Paul Jackson

Paul Jackson was named the Gamecocks’ Director of Football Strength and Conditioning on Dec. 17, 2019.

Jackson comes to Columbia following an eight-year stint as the head football strength and conditioning coach at Ole Miss, working for head coaches Hugh Freeze and Matt Luke. Under Jackson’s tenure in Oxford, the Rebels achieved four bowl appearances, including back-to-back New Year’s Six bowls in 2014 and 2015.

Jackson came to Oxford after spending 2011 at Southern Miss, where he oversaw the strength and conditioning for the entire USM athletics department with direct responsibility over football. In his one season there, the football team had its best record in history at 12-2 and captured the Conference USA championship.

Jackson arrived in Hattiesburg after serving in 2010 as the Director of Athletic Conditioning for Football at Miami (Ohio). In his lone season, he helped the Redhawks to the 2010 MAC championship and a victory in the 2011 GoDaddy.com Bowl, becoming the first team in NCAA history to go from double-digit losses to double-digit wins in one year (1-11 in 2009 to 10-4 in 2010).

From 2007-10, Jackson served as an assistant strength coach at LSU, working directly with the Tigers football and volleyball teams. During his time in Baton Rouge, Jackson won an SEC and national championship with the football team as well as three consecutive SEC Western Division and one SEC championship with the volleyball team. While working for the Tigers, Jackson worked under and was mentored by strength and conditioning legend Tommy Moffitt.

A native of White Plains, New York, Jackson got his start in the business as a Professional Intern Strength Coach with the NFL’s New York Giants. He also spent time as a Performance Enhancement Specialist at the Parisi Speed School in Garwood, New Jersey, where the focus is sport-specific speed and agility training as well as combine prep.

He is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength & Conditioning Association.

During his college days at Montclair State (N.J.), Jackson lettered in football, spending time at both fullback and linebacker. He earned a B.S. in physical education in 2006 and later received an M.S. in kinesiology from LSU in 2009.

He is married to the former Kristina Hull, who played softball at Georgia Tech and has been a Winter Olympic hopeful in the skeleton. The couple met when they were both on the strength and conditioning staff at LSU.