Mel Tucker Adds Top Notch Strength and Conditioning Coach Jason Novak
A big hole in Michigan State’s staff that needed to be filled this offseason was the void left by the retirement of longtime Strength and Conditioning Coach Ken Mannie, who announced his retirement in February after 25 years with Michigan State.
Jason Novak, a former strength and conditioning coach at Central Michigan and with the Tennessee Titans, was named as Michigan State’s next head strength and conditioning coach, taking over the position under new head coach Mel Tucker.
"Jason is definitely a high-energy coach," said Tucker via press release. "He has an incredible amount of experience, both at the NFL and collegiate levels. He's a great teacher and motivator who develops his players. He's also on the cutting edge of training and analytics. I'm really excited for him to start working with our players."
Before joining Michigan State, Novak spent the 2019 season at IMG Academy in Florida as the head of physical conditioning.
Prior to his time at IMG Academy, Novak was the director of strength and conditioning at Central Michigan from 2015-19 and worked for the Titans from 2004-15 as the assistant strength and conditioning coach.
A graduate of Stephen F. Austin in 1998 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology and a Master’s in sport management from Baylor in 2000, Novak was the director of strength and conditioning at Yale from 2003-04 and at Alabama State from 2000-03.
Michigan State also announced the hiring of Scott Aligo as the football program’s new director of player personnel. Geoff Martzen, who was originally hired by Tucker in that role, will now be the program’s chief of staff.
Aligo was the director of player personnel at Akon in 2019 and also served in the same roles at Chattanooga (2017-18) and John Carroll (2016).
In addition to his time as the director of player personnel at the college level, Aligo was also a player personnel assistant for the Kansas City Chiefs from 2005-09 and with the Cleveland Browns from 2014-15.
"Scott has a really good eye for talent and is an excellent evaluator of players," said Tucker. "He has worked in both the NFL and college and has coaching experience as well. He also has strong Ohio ties from his previous positions."
Aligo also has experience in coaching as he coached at Oklahoma State as a quality control coach (2011) and at Texas A&M as a defensive graduate assistant (2012-14).
Martzen, who was originally hired as the director of player personnel, but was named chief of staff after the addition of Aligo, joins the Michigan State staff after spending a year after serving as the director of player personnel at Colorado in 2019 for Tucker’s lone year with the Buffaloes.
Martzen had two other stops in his career where he was the director of player personnel, at Colorado State from 2015-17 and at UCLA under Chip Kelly in 2018.
In addition to Aligo and Martzen, Michigan State also named Cody Cox as the Director of Football Operations, Darien Harris as the Director of Player Engagement and Lisa Ben-Chaim as the Director of On-Campus Recruiting.
Cox is entering his fourth year with the Michigan State football program, previously serving as the Director of Executive Football Operations in 2019 and the Football Operations and Camp Coordinator in 2017-18.
Harris, who played linebacker at Michigan State from 2011-15, will be in his first season as apart of the Michigan State staff after playing in the CFL and working as an analyst for the Big Ten Network.
Harris was a captain on Michigan State’s 2015 team that won the Big Ten Championship and advanced to the College Football Playoff. Harris’ 54 games played at Michigan State are tied for the most games played in Spartan football history.
The hiring of Ben-Chaim was announced on her personal Twitter account that she has accepted the position of Director of On-Campus Recruiting with the Spartan football program. Ben-Chaim previously worked at Arizona State under head coach Herm Edwards.
Stay tuned to Spartan Nation for all of the latest news on the Michigan State football program! The Spartans host the season opener on September 5, 2020, hosting Northwestern.
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