Jason Eck - Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach - Football Coaches

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

Jason Eck

Title:
Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach
Email:
Jason.Eck@sdstate.edu
Recruiting Area:
Wisconsin

Jason Eck, who was honored as 2019 recipient of the Football Championship Subdivision Assistant Coach of the Year Award by the American Football Coaches Association, enters his third season as offensive coordinator and is in his sixth season on the South Dakota State football coaching staff.

A 22-year veteran of collegiate coaching, Eck arrived in Brookings in 2016 as offensive line coach, a position he continues to hold. Following his first season, he was promoted to run game coordinator before taking the reins of the entire offense in 2019.

During his first season with the Jackrabbits, SDSU featured one of the most prolific offenses in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and the Football Championship Subdivision, posting averages of 33.2 points and 437.5 yards of total offense per game. In league contests, SDSU ranked second out of 10 teams in allowing only 11 total sacks and ranked first in five different offensive categories.

Under Eck’s guidance, junior center Jacob Ohnesorge earned first-team all-MVFC honors and also was a third-team All-America selection by HERO Sports in 2016. Left tackle Charlie Harmon received honorable mention all-MVFC recognition for the first of two consecutive seasons. SDSU again posted big offensive numbers in 2017, including setting single-season records for scoring (521 points), total offense (6,141 yards) and total offense per game (438.6 yards), the last of which had stood for 66 years (437.7 yards in 1951).

The Jackrabbits finished the 2017 campaign with a school-record 11 wins against three losses en route to a berth in the FCS semifinals for the first time in program history. Ohnesorge was a fixture on All-America teams in 2017 and also was honored as the FCS recipient of the Rimington Award as the top center in college football.

The upward offensive trend continued in 2018 as the Jackrabbits made their seventh consecutive appearance in the FCS playoffs and reached the national semifinals for the second year in a row. Once again, SDSU set single-season records for scoring average (42.5 points per game) and total offense per game (480.5), including an average of 231.7 yards per contest. Guard Tiano Pupungatoa was named to the FCS All-America Third Team by The Associated Press after earning first-team all-league honors, while tackle Evan Greeneway was an honorable mention all-MVFC performer.

SDSU returned to the FCS playoffs during a 2019 season in which the Jackrabbits featured a balanced offensive attack led by Walter Payton Award candidates Pierre Strong, Jr. and Cade Johnson that had nearly a 50-50 split between rushing (198.2 yards per game) and passing (195.7). The Jacks ranked in the upper half of the MVFC in nearly every offensive category, including fourth in scoring offense at 29.7 points per game.

The Jackrabbits further moved to a run-based offense during the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season, ranking seventh among FCS squads with an average of 231.7 rushing yards per game — the most by an SDSU squad in the Division I era. Strong again was a Walter Payton Award candidate after averaging 78.6 yards per game, while first-year running back Isaiah Davis was the other half of a potent 1-2 punch in earning Freshman All-America recognition after leading the team with 818 yards and 10 touchdowns.

In addition, dual-threat quarterback Mark Gronowski finished as runner-up for the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in the FCS ranks. and sophomore offensive tackle Garret Greenfield was a near-consensus All-America selection. Sophomore guard Mason McCormick also received All-America recognition.

Eck has coached at the collegiate level since 1999, including serving as run game coordinator and offensive line coach at Montana State in 2015. In his lone season with the Bobcats, Eck helped coach an offense that led the Football Championship Subdivision in yards per play (6.82) and ranked fourth in total offense with an average of 519.8 yards per game.

Joining the Jackrabbit coaching staff marked a return to the Midwest for Eck, who coached a record-setting offense at Minnesota State, Mankato during back-to-back Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championships in 2013 and 2014. He served as the offensive line coach in 2013 and added offensive coordinator duties in 2014 as the Mavericks advanced to the NCAA Division II championship game.

A 1999 graduate of Wisconsin, Eck played on the Badgers’ 1998 Big Ten championship team which went on to win the Rose Bowl. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Wisconsin under head coach Barry Alvarez and later moved on to Colorado. He also has served coaching stints at Idaho (2004-2006), Winona State (2007-08), Ball State (2009-10), Hampton (2011) and Western Illinois (2012).

Eck comes from a coaching family; his father, Jay, was a college basketball coach for more than 20 years, including head coaching stops at Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Toledo (Ohio).