Brad Roll was one of three sons born to Bill and Antoinette Roll, who recently celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary. He was born in Houston, Texas, on July 4, 1958, and grew up there playing football and baseball and throwing the discus. Brad's interest in strength and conditioning began with his high school offensive line coach who really stressed basic weight lifting movements and techniques. This coach had developed an extremely effective year round strength and conditioning program at a time when most high school programs, and even collegiate programs, didn't have one.
Roll went on to play Center at the junior college and college level. He started at Blinn College and later transferred to Stephen F. Austin where he started every game and was a team captain both his junior and senior year. While at Stephen F. Austin, Brad became a graduate assistant and soon realized that no one was in charge of the off-season football program. Responsibilities for the program would simply rotate from coach to coach. Brad excelled at strength and conditioning, and soon he was given responsibility for overseeing the off-season program.
He received his Bachelor's Degree, followed by his Master's Degree, at Stephen F. Austin in 1980. He then left for Southwestern Louisiana to do post graduate work. There, Brad also worked as a graduate assistant with the football program, and again, there was not a full-time strength and conditioning coach on staff. Once again Brad took over the training program. Soon, the coaches of the school's other sports saw the improvements that the football team was making and asked Brad to work with their athletes. As a result, Coach Roll became the University's first full-time strength coach in 1983. By this time, the school's name had changed to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
Brad had great learning experiences during this time, including his first exposure to Olympic-style weightlifting when studying under Hall of Fame Coach Gayle Hatch. During the 15 years of BCS National Championships, Coach Hatch's proteges, using the "Hatch System of Strength & Conditioning," have won 9 BCS titles. Coach Gayle Hatch's program had a profound effect on Brad's future coaching endeavors. Coach Hatch said of Brad:
"I can't think of anyone who is more deserving of the "CSCCa Legend in the Field of Strength and Conditioning Award" than Brad Roll. His success is due as much to his moral character as it is to his knowledge in the field of strength and conditioning." - Coach Gayle Hatch
Coach Roll studied at the Moscow Sports Institute during the summers of 1985 and 1986, and in 1987 with the German Olympic weightlifting coaching and training staff in Leipzig.
Regarding his experience of studying in Europe, Coach Roll said:
"I learned all about Olympic-style lifting at the time, which was not done at any great level in the United States, with football players. I have always believed in that philosophy of speed, strength movements, trying to isolate the explosive parts of a player's body, like an Olympic lifter does, and making the movements sport-specific for football, taking some of the lifting patterns that are in Olympic-style lifting and putting it in a way where it's safe and you can put it in the program to train an American football player. I took these ideas from these guys and really, have stayed with them throughout my entire career."
Coach Roll left the University of Louisiana-Lafayette in 1987 for a position with the University of Kansas, working closely with the Jayhawks Men's Basketball Team, which won the 1988 Men's Basketball National Championship. Brad then moved to the University of Miami in 1989, where he stayed until 1992. During his tenure at Miami, he helped the Hurricanes capture two National Championships - in 1989 and 1991. In 1993, Coach Roll moved north and became the head strength and conditioning coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two seasons before returning to Miami, this time as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Miami Dolphins.
In 2004, he joined the Buffalo Bills' staff as head strength and conditioning coach for two seasons, followed by another two-year stint with the St. Louis Rams. From 2008-2011, Coach Roll was head strength and conditioning coach for the Oakland Raiders. Then, in 2012, he left the NFL and returned to the collegiate ranks for a brief stint with USC. In 2013 he took a position with the Cleveland Browns for a season. Coach Roll returned to the University of Miami as a consultant and was recently hired as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for football, where he is responsible for overseeing the Catapult GPS Sports Science System.
Over the years, Coach Roll has been influenced by many great coaches: Doc Kreis, Al Miller; and Tim Jorgensen, just to name a few. His many honors and accolades include serving on the Executive Committee of the NFL Coaches Association for 13 years; induction into the professional category of the USA Strength & Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame in 2003; and 2005 induction into the Stephen F. Austin State Ring of Honor. This Legend in the Field of Strength and Conditioning has 20 seasons in the NFL and over 33 years of coaching experience . . ., and is still counting!
