Don Decker is in his second year at Ole Miss as Head Football Strength & Conditioning Coach on Houston Nutt’s staff.

Before heading to Oxford, Decker was at Arkansas for 15 seasons, including the last 10 as the head strength and conditioning coach.  He served as assistant strength and conditioning coach for five years before being promoted.

In 2004, Decker earned the designation of master level strength coach by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association.  He is one of just 70 strength and conditioning coaches in the world to earn that honor.

In his first year as head strength and conditioning coach in 1998, the Razorbacks won a share of the SEC Western Division title and played in the Florida Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day.  It would be the first of eight bowl games under Decker’s watch.

He came to Arkansas from Kent State where he was head strength coach for football during the 1991 and 1992 seasons.  Before going to Kent he was a graduate assistant in the weight room at Arkansas.  He worked with the 1989 football Razorbacks, who won the Southwest Conference crown and played in the Cotton Bowl.  He earned a master’s degree in exercise science from Arkansas in 1991 before leaving for Kent.

Decker was a high school football standout at Perry High School in Masillon, Ohio, where he graduated in 1984.  He went to Evangel University where he was all-district, all-conference and an honorable mention All-American at quarterback.  He received his degree in physical education from Evangel in 1988.

Decker, 43, and his wife Stacey have been married 20 years.