Byron Jerideau accepts job at Georgia Tech

South Carolina assistant strength and conditioning coach and former Gamecocks standout defensive tackle Byron Jerideau has accepted a job on Brent Key’s Georgia Tech staff as associate director of football strength and performance/accountability, GT announced Thursday.

Jerideau, who has spent the last two seasons at South Carolina under strength coach Luke Day, worked with new Georgia Tech director of football strength and performance A.J. Artis while they were both at Tennessee.

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Jerideau isn’t the only former Gamecock to join Artis’ Yellow Jacket staff.

Former South Carolina fullback and special teams standout Jordan Diaz has also been hired as Georgia Tech’s director of speed and associate director of football performance.

FROM GEORGIA TECH MEDIA RELATIONS:

Jerideau has an extensive background at the Power Five conference level to The Flats, having spent the past seven seasons at South Carolina (2016-17; 2020-22) and Tennessee (2018-19). In his most recent stint at South Carolina, he served as assistant director of sports performance. He was also dubbed the Gamecocks’ “director of accountability,” establishing a scoring system to track football student-athletes’ off-field performance each day.

At Tennessee, Jerideau served with Artis as an assistant director of football sports performance for two seasons. His two seasons at UT came after two seasons as an assistant strength and conditioning coach/recruiting assistant at South Carolina, where he worked with both the football and track and field teams, as well as participating in campus tours for incoming recruits.

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Jerideau was also with Artis for one year at Appalachian State (2015-16), serving as an assistant strength and conditioning coach and working directly with the Mountaineers’ football and cheerleading programs. Jerideau’s lone season at App State also included the Mountaineers’ historic Camellia Bowl win in 2015. He began his career in the strength-and-conditioning field with an internship at Houston for five months before departing for Appalachian State.

A standout defensive tackle as a player, Jerideau began his collegiate career at Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College, where he helped lead the Greyhounds to the 2009 National Junior College Athletic Association national championship game. He then transferred to South Carolina and earned three letters with the Gamecocks from 2010-12. He earned an invitation to the 2013 NFLPA Collegiate Bowl and signed a contract as an undrafted free agent with the San Diego Chargers later that year. He spent the 2013 season with the Chargers before embarking on his coaching career.

Jerideau earned a bachelor’s degree in criminology and criminal justice from South Carolina in 2012. He and his wife, Allie, have a daughter, Adalyn.

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Diaz joins Artis at Georgia Tech from USF, where he served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach under Artis in 2021 and 2022. With USF, his primary duties included overseeing the speed, agility and conditioning aspects of the Bulls’ football program and the use and analysis of the Catapult Sports monitoring system.

Diaz joined Artis at USF after three seasons at Arizona State, where he began as an assistant coach for football performance in 2018 and 2019 before being promoted to assistant head coach for football performance in 2020. At ASU, he worked with both front-seven and skill athletes, while also monitoring the football weight room nutrition and fueling station.

His experience also includes two years as a personal trainer in his native New Jersey (2016-18) and two years as an intern and graduate assistant in the strength and conditioning program at his alma mater, South Carolina.

Diaz was a fullback and key special teams contributor at South Carolina from 2012-14. He joined the Gamecocks as a walk-on in 2012, earned his first letter in 2013 and was awarded with a scholarship prior to his senior season in 2014. He graduated cum laude from South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science in 2014 and earned a master’s degree in human performance and nutrition with summa cum laude honors from Logan University in 2017.

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