GC Yerry is in his sixth season on the Illinois football strength staff in 2026. He spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons as an assistant strength and conditioning coach, before being promoted into his current role as associate director of strength and conditioning prior to the 2023 season.
Yerry has helped elevate Illinois to new expectations in his first five seasons in Champaign, alongside head coach Bret Bielema. The Illini have 37 wins, 23 Big Ten victories, and bowl victories in the 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and 2025 Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl since Yerry's arrival in 2021. Illinois' success has continued to even greater heights over the last two seasons with 19 wins from 2024-25, setting the Illinois record for wins in a two-year period and achieving the first back-to-back 9+-win seasons in program history.
Yerry has helped Bielema set the Illinois records for wins in a season (10, 2024), bowl victories coached (3), bowl games coached (2), and wins in a head coach's first five seasons (37). Bielema is the first head coach in Illinois history to win bowl games in back-to-back seasons, as Illinois beat #14 South Carolina in the 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and #23 Tennessee in the 2025 Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl for the first two victories over SEC opponents in Illinois history. The lllini finished the 2024 season ranked #16 in the nation (AP/Coaches), then finished #25 in 2025 (Coaches).
The Fighting Illini program has enjoyed continued appearances in the AP Top 25, Coaches Polls, and College Football Playoff rankings, three bowl games, three national award finalists, 14 All-Americans, and 12 NFL Draft picks since Yerry's arrival. Illinois has had three national award finalists and seven top-100 draft picks during Yerry's tenure. Jer'Zhan Newton (2023, Nagurski), Chase Brown (2022, Doak), and Devon Witherspoon (2022, Thorpe) gave Illinois three finalists in National College Football Awards Association awards over a two-year span for the first time since 1994-95, while Illinois was one of five schools with three or more players drafted in the first three rounds in the 2023 and 2024 NFL Drafts, along with Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State.
Yerry came to Champaign after two years with the Army West Point football team's strength and conditioning staff.
Prior to Army, Yerry was the Director of Athletic Performance at his alma mater Stony Brook for three years (2016-18). While in that role, Yerry oversaw an assistant director and graduate assistant, while also designing and implementing all strength and conditioning programs for the Seawolves football team. He coordinated team and individual nutritional counseling for 118 collegiate football athletes in accordance with a nutrition performance coach. Yerry also worked closely with the athletic training staff to create modified training programs for injured athletes and implemented return-to-play protocol for post-surgical athletes.
Prior to being promoted to the director, Yerry spent one year as the assistant director (2015) and two years as a graduate assistant at Stony Brook (2013-14).
As a graduate assistant, Yerry focused on all components of strength training and conditioning for softball, men’s soccer, as well as men’s and women’s tennis. During that time, he oversaw baseball’s conditioning programming, while also assisting with football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, and volleyball.
After moving into the position of assistant director, Yerry’s responsibilities shifted to all aspects of strength training and conditioning for women’s basketball, men’s lacrosse, baseball, and volleyball, while also assisting with football.
He holds his certification as a CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist), as well as being accredited as a USAW Sport Performance Coach.
Yerry received varsity letters in baseball and basketball from Stony Brook, including a College World Series appearance in 2012. He earned two degrees from the university – a bachelor’s of science degree in health science in 2013 and a master’s of arts in liberal studies in 2015.
Yerry and his wife, Erika, married in 2021. They have two sons, Jaelen and Xavier, and one daughter, Aliyah.
