BATON ROUGE – A leader in the sports nutrition field, Dr. Matt Frakes has been named LSU’s Assistant Athletic Director of Sports Nutrition, the school announced on Tuesday.
Frakes comes to LSU after spending the past season as the director of sports nutrition at Notre Dame. Prior to that, Frakes served a year as a sports dietitian at Louisville, working with several sports, including the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
In his role as Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Nutrition, Frakes will lead the LSU sports nutrition team, overseeing the strategic nutrition direction for all student-athletes on campus. He will serve as the director of football nutrition and will have oversight for LSU’s 20 other sports.
“It’s a tremendous honor to join the staff at LSU as the Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Nutrition,” Frakes said. “LSU is elite in everything it does, whether it is pursuing championships in competition, striving for excellence in academics, or being innovative in health and sports performance. We are aligned here to do great things in all areas, and I’m excited to be part of the forward-thinking at LSU and the opportunities that we are going to establish for our student-athletes that will allow them to grow in all aspects of their lives.”
While at Louisville, Frakes volunteered his time to co-lead the Black Coaches & Staff Association at Louisville and work with the SOAR (Strategically Organizing Against Racism) Committee.
Prior to moving to the commonwealth in 2020, Frakes finished his PhD in nutrition and hospitality management from the University of Mississippi. His research focused on the impact of nutrition and dietary intake on the recovery of sports-related concussions in student-athletes.
In his final year of his doctorate, Frakes spent a year as the associate director of athletic performance for sports nutrition education at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, where he led a staff of 13 to support the Ragin’ Cajuns student-athletes.
In 2017 Frakes began his collegiate athletic nutrition career when he was named the assistant sports dietitian and graduate instructor at the University of Mississippi. While in Oxford, he directed the nutrition education for the nationally recognized baseball program, cross country/track & field programs and golf programs.
Frakes brings multiple certifications with him to Baton Rouge, including being a registered dietitian-nutritionist (RD), a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a level one Anthropometrist (ISAK 1).
An active member in his profession, Frakes is a part of the Collegiate and Professional Dietetic Association (CPSDA) and the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and a mentor in the Diversity Dietetics Mentorship Program.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Frakes received his B.S. (Dietetics) and M.S. (Food and Nutrition) from Bowling Green State University in 2011 and 2014, respectively.