Nick Elicone is in his fifth season on the Illinois football strength staff in 2025 as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. Elicone came to the Illini after serving as the Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach at REEF Systems Corporation.
Elicone has helped elevate Illinois with a tough, smart, dependable brand of football during his first four seasons in Champaign. The Illini have 28 wins and 18 Big Ten victories over Elicone's four seasons, highlighted by a 10-win season in 2024 that tied Illinois' single-season record for wins. In 2024, Illinois was ranked by the CFP selection committee for a program-record four straight weeks, appeared in 12 AP Top 25 polls, and tied the program record for ranked wins with four. The Fighting Illini capped one of the best seasons in program history by beating #14 South Carolina in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, 21-17, in one of the top bowl game victories in Illinois history.
Elicone has helped bring the Fighting Illini program back to national relevance with continued appearances in the AP Top 25 and College Football Playoff rankings, two New Year’s Bowls, three national award finalists, and 11 NFL Draft picks since 2021. Illinois has had three national award finalists and seven top-100 draft picks since Yerry's arrival. Jer'Zhan Newton (2023, Nagurski), Chase Brown (2022, Doak), and Devon Witherspoon (2022, Thorpe) gave Illinois three finalists in National College Football Awards Association awards over a two-year span for the first time since 1994-95, while Illinois is one of five schools with three or more players drafted in the first three rounds in the 2023 and 2024 NFL Drafts, along with Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State.
At REEF Systems Corporation, Elicone was the Lead Strength Coach for 4-27 Field Artillery Battalion for the United States Army at Fort Bliss, the Strength and Conditioning Coach for 1/1 Ready First Brigade, and the Head Strength Coach for 2-3 Field Artillery Battalion for the United States Army at Fort Bliss. He designed programs and trained rehabilitating and injured soldiers to increase soldier readiness, as well as communicated program and weekly reports to Chain of Command and conducted educational classes daily for form and technique regarding ACFT equipment.
Elicone did internships at four FBS institutions before moving to REEF, including a one-year stint with the football program at Michigan from May 2018-May 2019. Elicone helped the Wolverines to a 10-3 record and co-Big Ten East Division championship at 8-1 in Big Ten play. He previously interned at South Carolina, Alabama, and Connecticut.
Elicone was a two-year football letterwinner at Westfield State after a three-sport career at Hanover High School in Hanover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Westfield State University with a degree in exercise science and sports psychology.
He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and professional member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Elicone and his wife, Katie, married in July 2025. They are expecting their first child in November 2025.
