HARRISONBURG — James Madison director of strength and conditioning John Williams said he is in the business of creating “football sociopaths.”

“I never really want weight-room warriors. I don’t need guys to come in and shatter numbers but then trip on the ground while running out to the field,” Williams said. “We build our sessions just like the structure of a practice.”

Today, JMU begins preseason camp in preparation for its Sept. 3 season opener against Morehead State, but for the last three months players were under Williams’ watch through a summer training program.

Williams — who had previous stops at South Carolina State, Kansas, Baylor, North Carolina and Oklahoma State before coming to Harrisonburg — said his training methods correlate as closely to the game of football as possible.

“I train according to the defense. My philosophies are built off of defense because the evolution of the game has changed,” Williams said. “There are more plays and very little power football — there is not a lot pro style because everything is spread. Spread is the trend. Those defensive guys will play anywhere from 70 to 90 snaps in a game.”

Whether players were running or lifting, Williams advised a high-volume approach. For instance, players didn’t lift their maximum weight, but instead had to complete a higher number of reps per set, at say, 85-percent without much recovery time between sets in order to improve both stamina and strength.

“Everything is about tempo and I train off of that energy system,” Williams said. “Once the defensive guys are ready for that through strength and cardiovascular, we’ve achieved our goals. The offense already has that.”

He said he believes this tactic parallels the sport.

Most importantly, Williams said, he returns the team to Houston without any injuries.

“You don’t want to be the guy to call the head coach to say ‘I lost [defensive end Andrew] Ankrah or [quarterback] Bryan [Schor] to a bench press,’” Williams said. “We go hard and I don’t show the caution on my face, but I’m constantly thinking about it. That Thursday afternoon that we had finished everything and walked away healthy, I finally could relax.”

Williams, who was hired in February, said the on-campus workouts began shortly after the spring semester ended in May and lasted until the final Thursday of July.

Williams said each of the workouts began with a team period where all players completed the same type of lift. Typically the first team period consisted of a core lifting exercise like the bench press, squat or power clean. Following the first team period, Williams had each position group disperse to work on position specific training drills. Once the individual period was finished, all players returned together to finish the session with a cardiovascular workout.

In the summer, Mondays were purposed to improve explosiveness. Tuesdays were designed for strength and conditioning while Thursdays consisted of training for better mobility, Willliams said.

Finally, Fridays concluded the week with a speed conscience workout.

Houston and Williams stayed in constant communication throughout the summer, Houston said

“[Williams] is the best hire that I made,” Houston said.

Defensive coordinator Bob Trott agreed.

“He’s got them primed,” Trott said.

Williams defines his method with the acronym “TTG,” which stands for “trained to go.” Williams had awards for his TTG top 20 and then all JMU players that passed the team’s final conditioning test earned a TTG T-shirt.

Williams said among his most improved players were running backs Khalid Abdullah and Cardon Johnson. The duo combined to rush for more than 2,000 yards last fall.

“When I first saw [Khalid Abdullah], I thought that he was already the stepson of Zeus, but as the summer continued, I saw his application and work ethic increase,” Williams said. “His body changed, too. He has zero fat on his body, is 215 pounds and runs like the wind. Then you go right beside him with Cardon [Johnson], who is just built like granite.”

Schor “trained like a linebacker” and tight end Jonathan Kloosterman emerged as the first ‘TTG’ player of the week, according to Williams.

Defensively, Ankrah enters training camp having elevated his weight to 250 pounds from 235 pounds, Williams said. Ankrah was named to the 2016 STATS FCS preseason Defensive Player of the Year watch list last week.