Jeff Madden as Vanderbilt Strength & Conditioning Coach

Dear Coach Lea:  

The undersigned former Vanderbilt University football players, coaches, trainers, managers, and/or cheerleaders support the consideration of Jeff "Mad Dog" Madden for positions in strength & conditioning and recruiting.  We believe Jeff has probably forgotten more about strength and conditioning than most people know.  We also believe “Mad Dog” can help close the deal with the parents of any recruit that Vanderbilt would like to sign.  

Jeff has been one of the most heralded coaches in the strength and conditioning profession for several decades at numerous major university athletic programs. His focus on football resulted from his outstanding playing career on the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. As a coach, he helped train over 300 National Football League players (including 34 first-round draft picks) and 50 Olympians at Rice, Colorado, North Carolina, and Texas universities. Two of the 30,000 athletes he has trained won Heisman trophies, four of his teams appeared in national championships, and two of them claimed victory.  

At this stage of his lengthy career, Jeff knows former college and professional football players all over the Country who have sons and grandsons currently being recruited by the football programs at major universities.  If their former mentor and strength coach, “Mad Dog,” is at Vanderbilt, then we believe Vanderbilt has a recruiting advantage for those sons and grandsons.  If parents or grandparents are hesitant to let their sons sign with Vanderbilt, no one could be better to close the deal than “Mad Dog.”  

Jeff has trained his entire life and achieved All-American status at St. Joseph's High School (where he was nick-named Mad Dog) and become a standout as tackle at Vanderbilt University. He then became strength and conditioning coach as a graduate assistant for football at the University of Cincinnati under Watson Brown. After playing for the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League, Jeff followed Brown to Rice University (1984-88), then moved on to the University of Colorado (1989-92) where he coordinated all fifteen Buffaloes' intercollegiate sports, coached Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Saalam, and helped the football team win three Big Eight championships and the 1990 national championship. At North Carolina (1993-98) under Mack Brown, Watson's younger brother, Madden coached 28 varsity sports with responsibility for 750 student-athletes. Following Mac Brown to the University of Texas in 1998, he helped guide the Longhorns football program to a 158-48 record over 16 seasons. His teams played in 14 bowl games, won the 2005 national championship, and produced Heisman trophy winner Ricky Williams in 1998 and runners-up Vince Young in 2005 and Colt McCoy in 2008. As overseer of 14 full-time and 10 part-time strength and conditioning coaches, he had no less an impact on other intercollegiate sports. During his tenure, Texas athletes won fourteen national titles in football, track and field, baseball, swimming, and golf.  

Mad Dog's style of coaching emphasizes speed and explosiveness rather than brute strength. Power cleans, split jerks, and snatches are essential components of his program. To imitate the high-powered fast-pace of contemporary football, he incorporates weight vests, pulling parachutes, pulling/pushing sleds, hills, bungee cords, sand pits, and over-speed downhill running. Madden also focuses on mental strength, matching his gruesome physical regimen with mental toughness.  

Among his many honors, Jeff Madden was named 2004 National Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by the Professional Football Strength and Conditioning Coaches Society and the 2005 College Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by Samson Equipment. He was also designated a Master Strength and Conditioning Coach (MSCC) in 2001 and served seven years as president of the Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches association (CSCCa).  

Jeff loves the Vanderbilt community for obvious reasons.  We believe he will be a great addition to the football program and Vanderbilt athletics in general.  We hope he will be considered with the same enthusiasm with which we endorse him.  

Anchor Down!  

Kenny Cole, on behalf of Vanderbilt Football Alums    Contact the author of the petition