Gamecocks officially hire strength coach from Ole Miss. Here’s what we know about him
On Monday afternoon, South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp said he was still working through the process of adding a new head strength and conditioning coach. But six hours earlier, the plan to approve that individual’s contract was already set on the agenda for the school’s board of trustees.
That name was Paul Jackson, formerly of Ole Miss, and he was officially approved for the job Tuesday afternoon.
“Paul has worked for and with a several people that I have a lot of respect for and he comes highly recommended,” Muschamp said in a statement. “He did an outstanding job on his interview and I’m excited to have Paul become part of our staff.”
Jackson will replace Jeff Dillman, who was one of Muschamp’s early hires after arriving in Columbia and had worked with him during his time at Florida. Dillman and the Gamecocks program parted ways the day after the 2019 season ended.
Jackson is set to earn $450,000 a year for two years, $300,000 in base salary and the rest in outside compensation. That would tie him for fifth-highest salary for SEC strength coaches. He will have a $100,000 buyout in Year 1 of his contract ($50,000 in the second year).
Tanner said Muschamp spoke to between 2-4 candidates before picking Jackson. Tanner spoke to his coach during the process, but didn’t play much of a role beyond a sounding board and talking finances.
Jackson spent eight years in Oxford, Mississippi, working first for Hugh Freeze and then for Matt Luke. He was a part of a program that rose extremely quickly on the back of powerhouse recruiting and then fell back after NCAA sanctions.
Before being on the Rebels staff, he had single-season stints with a 12-2 Southern Miss team and a MAC championship Miami (Ohio) squad.
Before that, he was an assistant strength coach at LSU.
One of Jackson’s primary tasks will be to get a handle on the run of injuries that has plagued South Carolina each of the past two seasons. In each year, the Gamecocks have lost more than 100 games to injuries.
Muschamp’s focus has always been soft tissue injuries, which primarily manifests in hamstring injuries. The coach publicly blamed the run of problems in 2018 on bad luck — as hamstrings accounted for relatively few of those injuries — and the team had an abnormally high number (around 15) of season-ending surgeries.
This past season, more of those hamstring issues popped up. Muschamp did not comment publicly on the situation surrounding Dillman’s departure, but on his final coaches TV show of the season, he did mention those soft-tissue questions.
“The disturbing thing for me this year ... we had more soft tissue injuries,” Muschamp said. “We haven’t had issues with that. A year ago, in my time at Florida, we’ve never had issues. And we did this year. And that was frustrating for me.
“You can’t have those.”
Beyond the issues of pure training, strength coaches are also relied upon to be a primary voice from the staff as they work with the players more often than any other coach. Energetic strength coaches are also often a key part of the recruiting process.
Jackson certainly appears energetic and has an active social media presence.
This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 10:08 AM.
