GC Yerry is in his fifth season on the Illinois football strength staff in 2025. He spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons as an assistant strength and conditioning coach, before being promoted into his current role as associate director of strength and conditioning.
Yerry 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 Yerry'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.
Yerry 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.
Yerry helped Illinois to an 8-5 record in 2022, as the Fighting Illini returned to a January bowl game for the first time in 15 years in just head coach Bret Bielema's second season in Champaign. The Illini were ranked in the AP Top 25 for five straight weeks, reaching as high as No. 14, and were ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time in school history. Illinois led the nation in scoring defense (12.8) for the first time in program, led the nation and set a school record in interceptions (24), and ranked third in total defense (273.5).
Yerry came to Champaign after two years with the Army West Point football team's strength and conditioning staff.
Prior to Army, Yerry was the Director of Athletic Performance at his alma mater Stony Brook for three years (2016-18). While in that role, Yerry oversaw an assistant director and graduate assistant, while also designing and implementing all strength and conditioning programs for the Seawolves football team. He coordinated team and individual nutritional counseling for 118 collegiate football athletes in accordance with a nutrition performance coach. Yerry also worked closely with the athletic training staff to create modified training programs for injured athletes and implemented return-to-play protocol for post-surgical athletes.
Prior to being promoted to the director, Yerry spent one year as the assistant director (2015) and two years as a graduate assistant at Stony Brook (2013-14).
As a graduate assistant, Yerry focused on all components of strength training and conditioning for softball, men’s soccer, as well as men’s and women’s tennis. During that time, he oversaw baseball’s conditioning programming, while also assisting with football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, and volleyball.
After moving into the position of assistant director, Yerry’s responsibilities shifted to all aspects of strength training and conditioning for women’s basketball, men’s lacrosse, baseball, and volleyball, while also assisting with football.
He holds his certification as a CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist), as well as being accredited as a USAW Sport Performance Coach.
Yerry received varsity letters in baseball and basketball from Stony Brook, including a College World Series appearance in 2012. He earned two degrees from the university – a bachelor’s of science degree in health science in 2013 and a master’s of arts in liberal studies in 2015.
Yerry and his wife, Erika, married in 2021. They have two sons, Jaelen and Xavier, and one daughter, Aliyah.
