STARKVILLE — Mississippi State has come to a agreement with its new strength and conditioning coach.
The Bulldogs football program has hired Ohio State associate director for football strength and conditioning Rick Court.
An announcement by the school is expected today as Court is expected to arrive to the Starkville campus this week.
Court is in his 13th year working in the area of strength and conditioning after two seasons with the Buckeyes program under head football coach Urban Meyer. Court spent the spent the 2011-12 campaign as the football strength and conditioning coach at San Diego State. Court, who has four years of experience running a strength and conditioning department, helped the Aztecs to an 8-5 record and a berth in the New Orleans Bowl in 2011.
Prior to his position at SDSU, Court was the director of football strength and conditioning for two years at the University of Toledo (2009 and 2010) under current Illinois coach Tim Beckman. During his final season at Toledo, the Rockets went 8-5 on the gridiron and played in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.
Meyer, Beckman and Mullen were all on the same coaching staff together at Bowling Green from 2001-2002 where the Falcons were 17-6 in two seasons before Meyer took Mullen with him when he accepted the head coaching position at Utah.
Court played baseball at Michigan State, lettering two years as a catcher for the Spartans and serving as a team captain in 2001. He interned for one year with the Michigan State strength and conditioning program while pursuing his degree and worked with three Spartan programs, including football. He also interned in strength training with the Detroit Tigers after graduating from Michigan State with his degree in kinesiology in 2002.
Court takes over for the departing Matt Balis, who left the Bulldogs program Thursday to take a similar job at Connecticut. Balis, who had been the strength and conditioning coach under Mullen since he was hired as the head coach at MSU, has often been referred by Mullen as “the most important part of his program” and has called him “the best strength coach in the country.”
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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