Football
20210421_sdsu_football_practice_01120

Jeff Hecklinski

TitleOffensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
Phone594-7197
Emailsdsufootball@sdsu.edu
Jeff Hecklinski

Bio entering 2021 season

At San Diego State

  • Entering the second year of his second stint with the Aztec football program, Jeff Hecklinski serves as SDSU’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
  • Hecklinski has 22 years of collegiate coaching experience under his belt, including 12 seasons working with Aztec head coach Brady Hoke. He was previously on Hoke’s staff at Ball State (2004-08), San Diego State (2009-10) and Michigan (2011-14).
  • In Hecklinski’s first year as the Aztecs’ offensive coordinator in 2020, SDSU ranked second in the Mountain West in average time of possession (32:15) and finished third in rushing offense (199.4), the latter of which was good for 32nd nationally.
  • Individually, four Aztecs earned all-MW distinction on the offensive side of the ball last season, including first-team honoree Kyle Spalding (LT) and second-team selections Greg Bell (RB) and Zachary Thomas (RT), while Daniel Bellinger (TE) received honorable mention.
  • In his first tour of duty on The Mesa, Hecklinski was the Aztecs’ assistant head coach and mentored the running backs while serving as the program’s recruiting coordinator.
  • In 2010, Hecklinski was part of Hoke’s staff that helped SDSU make its first bowl game since 1998, as the Aztecs downed Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl, 35-14. That season, Hecklinski helped tutor running back Ronnie Hillman, who rushed for 1,532 yards and 17 touchdowns as a true freshman . Hillman was later 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.

Previous Coaching Experience

  • Hecklinski waa the assistant head coach at Michigan, serving as 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’s tutelage in 2013, Jeremy Gallon had a program-record 1,373 receiving yards and ranked 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.
  • During Hecklinski’s second year on the Ann Arbor campus 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.
  • Prior to his return to “America’s Finest City,” Hecklinski spent the 2019 campaign on Les Miles’ staff at Kansas, where he was the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.
  • Hecklinski arrived at 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.
  • Between his stops in Ann Arbor and Terre Haute, Hecklinski spent one year as the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Colorado State-Pueblo in 2015.
  • Hecklinski first joined forces with Hoke at Ball State in 2004, where he was the recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach until he headed to the West Coast with Hoke after the 2008 season.
  • While at Ball State, Hecklinski helped coach two of the most prolific players in Cardinal history in wideouts Dante Love, who ranked second in the country in 2007 in all-purpose yards (206.92), and Dante Ridgeway, who was an All-American and one of three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award in 2004.
  • 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.
  • Started his career as an assistant at Benedictine in 1998, and also spent two seasons at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas.

Education

  • Hecklinski earned his bachelor’s degree at Western Illinois in 1997, where he was a quarterback and threw for more than 5,980 yards to rank seventh in the school’s career record book after spending two seasons at Big Ten member Illinois.

Personal

  • Hecklinski and his wife, Tiffany, have a daughter, Riley, and two sons, Mikey and J.R.