Indiana football director of athletic performance Derek Owings signed a new three-year contract over the weekend ESPN's Pete Thamel first reported the news.
Owings was the top target for the head strength and conditioning position at USC, according to CBS Sports’ and 247 Sports’ Matt Zenitz’s report but Owings ultimately decided to return to Indiana.
Earlier this week news broke that USC head coach Lincoln Riley had decided topart ways with veteran strength coach Bennie Wylie, who had previous stops at Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas before working with USC.
Owings is in his second season at Indiana as the program’s director of athletic performance, and his sixth working for head coach Curt Cignetti since joining his staff in 2020 at James Madison.
Cignetti attributed Owings for the team’s physicality and strength across the board, also their abilty to stay healthy for the majority of the season.
Before arriving at James Madison, Owings coached at Texas Tech University in 2019-20 and the University of Central Florida in 2018. He was a graduate assistant at Utah State University from 2016-18.
Owings has helped his programs to a 49-9 overall record in his five seasons and trained 23 All-America selections and 27 first-team all-conference picks per IU Athletics
"I think he's a big part of what we do," Cignetti told 247Sports back in February of last year. "That's why I do everything I can to keep him on the roster, pay him as well as I can, because he makes a difference. Fast, physical, fast, and physical, it starts down in that weight room with the development, the body development, of each and every guy. He's a winning edge. I think our guys are seeing that downstairs right now."
The Hoosiers ended the season with a 27-17 loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff. Indiana finished the 2024-25 season with an 11-2 (8-1 Big Ten) record, a program best.