Miami Names Three Staffers to Strength Staff
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami Athletics Department announced today the addition of Gus Felder, John Thomas and Kelin Johnson to the Hurricanes’ strength and conditioning staff.
In their new roles working with football at Miami, Felder will serve as the Director of Strength and Conditioning, Thomas will serve as an Associate Strength and Conditioning Coach and Johnson will move into the role of Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning.
Felder spent the past two seasons at Georgia, serving as the Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning. Prior to coaching in Athens, the Philadelphia native was the Director of Strength and Conditioning at Clark Atlanta.
Following a short stint with the Cleveland Browns, he began his coaching career in the high school ranks where he gained four years of coaching experience including one year as head coach at Simon Gratz High School (Philadelphia, Pa.) in 2004. In addition, Felder served two years as the strength and conditioning and assistant football coach at Cheyney University.
As a player, Felder starred at Penn State University from 1998-2002. In 2001, he earned All-Big Ten honors at left tackle and guard.
Thomas arrives in Coral Gables after he spent the past four years on head football coach Mark Richt’s staff at Georgia where he served as the Senior Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning. In his four years on the UGA staff, Thomas worked with 21 All-SEC players (eight first team) and had 15 players selected in the NFL draft.
Prior to his arrival in Athens, Thomas spent 20 years as the head football strength and conditioning coach at Penn State. In 2002, his efforts were recognized as he was selected as the 2002 Master of Strength and Conditioning. He also was chosen the 1997 National Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year.
During his tenure at Penn State, he coached 124 All-Big Ten players, 81 NFL draft picks, including 17 first rounders. A Muskingum College graduate, he started at defensive tackle for two years and at offensive guard for two seasons and was an All-Ohio Valley Athletic Conference first-team pick and a second-team Division II All-American.
Johnson comes to The U following two seasons at Georgia. In his first season in Athens, Johnson served as a defensive graduate assistant before moving on to serve as the team’s Associate Strength and Conditioning specialist during the 2015 season.
The Daytona Beach, Fla. native played safety for Georgia from 2004-07, appeared in 48 games and made 24 starts. In his senior season of 2007, Johnson served as UGA’s defensive captain and led the Bulldogs with four interceptions.
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