Yancy McKnight - Director of Strength and Conditioning - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Yancy McKnight

Title:
Director of Strength and Conditioning
Phone:
(515) 294-2815

Meet Yancy McKnight

Iowa State Strength and Conditioning

Yancy McKnight’s hard work as Iowa State’s strength and conditioning coach has been instrumental in helping Iowa State achieve three bowl games in his six seasons in Ames.

Now in his seventh season at Iowa State, McKnight has helped mentor seven Cyclones who have gone onto to play in a game in the NFL (Reggie Stephens, David Sims, Leonard Johnson, Kelechi Osemele, A.J. Klein, Jake Knott, Jeremiah George) and improved the strength and conditioning stature of the program by leaps and bounds.

In 2012, McKnight and Iowa State moved into its brand new Bergstrom Football Complex. The center piece of ISU’s state-of-the-art $20.6 million football center is the spacious weight training room, which features top-of-line equipment and 18 lifting stations in its 11,000-square foot space.

Besides Paul Rhoads, McKnight has worked under some of football’s most successful and innovative coaches, including Les Miles of LSU, Todd Graham of Arizona State and David Bailiff of Rice.

Other NFL players who got bigger, stronger and faster under McKnight include: Kevin Williams, Antonio Smith, Billy Bajema, Charlie Johnson, James Casey, Andrew Sendejo, Jarrett Dillard and Tramon Williams.

McKnight worked at Rice (2006-08) prior to his arrival at Iowa State. McKnight’s guidance in the weight room was credited by the players as a key component in the Owls’ magical run to a bowl game in 2006. In 2008, Rice posted one of its best seasons in school history, compiling a 10-3 mark, including a 38-14 win over Western Michigan in the Texas Bowl.

The 2006 Owls showed a level of endurance that allowed them to battle back and win three times on the last offensive play of the game, due in large part to McKnight’s conditioning and strength retention programs. Again in 2007, the Owls proved to be a formidable opponent throughout each game, winning a pair of games on their last possession. In 2008, the conditioning of the Rice players was key in the Owls’ drive to being named West Division co-champions of Conference USA.

McKnight is a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS), a certified strength and conditioning coach (SCCC), and a USA Weightlifting Level I certified coach.

McKnight was a Division II All-American on the offensive line at Missouri Southern, earning his degree from the school in 2001. He was inducted into the Missouri Southern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.

He is married to the former Lynn Karns and they are the parents of sons, Brody and Brock.