Jim Nowell Season 2025

Jim Nowell is in his second season on the strength and conditioning staff, as he came to LSU in August, 2000, from Madison (Miss.) Central High School. Nowell served for the past three years as Madison Central’s head strength coach and football defensive coordinator.

Nowell supervises the strength training of the nationally-renowned LSU baseball program, and he also works with the Fighting Tiger football and softball teams.

A 1990 graduate of Southern Mississippi, Nowell earned his master’s degree at William Carey College, in Hattiesburg, Miss., graduating in 1998 with a 4.0 gpa.

After his graduation from USM, Nowell served as secondary coach/teacher at Byram (Miss.) High School. He then spent two years at Clinton (Miss.) High School as head ninth grade coach and linebackers coach. Nowell spent the next year as secondary coach at Escambia High in Pensacola, Fla., and he returned to Mississippi the next year to serve as defensive coordinator at Collins High.

Nowell joined the staff at Madison Central High in August of 1997, serving as defensive coordinator, powerlifting coach, strength coach, and assistant athletic director. While at Madison Central, Nowell helped guide the football team to a 36-7 record, including a perfect 15-0 mark and a 5A state championship in 1999. He also led the powerlifting team to back-to-back state titles, and he was named Mississippi Strength Coach of the Year in May of 2000.

Nowell has coached three Mississippi state record-holders in powerlifting. His 2000 squad set a state record by scoring 62 points in the state meet, and seven of his lifters squatted over 600 pounds.

Nowell, 34, is married to the former Linda Vernamonti, and they have two children, Taylor (9) and Jordan (3).