Idaho football: Cooper hired as strength and conditioning coach

MOSCOW — Idaho football coach Thomas Ford Jr. announced the hire of Jamel Cooper as head strength and conditioning coach.

A veteran strength coach and former college football player, Cooper comes to Moscow from the Los Angeles Rams where he was an associate strength and conditioning coach for the past four years. He was on the staff for the 2022 Super Bowl 56 championship team and has experience from multiple FBS schools.

Prior to his time with the Rams, Cooper was the assistant strength and conditioning coach for football at Louisville for two years beginning in 2019.

Cooper came to Louisville from Wake Forest where he served as the senior coordinator of sports performance during 2017-18. He worked with all aspects of the football strength and conditioning program, including both in and off-season programming.

Prior to Wake Forest, Cooper spent two years (2015-17) working at Middle Tennessee State as the assistant strength and conditioning coach for football. Before getting into college athletics, he served as the head sports performance coach at Tidewater Sports Performance in Newport News, Va.

"Jamel is a guy who not only understands the science of strength and conditioning to a tee, but also how to motivate and build relationships with players," Ford said in a news release. "His time in the NFL has given him great perspective on how to implement a year-round program that will improve their performance as well as keep them healthy. He is a guy that will bring the juice every day and continue a culture of development in the weight room."

Cooper is a two-time graduate of Georgia Southern where he received a bachelor of science degree in exercise science and kinesiology in 2012 and a master of science in coaching education in 2018. He also spent two years as a running back for the Eagles.