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More Than Muscle: Eric Donoval's Impact on Wyoming Football Goes Beyond the Weight Room
LARAMIE, Wyo. -- If you've watched a Wyoming football game, chances are you've seen Eric Donoval on the sidelines. He's usually wearing a black sweatshirt that says Wyoming Strength.
You might not notice everything he does during a game, but much of the work that goes into preparing the Cowboys for Saturdays starts with Donoval and his staff.
Donoval, Wyoming's Director of Sports Performance, has been with the program since 2018 and has led the Cowboys' strength and conditioning efforts since 2020.
His job is to make sure players are physically prepared for the demands of Division I football. But there's more to it than lifting weights, running and getting stronger.
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"When you boil sports performance down, we're in the service industry and this is a people business," Donoval told Pokes News during an exclusive interview.
Spend enough time talking with Wyoming football players, and you'll probably hear Donoval referred to as "Coach E."
We've heard players speak highly of him during interviews and seen the respect they show him on the sidelines.
Building that trust is one of the most important parts of his job.
"There's a conscious effort on our end to always take an approach of the human being first, the athlete second," Donoval said.
He wants his staff to know the players beyond football. That includes learning about their families, their backgrounds and what motivates them.
The players are expected to work hard, but Donoval can't simply demand their trust.
"We can only push them as far as they trust and respect us. So we've got to build that organically and authentically over time," he said.
Respect goes both ways. Donoval expects players to show up ready to work, and he believes his staff owes them the same commitment.
So, what does a typical week look like for the Cowboys?
During a normal Saturday-to-Saturday game week, Donoval and his staff put players through three lifting sessions.
Sunday is primarily a recovery day. Players work on mobility and upper-body strength before taking Monday off from lifting.
Tuesday is the big day.
Donoval calls it the "bread and butter" of the program. Players go through heavy lower-body strength and power training on the same day as their most demanding practice of the week.
By Thursday, the focus moves back to upper-body work, power and mobility. The idea is to have players ready to go when Saturday arrives.
"There's a progression to what we do throughout the week and everything kind of builds on itself to try to get these guys at as close to peak performance on Saturday as possible," Donoval said.
The offseason is a different story.
Players run five days a week and lift four days.
Donoval said the standards don't change just because the Cowboys aren't playing games. He still expects the same effort, attention to technique and commitment from his players.
What changes is how much work they're doing.
But Donoval and his staff can only do so much in the weight room.
What players do when they're away from the facility matters, too.
Donoval works closely with Wyoming Athletics Dietitian Kevin Goff to monitor players' weight, nutrition and recovery throughout the season.
If a player starts losing a significant amount of weight, it can be a sign that something isn't right. He might not be eating enough, recovering properly or maintaining the muscle mass he needs.
The staff also has access to apps that allow players to track their meals and nutritional intake.
And then there's sleep.
"I would almost classify sleep as part of nutrition. That's almost more important than what we do in the weight room, because all we do in the weight room is break your body down," he said.
Players can spend hours lifting weights and running, but that work won't do much good if their bodies aren't getting what they need to recover.
Donoval said sports performance, sports medicine and sports nutrition are three pillars of the same operation. Each has a role in keeping players healthy and getting them ready to play.
College football has changed quite a bit in recent years, and Donoval's job has changed with it.
The transfer portal, roster limits and more freshmen enrolling early have put additional pressure on strength and conditioning staffs to get young players ready sooner.
The five-in-five rule has also changed how programs approach player development, replacing the previous redshirt system. With the 105-player roster limit, teams have to think more about which players can contribute immediately.
The transfer portal adds another challenge. Players can leave, and new players can arrive with different levels of physical development.
This means Donoval and his staff have had to adjust how quickly they prepare younger players.
He spoke about early enrollees Grant Lott, Boogie Williams, Kendall Griffin and Jayden Williams as examples of players who arrived in January and immediately began preparing for the physical demands of college football. Building them up for chances to play early.
"We try to get them developed as fast as possible," Donoval said. "Our objective is to, if they have the skill set and an understanding of the playbook and the trust of the coaches, then let's get these guys physically ready as fast as possible to play as early as possible."
The challenge is getting those players ready without rushing their development to the point where it creates problems later.
Before coming to Wyoming, he spent eight years at LSU, where he worked with some of the biggest names in the sport.
He started as a graduate assistant in 2010 before becoming a full-time assistant strength and conditioning coach in 2013.
In 2018, Donoval came to Wyoming with Ben Iannacchione, a close friend and former LSU colleague.
The two had planned to work together running Wyoming's strength program for years.
That changed in 2020 when Iannacchione left to take the same position at Kansas.
Donoval had a decision to make. He chose to stay in Laramie.
Why?
"I love this place. I love our fans, the state, the support we have here and the athletes we have," Donoval said.
His time at LSU also gave him a mentor who continues to influence how he runs Wyoming's program.
When asked who had the biggest impact on his career, Donoval didn't need much time to think about it.
"Hands down, Tommy Moffitt," he said.
Moffitt, LSU's longtime strength and conditioning coach, gave Donoval his first opportunity as an intern in 2010.
That eventually led to a graduate assistant position and later a full-time job.
"I would not be anywhere near the seat I sit in right now, if it wasn't for him taking a shot, with me as a young intern back in 2010," Donoval said.
Moffitt taught him about strength and conditioning, but Donoval said he learned lots of valuable lessons from him.
He learned how to maintain standards, manage a program and treat people the right way.
Those are lessons he still carries with him at Wyoming.
Over the years, Donoval has worked with quite a few players who went on to the NFL.
How many?
He estimates approximately 70 NFL draft picks, including around 14 first-round selections, during his time at LSU and Wyoming.
Among them are Leonard Fournette, Odell Beckham Jr., Jamal Adams, Logan Wilson, Andrew Wingard, Chad Muma and Carl Granderson.
That's a pretty impressive list.
“I've learned more from them than they've probably learned from me," he said.
He recalled watching players such as Fournette and seeing how they approached their work, carried themselves and prepared for their careers.
"You see how professionals operate," he said.
What he’s learned gives Donoval firsthand lessons of what separates talented college football players from those who can make a career in the NFL.
And he has tried to pass those lessons along to the players he works with today.
With all the time Donoval spends around football, what does he do when he finally gets away from the facility?
Most of that time goes to his family.
Donoval and his wife, Lindsay, have a daughter, Marli, and he tries to spend as much of his free time with them as possible.
As for hobbies, football takes up most of his attention.
"The work itself is the hobby for me. I live and breathe this," he said.
He did admit there's one thing he used to enjoy doing outside of football.
Playing guitar.
"My wife would yell at me for turning the guitar amp up too loud right now," he joked with a laugh.
Donoval has spent nearly nine years at Wyoming and has worked with some of the biggest names in college football during his career.
He's helped prepare players for the NFL, watched young athletes develop into college starters and built relationships with Cowboys who have come through the program.
But when you listen to him talk about his job, it goes beyond football.
"Our objective here is for every athlete that walks into our department to leave a better man and to achieve the goals athletically that they have," Donoval said.
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