AUBURN, Ala. — The Auburn football program has added strength and conditioning coaches Brandon Pringle, Anthony Lazard, Dennis Love, and Akeem Robinson to join strength and conditioning coach Jeff Pitman's staff, head coach Bryan Harsin announced Tuesday.
"One of the foundations of our program is the weight room and how we develop and build the players who will be on the field," Harsin said. "Coach Pitman has put together a staff that allows us to excel in the superior development area with each coach bringing different expertise and tools to the mix in order to increase our overall performance."
As the Associate Football Strength and Conditioning Coach, Pringle will oversee the multi-directional and speed training and programming for Auburn football. Additionally, he'll also work specifically with the quarterbacks, wide receivers and defensive backs. Love will handle the training of the linebackers, running backs and tight ends. Robinson will work specifically with the defensive line during lifting and training sessions, while Lazard will handle the specialists and assist with both the offensive and defensive lines and multi-directional and speed training.
"The group of coaches we have in the weight room are among the best in the country and will bring a varied skill set as we push the players to be at their very best physically," added Head Football Strength and Conditioning Coach Jeff Pitman. "The end product or output when we get on the field is a direct result of the input, or what we get done in the weight room process. Coach Pringle, Love, Lazard and Robinson understand that and will be ready every day to challenge the young men in our program to be better."
Brandon Pringle, Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach
Pringle joins Auburn from Boise State where he held a similar role since 2014. He was a member of Coach Bryan Harsin and Pitman's staff at Arkansas State in 2013 as a graduate assistant.
A former baseball player at Lindenwood University, Pringle was an assistant strength coach at his alma mater from 2010-12, working with a handful of other sports in addition to baseball. He also trained 16 different teams as a conditioning intern at Saint Louis University.
Before he joined Arkansas State, Pringle spent one year in Missouri's athletic department as a volunteer strength and conditioning coach, involved with Missouri baseball, football, softball, track & field, women's soccer, and women's tennis.
Dennis Love, Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach
Dennis Love comes to Auburn after a four-year stint as the associate director of football strength & conditioning at Purdue. Love spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons as an assistant strength & conditioning coach with the Denver Broncos, winning Super Bowl 50 in 2016. He was responsible for all aspects of the Broncos' quarterback annual performance training, working with Peyton Manning in his final season.
Prior to Denver, Love spent 11 years at Clemson (2004-14), including the final four as the director of Olympic sports strength & conditioning. During his time as director, he oversaw the strength & conditioning for all 14 Olympic sports while serving as the head strength coach for the baseball, men's soccer and women's volleyball teams.
Love got his start in collegiate athletics in 2002 at his alma mater, Catawba College, in Salisbury, North Carolina. He spent two years as the strength & conditioning coach with the Indians before moving on to Clemson. Prior to Catawba, Love worked at the Athletes Performance Institute in Tempe, Arizona, for one year as a performance specialist intern.
A two-sport athlete in football and baseball at Catawba, Love earned a bachelor's degree in recreation in 2000 and a master's degree in counselor education from Clemson in 2008.
Anthony Lazard, Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach
Anthony Lazard comes to Auburn after spending the 2020 season as the assistant director of football performance at Boise State.
He joins Boise State from Appalachian State, where he spent the 2019 season as the assistant athletic performance coach. While with the Mountaineers, Lazard assisted with all aspects of the football team's strength and conditioning program.
Prior to joining App State, Lazard spent time at Upper Iowa University, Central Methodist University, Houston and Colorado State.
Lazard played collegiately for Iowa State, where he was a second-team Academic All-Big 12 selection, in addition to earning scout team player of the year honors on both special teams (2016) and defense (2015). He earned a bachelor's degree in exercise science from ISU in 2016.
Akeem Robinson, Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach
Akeem Robinson joins the Auburn football program after serving as the head strength coach at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fla., for the last year and a half.
A native of Miami, Fla., Robinson previously spent six years at New Mexico State as an assistant strength coach and then director of Olympic sports. He has also served as the director of sports psychology for the Aggies since 2016.
Robinson earned his master's from the University of Missouri where he worked as a graduate assistant, working with football, cross country, and track and field performance training. Additionally, he helped with social responsibility initiative, "Men for Men," and was the Fellowship of Christian Athletes liaison for the strength staff.
During his undergrad, Robinson was a four-year letter winner for Tommy Bowden at Clemson University, and played in four bowl games.