Learn more about Frank Wintrich, BYU's new head strength and conditioning coach

North Texas head coach Dan McCarney confirmed Tuesday night that Frank Wintrich, the team's Director of Football Performance, is leaving the Mean Green to accept a position at BYU. This was first reported by Brett Vito at the Denton Record-Chronicle.

Update: BYU made the hire official by press release - 1/16/2015

Wintrich seems all but set to be the replacement for Jay Omer, 43-year strength coaching veteran who announced his retirement from BYU in November. Omer was the head strength and conditioning coach. (Typically, a head strength and conditioning coach at a school like BYU is assigned directly to the football team and oversees assistant coaches, graduate assistants, and interns who are assigned across other sports.)

Wintrich has some connection to the BYU staff, having been an associate strength coach at Utah State in the year current Cougar linebacker coach Kelly Poppinga spent as a player with the Aggies before transferring to BYU. (Hat tip to Ben Criddle for the lead there.) However, Wintrich oversaw non-football sports at Utah State.

I would strongly suspect (and to be clear, this is educated speculation only) a recommendation is likely to have come in some way through North Texas associate head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Canales. The former Utah State quarterback and BYU graduate assistant was a coach at South Florida for three years, during which Wintrich was on strength staff at USF. Canales then moved to North Texas, and Wintrich followed the next year and the two have worked together in Denton for the past four seasons.

Wintrich's experience is as follows:

2011-14: North Texas - Director of Football Performance
2007-10: South Florida - Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning
2006-07: The Citadel - Director of Athletic Development
2004-05: Utah State - Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach
2003: Arizona State - Assistant Strength Coach
2002: Hardin-Simmons - Graduate Assistant
1999-2001: Kentucky Wesleyan - Linebacker

Wintrich was a Division II All-American linebacker in 2000 and 2001. (By my rough estimate, this timeline would mean Wintrich is about 34 years old.)

If you listen to the podcast below (you may not finish the whole thing, but do listen to the first seven minutes), you'll begin to understand the breadth of experience and the commitment to innovation and adaptation Wintrich seems to possess. (If you do stick with it, he gets into nutrition education as well.)

I also appreciate bringing a guy like Wintrich who functionally has zero previous ties to BYU.

Besides Tommy Perry I believed that Frank Wintrich was the one of the guys #UNT couldn't afford to lose as part of the FB staff

— Greg Goedecker (@MGN_BREAKDOWN) January 14, 2015

Coach Wintrich displays some workouts in a pitch for Onnit.

Coach Wintrich presents for the National Strength and Conditioning Association: