Illinois women's tennis head coach Evan Clark announced the addition of Jacob Eddins to the Fighting Illini staff as an associate head coach on July 13, 2023. The 2024-25 campaign was Eddins' second with the Fighting Illini.

In two seasons with Eddins on staff, Illinois has earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids including a Second Round appearance in 2025. The Fighting Illini have posted a record of 32-23 overall and 16-8 in Big Ten play with Eddins on the staff. As a host of the 2025 and 2026 ITA National Team Indoor Championships, Illinois earned an automatic spot into the prestigious event field. Across the two seasons under Eddins, four different Illini doubles teams (two top-10 tandems) and three individuals have earned ITA national rankings.

In 2024-25, Illinois posted a 15-13 overall record including an 8-5 reading in Big Ten matches, and earned an at-large NCAA Team Tournament bid. Eddins and Clark combined to bring in the No. 16-ranked recruiting class, which included a blue-chip recruit. The staff saw two Illini earn Second Team All-Big Ten recognition (McKenna Schaefbauer, Megan Heuser) in addition to having a player named to the Big Ten’s inaugural All-Freshman Team (Ariel Madatali). Illinois closed out the season at No. 32 in the final ITA rankings, the squad’s best mark of the campaign.

In his first season at Illinois (2023-24), Eddins and Clark led the Illini to a 17-10 overall record, 8-3 mark in Big Ten matches, and an at-large NCAA Team Tournament bid. Illinois earned an upset of No. 23 UCF during ITA Kickoff Weekend and moved up to No. 24 in the first computerized rankings of the season – the best rank by the Illini since the 2019 campaign. Junior Megan Heuser was named to the Big Ten All-Conference team.

Illinois’ 2024 NCAA Team Tournament appearance marked the first of Eddins' career.

Eddins served as an assistant coach at WVU for three seasons before being promoted to the associate head coach role for his final season in Morgantown. In 2023, Eddins and the Mountaineers had a historic season, which included the program's highest ITA national ranking at No. 51, an 11-4 start during the spring slate, and the program's first-ever victory over Kansas State, which also marked the squad's first Big 12 victory since 2018.

Eddins helped WVU tennis improve in several aspects of the program. In 2019-20, he was a part of a West Virginia team that produced the best start to a women's tennis season since 1986. Eddins also aided in recruiting the highest-rated signing class in program history in 2020, which came in at No. 29 nationally in Tennis Recruiting Network's (TRN) annual list.
 
A native of Huntington, West Virginia, Eddins went to Morgantown after serving as the assistant coach at Auburn for one year (2018-19). During his season with the Tigers, Eddins helped guide the team to a 14-win season, in which they held a team-high national ranking of 25 and upset then-No. 13 Georgia Tech during the 2019 ITA Kickoff Weekend. Eddins also aided in Auburn securing the 15th-best recruiting class in the nation during the fall of 2018.

Prior to the 2018-19 season, he served as the associate head coach at Western Carolina, where he helped oversee one of the most successful stretches in WCU history that included a school-record win total in 2016.

Eddins' coaching career also includes stops at Pittsburgh, Cornell, and Marshall.

Before his time at Marshall, he was a two-time West Virginia high school state singles champion, as well as the doubles state champion his senior year. Eddins graduated from Marshall University in 2008 with a degree in business management and a minor in marketing.

He and his wife, Michaela Kissell-Eddins, have four children, Kylie, Gavin, Jayce, and Carter.

Last updated May 2025

Coaching Career