A former longtime NFL and NBA strength and conditioning coach, Jeff Fish returned to college football with the Rebels in 2023. He was in private business in the sports performance world for the previous half-decade after serving as the Director of Performance and Head of Strength and Conditioning for the NBA's Phoenix Suns from 2017-18. Previous to that, Fish ran his own elite performance facility and served as a consultant after spending nearly a decade in the NFL, working as the Director of Athletic Performance for the Atlanta Falcons from 2008-12 and the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the then-Oakland Raiders from 2004-07. Before returning to the professional level, Fish worked at the University of Missouri serving as Director of Strength & Conditioning for the Tiger athletics department from 2001-03. From 1998-2000, he was an assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs in his first NFL stint. Previous collegiate stops as a director came at Tulsa (1995-97) and Kent State (1994-95) after he was an assistant at Clemson from 1991-93. Fish, who has developed four of his assistants into head NFL strength coaches and three others who would be voted an NCAA Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year, holds the distinction of being the first Director of Performance named on both the NFL and NBA levels. The only NFL strength and conditioning coach to be a member of the NIKE advisory board from 2012-14, the native of Ithaca, New York, began his coaching career as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach at Western Michigan from 1989-91. A collegiate wide receiver at Western Carolina from 1986-88, Fish also played one season as a shortstop on the Catamount baseball squad. He earned his bachelor's degree in physical education from WCU in 1989 and his master of science in exercise science from Western Michigan in 1991.
