When James Madison restarts its football workouts, the Dukes will do so with a new strength coach.

On Tuesday, the school announced the hiring of Derek Owings as its director of strength and conditioning.

“Derek stood out in the interview process,” second-year JMU coach Curt Cignetti said in a statement, “and I know he is looking forward to playing a major role in our student athletes’ developmental process.”

Owings, who spent the last two seasons as the associate strength and conditioning coach with Texas Tech football, takes over for former JMU director of strength and conditioning Brian Phillips.

The Daily News-Record learned Phillips recently resigned from his position to move closer to home. Phillips is a native of East Bridgewater, Mass.

Prior to his stay with Texas Tech, Owings also had a stop at Central Florida as the assistant director of sports performance.

For Texas Tech, Owings trained wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, defensive backs and linebackers, and for UCF, he trained wide receivers, running backs, defensive backs and specialists.

“I’m excited and honored to join Coach Cignetti’s staff here at JMU,” Owings said. “They’ve had a lot of success, and I’m looking forward to developing our student athletes both on and off the field while being a part of a championship culture.”

JMU football workouts were paused late last month due to an uptick in coronavirus cases within the program, and the Dukes haven’t restarted since.