Former FSU DB helping Seminoles stay in shape during shutdown

Mikhal Kornegay played and coached for the Florida State football team. He was even a team captain during the 2006 season.

But he never expected to fill his current unofficial capacity.

Since embarking on a career in sports performance training about four years ago, Kornegay has worked with athletes from as young as 9 years all the way through 20-somethings in the NFL.

These days, one of his largest groups of clients includes current FSU football players who are living in Tallahassee but unable to train with the Seminoles' coaches because of coronavirus restrictions.

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Three times a week, Kornegay is putting players like Marvin Wilson, Amari Gainer and Raymond Woodie III through drills at various parks around Tallahassee. The workouts started a few weeks ago with just a couple of players.

"Then Woodie brought some DBs with him, and Amari brought some linebackers with him," Kornegay said. "I looked up one day, and everybody was out there."

Not "everybody" exactly, but a sizable group.

Because social distancing guidelines call for groups to be limited to 10 people, Kornegay said they are capping the workout sessions at nine players plus himself.

Sometimes, he'll work with the defensive backs as one segment and the linebackers and defensive linemen together. Other times, the groups will be mixed.

Because Kornegay does this type of training for a living, he can't work with the players for free due to NCAA rules. He charges them a group rate, as he would others. And so far, the former FSU defensive back says he has been highly impressed with the players' dedication and desire.

"They do a good job of holding each other accountable," Kornegay said. "If somebody's not there on time, they will call them up on FaceTime and get onto them. Or if somebody starts to slack off on a drill, they'll get on 'em. And it's not just one person, it's all of them. That's been really good to see."

Kornegay, who played his high school football at Madison County, was a special-teams standout for FSU in the mid-2000s. He later served as a graduate assistant coach and quality control assistant under Mickey Andrews and Mark Stoops before going on to be a full-time defensive backs coach at Tennessee State

While he hopes to get back into college coaching eventually, Kornegay has created steady work by training athletes across north Florida and south Georgia. The first FSU players he worked with were defensive backs Cyrus Fagan and A.J. Westbrook a few years ago, and he also trained Gainer when the linebacker was still in high school.

Woodie, who is going into his sophomore year at FSU, started working with Kornegay shortly after he moved to Tallahassee when he was still in high school.

"Everything we do is football specific," Kornegay said. "And some drills are position-specific. These guys know that technique is very important. When you get to this level, everybody is big and fast, or big and quick. if you don't know how to do things correctly out there on the field, at some point you're going to get exposed."

Along with just staying in shape, Kornegay said, the players spend a lot of time on improving their explosiveness and footwork. He tries to focus on the types of movements that will carry over into games.

While Kornegay's specialty is working with defensive backs -- he uses the moniker "DB Doctor" on his Twitter and Instagram accounts -- he credits the coaches he worked with at Florida State with helping him understand the needs of other positions as well. Along with Andrews and Stoops, Kornegay lists a long line of influences, including former head coach Jimbo Fisher and staffers like Kirby Smart, Terrell Buckley and D.J. Eliot.

Kornegay has known some of the Seminoles' current players for quite some time -- he actually tried to recruit Fagan when he was still on the Tennessee State staff -- but some others are brand-new faces. He also hasn't yet met the new FSU coaching staff.

But based on the enthusiasm he has seen from the players during these few weeks, Kornegay said it seems like things are trending in the right direction.

"The guys seem really excited about the way things are going," Kornegay said. "And I honestly haven't watched the team as much the last couple of years, so I didn't know what to expect from some of these guys. But the way they move ... it's impressive."

Along with his workouts on the grass, Kornegay said the players have told him they also have access to weights through teammates and friends.

"They're trying to make sure that once this pandemic is over, they'll be ready to go," he said.

Some of the other players participating in his workouts include defensive backs Renardo Green and Brendan Gant, defensive tackles Robert Cooper and Cory Durden, defensive ends Janarius Robinson, Jamarcus Chatman and Josh Griffis, and linebacker Kalen DeLoach.

Like all schools, coaches from FSU have sent voluntary workout plans to their players to follow on their own during the hiatus. So theoretically, they should be able to stay in shape without the help of personal trainers like Kornegay.

But if they aren't diligent about it, he said, it will be readily apparently when the players are allowed to return to campus.

"Just taking a week off is a big deal," Kornegay said. "I hope all of the kids have been putting in as much as work as these guys. These guys could have gone home and just called it a day. But they stayed here, they kept working, and they want to get better."

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Along with providing sport- and position-specific training for athletes, Mikhal Kornegay offers personal training services for clients who are not athletes. Call 850-321-0338 or email thedbdoctor@yahoo.com for more information.

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