Georgia Southern Athletics: James Heiss Tabbed New Leader of Eagle Football Strength & Conditioning

Georgia Southern Athletics and head coach Clay Helton announced this week that James Heiss has been named GSU’s new director of football strength & conditioning. Heiss spent the 2023 season as the associate director with Nebraska football and worked the previous four seasons at Buffalo.

“I am extremely excited to bring my family to Statesboro and to work with a storied football program,” Heiss said. “To be given the opportunity that Coach Helton and Mr. Benko have afforded me to come to be part of Eagles Nation is one I do not take lightly. With the help of everybody in the Georgia Southern University athletic department, I am eager to create further championship opportunities and positively impact the community and student-athletes. It’s time to get to work, and Hail Southern!”

In his time at Nebraska, Heiss oversaw the football strength & conditioning program in the absence of its head strength & conditioning coach. He led all weight room and on-field programming levels, designing, periodizing, and implementing year-round training. He was also responsible for the year-round training of all offensive and defensive linemen and assisted the coordinator of return to play with the return of acute injuries.

“We are thrilled to welcome James Heiss to the Georgia Southern Football family,” Helton said. “Coach Heiss is known for helping student-athletes reach their full potential in the weight room. With his time at Baylor and Nebraska he knows how to develop players at an elite level. We look forward to him taking our strength & conditioning program to new heights under his leadership.”

Heiss was the assistant director of strength and conditioning for football at Buffalo from 2019 to 2022. With the Bulls, he focused on the training and development of underclassmen and was also responsible for the return-to-play protocol for all injured student-athletes.

Before joining Buffalo, Heiss spent two seasons at Baylor in 2017 and 2018, working with Nebraska Head Football Strength & Conditioning Coach Corey Campbell on Matt Rhule’s staff. Heiss also specialized in player development at Baylor and trained more than a dozen future NFL players.

A certified strength & conditioning coach, Heiss began his career as a graduate assistant at Akron. He earned his master’s degree in sports science and administration from Akron in 2017. Heiss graduated with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he was also a football team member. Heiss was a two-year letterwinner with the Crimson Hawks, serving as a special teams captain. He began his collegiate career at Akron.

Heiss is a National Strength and Conditioning Association member and a Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association member.

He will be joined in Statesboro by his wife, Gretchen. The couple is expecting their first child in June.

The hiring is pending a successful background check.

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