Dobson Named Nebraska Head Football Strength Coach

Nebraska Football Coach Bo Pelini announced Tuesday that James Dobson has been hired as the Huskers’ Head Football Strength Coach. Dobson is regarded as one of the top young strength coaches in the country after spending the past nine years as an assistant strength coach at the <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>University of Iowa.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

Dobson will oversee all aspects of the Huskers’ strength and conditioning efforts for football, including the winter conditioning program, summer workouts and in-season strength training. Nebraska will begin its winter conditioning program under Dobson’s direction on Jan. 21.

 

Dobson has been a part of the Hawkeye football program during one of the most successful periods in school history. Iowa appeared in bowl games in six of the past seven seasons and won 38 games from 2002 to 2005. Iowa won 25 Big Ten games in that same period, including Big Ten titles in both 2002 and 2004.

 

With the Hawkeye program, Dobson worked under Chris Doyle, who is regarded as one of the nation’s top strength coaches. Top pupils Dobson has worked with include safety Bob Sanders, tight end Dallas Clark, offensive tackle RobertGallery and linebacker Chad Greenway.

 

Sanders earned All-America honors at Iowa in 2003, and was the 2007 NFL Defensive Player of the Year with the Indianapolis Colts. Clark began his Hawkeye career as a walk-on linebacker, but moved to tight end and went on to earn All-America honors in 2002, before being a first-round draft pick. Gallery came to Iowa as a 240-pound tight end, and through the strength program, he left as a 320-pound offensive tackle, won the 2003 Outland Trophy and was the second overall selection in the 2004 draft. Greenway earned All-America honors as a senior in 2005, and was a first-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2006.

 

In addition to his experience at Iowa, Dobson worked for two years as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Southern Methodist, working with the football, volleyball and basketball teams.

 

Dobson attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he worked as a student assistant with the Badger football team for three seasons. He earned his B.S. degree in kinesiology from Wisconsin in 1996, and his masters of science and administration degree from Central Michigan in 2004.

 

A certified strength and conditioning specialist and a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, Dobson is a native of Mt. Horeb, Wis. He and his wife, Rebecca, have a son, Colton, and a daughter, Elise.