BROOKINGS — “A lot of times the work that we do isn’t immediate,” Matt Jacobs, director of strength and conditioning for South Dakota State’s football team, said. “You know, we can put in the play and run it on Saturday and it might work and we can say, ‘Yeah, look what we did.’ I don’t get that luxury — my work takes years.” 

Five minutes older than his twin brother Sam, the two grew up in Parker. In the second grade, the brothers tragically lost their mother Jean to brain cancer. 

“My older brother, my Dad, and my grandparents were a huge part of my life. So, certainly, we never lacked guidance and help and family,” Jacobs said. “Obviously it was tough and it was devastating, but we were still OK.”  

Jacobs had played several sports throughout out high school, but found his passion somewhat by accident as a sophomore at SDSU while looking for an interview as an assignment for a class.

“I think I remember looking through the staff directory and saw strength and conditioning coach and I didn’t know what that was. It was the previous coach here, my first boss. And I called him up and asked if I could interview him. I didn’t even know where I was interviewing him and all of the sudden I see the weight room and I’m like, ‘So what do you do for a living?’ And I was hooked honestly,” Jacobs recalled.  

He began interning under Nate Moe, which soon grew into a GA position, working with several Jackrabbit sports from 2008 to 2010. From there, Jacobs would head north into enemy territory.

“I didn’t tell anyone this about where I was going,” Jacobs said. “I ended up interning at NDSU. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going, and I didn’t tell anyone where I was coming from when I got up there.” 

After a few months in Fargo, Jacobs was off to Western Carolina. And after just a few months there, his head strength coach Brad Ohrt accepted a job at Northern Illinois University, taking Jacobs along with him.

“My wife was looking at me like, ‘Is it always like this? We’re just going to move every four months?’” Jacobs said, his tone dubious. 

After six years at NIU, Jacobs was hired at Western Illinois as the director of strength and condition. Two years later, he was off to Temple University in Philadelphia, when the director of strength and conditioning position came open back at his alma mater.

“When the position came open, man, I called coach Rogers every day, I called coach Stig every day, I said, ‘Get me in there,’” Jacobs remembered. 

Jacob would return home in 2022.

“I think it’s really important to have a guy that really bleeds South Dakota State, he’s really passionate about that and he's passionate about the guys in which he coaches,” SDSU football head coach Jimmy Rogers said. 

“I meet with the coaches a lot, I meet with the players a lot and I meet with coach Rogers a lot about what are the key factors that we need. Then it’s my job to figure out the design of it,” Jacobs said.

No two designs are quite the same.

“If you’ve watched Jackrabbit football, our defense is very twitchy, very fast and very violent. So, I have to meet those needs at a baseline level. Our offense is very physical, is very structural, is very elusive on the edges, I have to meet those needs,” Jacobs said. “Some of those guys have to do both. My quarterbacks have to lift with the bigs and run with the skill and you gotta do it with a smile on your face and bring everyone with you. My bigs are in a five-yard fist fight every play. And then my wide receivers have to be elusive and fast and get vertical and horizontal and they have to get up in the air. So, yea, are we all playing football? Absolutely. But we’re all playing different games out there.”

Jacobs and his staff are also in charge of the team’s nutrition. And maybe most important, as they build the stature of these young men, the weight room is a time to reinforce the program's overarching culture as well. 

“The standard, the last play mentality and how we operate, the guys spend a lot of time down in our room, they spend a lot of time in their physical prep. So, we have to echo the words that are at the base level of our foundation,” Jacobs said. 

“I think he’s one of the best in the nation,” senior linebacker Adam Bock said. “Just from the program standpoint to the culture he’s built here, you can have one but having both of those things is really what you need in a college weight room. You need a great program, but you also need guys to buy in and I think he does a really great job at doing both of those things. He gets a lot of buy-in from the players because he truly cares about us.” 

“At SDSU I want to keep fighting for the moments and I want to keep seeing how good we can get,” Jacobs said. “I like the journey, I like to fight for the journey.”