Football Names Jeff Hecklinski Offensive Coordinator

SAN DIEGO – Jeff Hecklinski, who has 21 years of collegiate coaching experience, including 11 seasons working under San Diego State football head coach Brady Hoke, has been named offensive coordinator at SDSU, Hoke announced today. Hecklinski will also coach the Aztec quarterbacks.
 
Hecklinski was previously on Hoke's staff at Ball State (2004-08), San Diego State (2009-10) and Michigan (2011-14).
 
"It's been great to see Jeff grow as a coach from when I hired him at Ball State and coaching throughout the years with him," Hoke said. "He was a great asset when he was here the first time (2009-10) as a coach and a recruiter. I knew that if a situation came up I was going to hire him as an offensive coordinator."
 
Hecklinski served as the assistant head coach at Michigan, and was the recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach. In 2014, Hecklinski helped wide receiver Devin Funchess earn second-team all-Big Ten honors after leading the Wolverines with 62 catches for 733 yards and four touchdowns. Funchess was drafted in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers.
 
Under Hecklinski in 2013, Jeremy Gallon had a program-record 1,373 receiving yards, while ranking second in UM history with 89 receptions to go along with nine touchdowns. Gallon also had a reception in a school-record 39 consecutive games, breaking Braylon Edwards' previous mark. Gallon ended his Michigan career ranked third all-time in both receptions (173) and receiving yards (2,704), and tied for ninth in receiving touchdowns.
 
In 2012, Michigan averaged 383.1 yards per game, led by Gallon and Roy Roundtree. The duo combined for 80 catches, 1,409 yards and seven touchdowns. Gallon caught a then career-best nine passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the Outback Bowl, while Roundtree finished his career ranked sixth in UM history in career receptions (154) and receiving yards (2,304).
 
The Wolverines ranked third in the Big Ten in yards per game (404.7) in 2011 as five different receivers had multiple touchdown catches, led by Junior Hemingway (34 receptions, 688 yards and four touchdowns). Two of Hemingway's touchdowns came in the Sugar Bowl, where he was named MVP in Michigan's 23-20 overtime victory over Virginia Tech.
 
In his first stint at San Diego State in 2009-10, Hecklinski served as an assistant head coach, while coaching the running backs and serving as the recruiting coordinator. Hecklinski was part of Hoke's staff that helped SDSU make its first bowl game since 1998, downing Navy, 35-14, in the 2010 Poinsettia Bowl. Hecklinski helped mentor running back Ronnie Hillman, who rushed for 1,532 yards and 17 touchdowns as a true freshman in 2010. Hillman would go on to be named a first-team freshman All-America selection by FWAA and Phil Steele Magazine, the Mountain West Freshman of the Year and earn first-team all-MW honors. Hillman was drafted in the third round by the Denver Broncos in the 2012 NFL Draft.
 
At Ball State, Hecklinski was the wide receivers coach and the recruiting coordinator, where he helped coach two of the most prolific players in Cardinal history in wideouts Dante Love and Dante Ridgeway. Love ranked second in the country in 2007 in all-purpose yards (206.92), while Ridgeway was an All-American and one of three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award in 2004.
 
Hecklinski comes back to The Mesa after spending the 2019 season on Les Miles' staff at Kansas, where he was the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.
 
Hecklinski arrived to Kansas after spending the previous two seasons at Indiana State, where he served as both the offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator, while also overseeing the Sycamore quarterbacks. In his first year at Indiana State in 2017, Hecklinski had two players named all-Missouri Valley in tight end Jacquet McClendon and running back LeMonte Booker.
 
Prior to his time in Terre Haute, Hecklinski was the passing game coordinator and quarterback coach at Colorado State-Pueblo in 2015.
 
Hecklinski was the quarterbacks coach at Arizona in 2003, after two seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Central Missouri State, where he helped the team to the school's first-ever playoff appearance and bowl victory.
 
Hecklinski earned his bachelor's degree at Western Illinois in 1997, where he was a quarterback and threw for 5,980 yards to rank second in the school's career record book (now seventh), after transferring from Illinois following two seasons with the Illini. He played for the Arena Football League's Albany Firebirds in 1998.
 
He and his wife, Tiffany, have a daughter, Riley, and two sons, Mikey and J.R.