more athletic.”

Haverkamp, a red-shirt freshman from Silver Lake, equally is floored by how some of those big bodies are moving these days.

“You’ll catch yourself looking in the mirror and just be like: ‘Wow, I can’t believe I just made that cut.’ Or, ‘I can’t believe how low my hips are getting on everything.’ A lot of people don’t realize how big a part of the game flexibility is.”

KU strength coach Chris Dawson, the drill sergeant in charge of Operation Jayhawk Iron, does.

Dawson also realizes how inflexible demands lead to greater strength, flexibility and quickness. Compassion isn’t in the equation.

“I call it convenience coaching,” Dawson said of letting sympathy seep into the weight room. “If that’s how we coached down here, we wouldn’t get very much out of the kids. If I coached when I wanted to coach, they would probably give effort when they want to give effort. That’s exactly how that would trickle down. So I don’t mind pushing them and watching them struggle.

Jake Cox, an offensive lineman from Marengo, Iowa, raises 360 pounds on his shoulders during his morning workout. KU strength coach Chris Dawson adds encouragement.

“If you’re consistent about how you coach, they’ll see results, they’ll trust you, and they’ll understand it’s not going to be easy.”

Tough love

Settling disputes as to whether a player who has lost count has done enough reps or needs one more are easy to settle.

“He’ll make you go back and do more,” Haverkamp said. “He’s going to get up in your ear if you’re not working as hard as you can. You don’t like somebody yelling at you sometimes, but he gets the most out of you.”

KU head coach Mark Mangino appreciates Dawson’s hard-driving ways that don’t drive away players.

“He’s very demanding, but the kids know he’s trying to make them better,” Mangino said. “They respect him and they like him and that’s not always the case with strength coaches. In a lot of situations, the players don’t want anything to do with the strength coach. They avoid him.”

A linebacker at Oklahoma from 1992 to ’94, Dawson learned under Joe Juraszek, formerly of Oklahoma and now with the Dallas Cowboys.

Dawson’s not a witch doctor who claims to have reinvented his profession with an assortment of trail-blazing theories and magic potions. He bypasses opportunities to self-promote by repeatedly reminding that if the athletes “didn’t have ability, they wouldn’t have been recruited.” His lack of self-promotion lends credibility to his words, and those aren’t weak on the topic of the Jayhawks and their improvement.

“I don’t have any doubt we’re stronger, we’re quicker, we’re more flexible,” than a year ago at this time, said Dawson, hired Feb., 2003. “Our physical attributes have been enhanced by the way these guys have worked.”

Five points

• 6Sports video: Jayhawks are favorites against FAU (09-01-05)
• Photo Gallery: Inside look at the 2005 Jayhawks
• Dawson making KU lean, mean (09-02-05)
• Mangino: KU can make run in North (09-02-05)
• Kream Keegan: Week 1

Strength, speed and flexibility are three of the five points of emphasis in Dawson’s iron empire. He lists nutrition and supplementation as the fourth, and conditioning as the fifth.

“Personally, I’m a big believer in eating well,” he said. “Eat well, and get proper rest. Most guys don’t need to be taking supplements. If we’ve got a guy who needs to gain weight, certainly there are things we can give him to up his calorie intake. But a lot of people confuse supplement and substitute. You’ll hear: ‘I’m taking this protein shake for breakfast.’ Wait a minute, that’s no longer a supplement. It’s a substitute.”

Asked who was the strongest Jayhawk, Dawson smiles. He knows most measure that by asking the question jocks have asked each other in high school since the beginning of time: How much do you bench?

“I’ve always found humor in it,” he said. “It is important that we bench press as far as upper-body strength, but as far as functional strength, if you’re on your back having to press a guy off of you, that’s probably not the best thing.”

Fine-tuning

The art of fine-tuning the human body with weights and stretching exercises has come a long way, but Dawson likes to give credit to his professional ancestors.

“It’s ever-evolving, but in a lot of ways, it brings a smile to my face,” he said. “The last five to 10 years, core stabilization has been the common term, and I always think about the old black-and-white photo from what appears to be the early 1900s with the guy wearing the Jack La Lanne-type jumpsuit, holding the med ball. “

The bulk of the body reshaping has been done, and maintenance is the key during the season. The fun part begins Saturday with the season opener, a 6 p.m. kickoff against Florida Atlantic at Memorial Stadium.

“It’s fun to see them rewarded for their efforts, things that they do that a lot of people don’t see,” Dawson said. “They’re jaw-dropping at times. It’s a heck of a commitment.”