Roundtable Discussion: Football
Rod Cole is entering his 12th season at the helm of the Athletic Performance program at Tarleton State University, as well as his 37th year of coaching, with 30 years at the college level and seven in the high school ranks. Cole came to Tarleton in 2009 after spending 15 years in the Big XII Conference. He spent 2008 as a strength and conditioning consultant with his own consulting business, Ever Stronger. Cole also served as the head football coach at BVCHEA High School in Bryan/College Station, a home school football team that finished the year 8-3. Cole remains involved in home school athletics in Stephenville by assisting with the Stephenville FAITH home school football, basketball and volleyball teams on which his children compete. He served as the director of football strength and performance at Texas A&M in 2007 after spending the previous 14 seasons as the director of strength and conditioning at Kansas State. Prior to being named the director at KSU, he served four months as the assistant strength coach under longtime New York Giants Strength and Conditioning Coach Jerry Palmieri. Cole received his Master Strength Coach certification in 2004 and was named the National Strength Coach of the Year by the Pro Football Strength Coaches Society in 1998. He is also a two-time recipient of the Big XII Conference Strength and Conditioning Professional of the Year Award (1997 and 1999). He has trained over 150 athletes who have gone on to perform in the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, CFL, international professional basketball leagues, or the Olympics. Some of the most notable athletes trained by Coach Cole are NFL players E.J. Speed, Darren Sproles, Jordy Nelson, Von Miller, Ryan Tannehill, and Terence Newman. Several of Cole’s former assistants are now serving at all levels of sport in the strength and conditioning field. Cole, who has worked with more than a dozen current and former NCAA Division I head football coaches as well as former NFL head coach Raheem Morris. He graduated from Bethany College in 1984 before receiving his master’s degree in sports administration from Wichita State in 1988. Cole and his wife, Stacey, have seven children - Aubrey, Kade, Kressyn, Shadd, Zane, Delaney and Charlsey - and six grandchildren.
