☕️ S&C Daily — Bring Back the GA

October 22, 2026

The NCAA’s removal of the five-strength-coach limit in FBS football opens the door for bigger staffs. In a new Strength Coach Network post, Joe “Big House” Kenn asks what schools will do with it: develop better strength coaches, or just hire more people?

His answer is to rebuild graduate assistant programs. The GA spot used to give a young coach a master’s degree, a stipend and two years on the floor. Many of those spots disappeared at the top level as full-time jobs grew, and now young coaches often have to choose between grad school and unpaid internships. More than two decades ago at Arizona State, Kenn’s GAs got about $1,000 a month plus tuition and fees.

He also wants GAs working multiple sports, Division II and III experience judged on its own merits, and entry-level pay that matches what the job requires. “The strength and conditioning profession does not simply need more coaches,” he writes.

Athletes are showing more interest in GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, Science for Sport’s Eric Curry writes, citing a Washington Post report. The drugs were built for type 2 diabetes and obesity, but their appetite-suppressing effect raises questions in weight-class sports like boxing, MMA, wrestling and weightlifting.

WADA has monitored certain weight-loss drugs since 2024. In September it confirmed they’ll stay permitted in competition through 2027 while it studies misuse. In a recent study of sports medicine physicians, 12% said they knew of elite athletes using GLP-1s without a medical need. “Losing weight does not necessarily lead to improved athletic performance,” Curry writes.

Children who averaged 5,000 to more than 12,000 steps a day had fewer mental health symptoms than those under 5,000, according to a study shared by Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Symptoms kept dropping as step counts rose, with no apparent plateau, even at 12,000-plus. Brain scans also linked higher step counts to greater thickness in two regions of the cortex, the brain’s outer layer.

Patrick says daily movement deserves much more attention as a way to support kids’ mental health, especially since modern digital and urban environments offer little chance to move during the day.

Thomas Perry was turning heads in the Saskatchewan Roughriders locker room before he played a CFL down. The 23-year-old rookie offensive lineman is 6-foot-3 and 311 pounds, spent four seasons at Division III Middlebury and signed with the Riders on April 27. Quarterback Trevor Harris puts his squat at 700 pounds.

What Perry runs in season is simple. Strength and conditioning coach Dan Farthing has the group on two full-body sessions a week, the same setup Perry used in college. “He gives us two good full-body lifts a week,” Perry said. His aim is to push the weight “a little bit just to get the stimulus” without wearing himself down for football.

Harris said Perry is in the weight room at 6 a.m. lifting alongside him. “He’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever seen in my life,” Harris said.

Maryland dismissed head coach Mike Locksley during its bye week, four days after a 37-30 homecoming loss to Rutgers dropped the Terps to 2-5 and 0-4 in the Big Ten. Longtime assistant Aazaar Abdul-Rahim is set to be the interim head coach. It’s the first FBS head coaching change of the cycle.

George Mason broke ground on its Basketball and Academic Performance Center, a roughly 34,000-square-foot home for both basketball programs. It includes about 2,500 square feet of strength and conditioning space and 700 square feet of athletic training space, with completion expected in spring 2028.

Seattle Mariners

Seattle Mariners

Washington Nationals

Coastal Carolina University

Florida Polytechnic University

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