Ronnie McKeefery is in his ninth season at USF. A former all-conference defensive back at Ottawa University, he earned bachelor's degrees in biology and physical education in 1997, while being named a two-time Academic All-American. He also earned a master's degree in adult education from the University of South Florida in 2004. He is currently working towards his PhD at USF.

After one year as coach at Ottawa, he made the switch to strength and conditioning, working first as an intern with the Kansas City Royals and then as a part-time assistant with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He also held the title of head strength coach for the Berlin Thunder in NFL Europe. McKeefery, who joined the USF program in 2000, is certified by both the NSCA and the CSCCA.

Ethan Reeve is in his seventh season at Wake Forest, coming from Ohio University in 2001 to guide the Demon Deacon strength and conditioning program. Reeve, who spent six years with the Bobcats, was a two-time All-American and four-time SEC champion wrestler at the University of Tennessee. He began his coaching career at his alma mater, serving as assistant coach/strength coach for wrestling for two years.

He also assisted with wrestling at Oklahoma State, Ohio and Clemson before serving as the head wrestling coach at Chattanooga from 1984 to 1990 where his teams won five Southern Conference titles. Reeve is certified through USA Weightlifting, Russian Kettlebell

Challenge and the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association.

He was the strength coach for the U.S. women's rowing team that won four gold medals and one silver medal in the 1995 World Championships. He returned to Ohio in 1995 to become the director of strength and conditioning, working closely with the football program. He also designed and oversaw the Carin Center, Ohio's athletic strength and conditioning facility.

Johnny Long, the youngest coach ever voted into the Louisiana Coaches Association Hall of Fame, enters his seventh season on the Tennessee staff as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach. The former Olympic-caliber weightlifter began as a graduate assistant for the UT conditioning staff in 1994, and then advanced to the position of Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach two years later. He was named associate coach in 1999 before taking his current post.

He now holds the title of "Certified Collegiate Mentor" for strength and conditioning coaches across the country. In January 2004, Long served as strength coach for the Las Vegas All-American Classic all-star game. Tennessee's emphasis on a strong fitness program is epitomized in Long, whose background in weight training underpinned his belief in the link between conditioning and athletics success. He is credited by head coach Phillip Fulmer with making physical fitness a basic component of Volunteers football.

Long, who graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1994, is a member of the NSCA, CSCCA the USWF and the AFCA.

Appalachian alumnus Jeff Dillman is in his third season as the head of Appalachian’s strength and conditioning program. Dillman came back to his alma mater after a three-year stint as assistant strength and conditioning coach at LSU. At LSU, he oversaw the strength and conditioning programs for the Tigers’ men’s and women’s basketball squads that both reached the Final Four in 2006.

Prior to his arrival at LSU, Dillman spent 18 months as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Louisiana-Monroe, where he worked with 10 of the Indians’ teams, including the top assistant to the school’s football strength program.

The Rockingham, N.C. native began his collegiate career at Elon, where he lettered twice on the gridiron before transferring to Appalachian, where he earned two more letters and was a member of the Mountaineers’ 1999 Southern Conference championship squad. He spent two years as a student assistant coach with both the strength and conditioning program and football team before earning a bachelor’s degree in 2001.

Ben Pollard joined the Mississippi State staff in January 2007. During that initial season, he helped groom the Bulldogs to their first winning season in seven years. Pollard, 46, came to the State program following three years as the head football strength and performance coach on the staff of head coach Dennis Francione at Texas A&M University. Pollard originally worked with Franchione at the University of Alabama as the director of strength and conditioning.

He followed Franchione to Alabama from Texas Christian University, where the two worked from 1998-2000. A veteran of more than 20 years working in the strength and conditioning field, Pollard began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant in the weight room at Texas Tech University. During his professional career in the weight room, he has earned the title of Master Strength Coach by the Collegiate Strength Coaches Association.