Intentionally making your weight fluctuate more than 5% either direction is extremely unhealthy over time. I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell you exactly why, but it's pretty univerally agreed that it's best to find a comfortable, healthy weight and maintain it.
Hawkins was that. Go look at his high school film on youtube, he was a lean rangy athletic guy that looked more like a DE or TE than an OT (he was listed at 6-6, 270; 6-6, 275; 6-6, 280; 6-7, 285 as a recruit by the four recruiting services. Compare to how they listed Pocic: 6-6, 280; 6-7, 280; 6-6, 285; 6-7, 285) Hawkins bulked up to 300+ at LSU and Pocic will too
Not to turn this into a health debate, but that's false. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a college kid putting on weight and then trimming the fat. If anything, they're actually healthier in the process I describe because they'll come out with a higher lean body mass and less adipose tissue than if they just get up to a certain weight and sit there.
LaRon Landry came into LSU at 180 lbs. hes now playing around 220. Have you seen Alan Faneca lately? Alans is due to his comdition, but the big guy has lost a ton of playing weight. Kids come out of high school, get into really working out and eating right, this is all done under supervision. Also on Faneca. he was the only OL to get the Touchdown Club of Houston POY. At age 15, began having seizures, which were later diagnosed as epilepsy.
I remember in the late 1970's when teams started fielding 300 pound linemen. Mississippi State was one of the first to average about 330 across the line. But our quick 260 pound defensive linemen just ran around them. Jerrry Stoval was the first LSU coach who started bulking guys up to 300+ but they were carrying a lot of flab. The first thing Bill Arnsparger told his LSU team was "I'm not used to being around fat people", and he started slimming them down. Some of these guys playing at 6-4 340 pounds are real porkers.
Hawkins was also a 4-sport athlete in high school. He's much more "athletic" than the typical 300 pounder coming out of high school.
Guess this former LSU player... His NFL playing weight was between 315-320, he now tops the scales at 235 lbs. http://blogs.post-gazette.com/component/content/article?id=30403
Great read Dad and something all players should take with them. I would love for him to address the LSU team periodically. He was a real special lineman. When he lft as a junior and K Faulk stayed I remeber wishing it was the other way around. No knock on Kevin but just saying how special Alan was.