McGovern carrying weight of Mizzou

Connor McGovern is strong.

Apologies if you've heard that before. You probably have. If you haven't, you'll hear it again and again this fall.

Because Connor McGovern is strong.

"The first time i ever did a Connor McGovern leg workout, I didn't talk to him for four days," teammate Evan Boehm said. "Because I thought I was going to throw up every time I walked."

It's hard to contextualize how strong McGovern is, for us mere mortals. Sure, he squatted 690 pounds five times - that's how Missouri finds maxes, because one-rep maxes can be more dangerous - breaking the record Jack Meiners set in 2009.

(McGovern's record is 810 pounds. That is his projected one-rep max.)

Those five reps added up to 3,450 pounds. That's a ton of weight. More, in fact. It's actually 1.725 tons. It's over 1,000 pounds more than the very masculine 2006 Toyota Scion xA, and just a little bit under when a hefty sportswriter is behind the wheel of said hatchback.

Six hundred and ninety pounds is 920 cold twelve-ounce beers, lifted all at once.

Connor McGovern is so strong he makes Evan Boehm sound like he's working on a dad bod. Boehm, Missouri's starting 315-pound center and a projected early-round NFL draft pick, knows that McGovern is strong. He's called him a "freak." While the times were admittedly dark after his first Connor McGovern leg workout, Boehm came out a better, if perhaps broken, man.

Because a Connor McGovern workout isn't some pretty-boy-curls-for-girls, wide-grip-bench-press, weekend-warrior-at-the-Planet-Fitness yawner. A Connor McGovern workout is a man's workout. It works the muscles that carry a team - legs, back, shoulders. A Connor McGovern leg workout is a half-a-workday-affair.

The aftermath is longer.

"We got there at nine," Boehm said. "And we got out of there at one. So, it takes a while, for sure. And then it takes a long time to get your legs back underneath you.

"Deadlift. Back squat. Front squat. A lot of reps. Heavy weight. Sled pulls. Sled pushes. Overhead squats. One-legged squats. Anything that can do with legs, Connor does it."

(Take a break if you need to. Hydrate. You may pull a muscle just from reading that list.)

Connor McGovern is a man who needs to have his full name written and said on each reference. He's Missouri's Paul Bunyan, with a support belt and a weight room as his axe and ox. But Connor McGovern is more than a workout warrior. He's Missouri's new projected left tackle, after moving from guard to right tackle and then back to guard again. So the power lifting, the team records off the field - those aren't important anymore.

Now, he has to keep Maty Mauk clean.

"I told him he needs to chill out a little bit," Missouri offensive line coach A.J. Ricker said. "What happened last year is he tried to bench, you know, 7,000-pounds, and he ended up straining his pec and missed a lot of time.

NOTE: Connor McGovern is strong, but he did not actually try to bench seven thousand pounds.

"He's plenty strong. He's that kind of guy who is into powerlifting and all that. But there's only a certain point of how strong you need to be. He's super strong. Now let's work on your quickness. But it's that whole power-lifter demeanor that he's got that sometimes I have to tell him to chill out."

Chill is something that Connor McGovern does not do easily. After he broke the team's squat record, he tore his shirt in half. And Boehm makes clear that, much like a Connor McGovern workout, there are no half-measures in a Connor McGovern shirt rip.

"He didn't cut like a little slit," Boehm said, motioning to his collar. "He didn't cheat. He ripped his shirt off of him. I was just sitting there like, 'Oh my God. I don't know if I could do that.'

"That was one of the most manly things I've seen Connor do."

Yet chill may be something McGovern has to do. He is admittedly a fan of the interior line, the bare-knuckle brawlers of the offensive line. Now, he moves to the edge, and the left edge at that, where blocking is at times more ballet, more of an art than the rough-and-tumble inside.

There's precedent for this sort of move at Missouri. Recent, in fact. Mitch Morse moved from center to guard to right tackle, and then to left tackle in 2014. He became a second-round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Mitch Morse is also strong.

"I think they're different players," Ricker said. "I think McGovern, kind of where Mitch was super-athletic, sometimes too athletic, his feet were too active - Connor is kind of a mauler guy. When he gets his hands on you, he's going to try to dump you. Not saying he's more nasty than Mitch, but he's just a different-style player, if that makes sense."

McGovern hasn't been able to talk to Morse yet about the transition, as Morse is in the throes of preseason training camp with the Chiefs - "He's a pretty busy guy," said McGovern. But recently, he picked the brain of another Missouri left tackle, Elvis Fisher, who started for Missouri for what seemed like eight years but was actually only four.

The basic message for McGovern? Technique, technique, technique.

"He just asked me, one-on-one, what things to work on, what to expect from tackle," Fisher said. "I didn't say too much enlightening stuff. I just told him, 'I don't think I've ever met anyone as strong as you are, so the one thing you have going for you is as soon as you get your hands on a guy, it's over.'

"All he has to worry about is his first two, three steps off the snap count and then body position. As long as he's got good body position on the defender, his sheer size and strength will overpower anybody he faces. Anybody he's going to face."

(And, yes, Fisher has also seen McGovern's squat video, and, yes, it's as intense as it sounds: "I think I need another knee surgery just from watching it," Fisher said. "He's strong as hell.")

"He's got to tone up some of his technique, but that's natural," Ricker said. "When you play a guard a lot, you know, he played a little bit of right tackle last year, but he's super athletic and strong. All he's got to do his get his hands on you. But we're just working on technique, and he's going against (Missouri defensive end) Charles Harris everyday, which is good. That's what you want."

Again, there are no half-measures for Connor McGovern. While his preference was guard, he wants to play every position to help the team. His coach said that left tackle is where McGovern can best accomplish that goal, so a left tackle is what Connor McGovern becomes.

"I've totally bought in to left tackle," McGovern said. "I enjoy it. It's something new to learn, so it gives me some extra stuff to do. It's not monotonous. I enjoy it out there. It's that position that every offensive lineman wants to play.

"It's the superstar offensive lineman. It's fun to get out there and play it. I've fully accepted that role."

McGovern has drawn everyone's praise with his play at the new position. If he does struggle, you might be wary of leveling any real criticism at McGovern. He could probably harm you.

Because, you know, Connor McGovern is strong.