While most are sleeping at 4:30 in the morning, Eastern’s Director of Football Performance Jacob Hillmann is up and at it.

Preparing for the long days in the football facilities starting at 6 a.m., Hillmann said all of this is out of love for the game.

Born into a family of coaches, Hillmann said he knew he was meant to be a coach.

Hillmann’s mother was a field hockey coach, while his father oversaw strength, conditioning and nutrition for football at Iowa State.

Before he started coaching, Hillmann played football as a tight end and a fullback at Iowa State University. After Hillmann’s eligibility was up, he graduated with a degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in exercise science.

Hillmann started his coaching career by interning at Ohio State University with its football program, and then he became a graduate assistant at Eastern Michigan University.

Being around football programs and coaching for most of his life, Hillmann knew he wanted to help with football performance in some aspect of a player’s career and life.

“I’ve always had tremendous leadership, mentorship and guidance growing up, and if I can give that to other young athletes and continue to develop them physically, mentally, emotionally, that’s what I wanna be able to do,” Hillmann said.

Hillmann also said the weight room is an outlet for the players, and they continue to grow from the hard work they put into their strength and conditioning and training.

“Coach Hillmann came in and treated us like some true Division I athletes,” senior wide receiver Jamal Jeffers said. “[He’s] bulking us up and trying to get us big, trying to put weight on us, worrying about that.”

Hillmann started at Eastern’s football team during the spring offseason, starting to build the relationships with the team and understanding the player’s needs to have them develop through spring training.

Redshirt senior offensive lineman Sebastian Pares said like other strength and conditioning coaches, Hillmann spends a lot of time with the players and listens to their needs to improve as a player throughout the season.

“I’ve had three strength coaches since I’ve been in college, and strength coaches spend more time with players than actual coaches do,” Pares said. “You’re going to build a connection with that person because he is the person pushing you to your limits. You’re always going to have respect for that person. He’s trying to make you better as a person and a football player.”

Hillmann noticed the player’s growth from the jump.

Seeing their hard work and “buying into the vision and standpoint,” he said, the coaches have set out for the team, Hillmann has seen the players improve not only physically but mentally as well.

“Obviously, bigger, faster, stronger is always what we set out to do,” Hillmann said. “I think I’ve seen a lot of growth in that aspect. Even from a mental toughness standpoint, I think we’ve grown a lot in that area, and it’s gonna continue to be a point of emphasis for us moving forward, learning how to grow through adversity and be hard to kill.”

Football is not solely about physical fitness or skill, but it also requires strong mental preparation. This includes strategy, focus, discipline and the ability to make quick decisions under pressure.

“Football is a mental sport, mental [and] physical sport,” freshman running back Jacarre “Smoke” Fleming said. “If you’re not mentally prepared, you’re not going to last in the game long.”

Hillmann said that getting used to doing uncomfortable things and being able to push through and grow is a huge staple for Eastern’s football team.

With helping encourage the team mentally and physically, Hillmann likes to foster a positive environment with his players.

At football practices, while players are walking out and getting ready, Hillmann jokingly barks at the guys to get them “juiced up” for the practice.

“It’s all based on the standpoint of relationships,” Hillmann said. “That’s really the foundation. I’ve had the tremendous responsibility to build relationships with our players on our team. They’ve done an unbelievable job buying into our program, so without the relationship piece, you know, there is no successful motivation.”

Even with Eastern’s 1-7 record right now, Hillmann continues to spread encouragement and positivity towards all the Panthers.

“I tell them all the time I love them, and I’m proud of them no matter whether we win or lose,” Hillmann said. “They’re more than just football players. Your identity can’t be, I’m ‘Jacob Hillmann, the football player.’ You’re the leader, the man, whatever it is, you know, what you want to do going forward in life. I think it’s really important to emphasize that as well.”

This season hasn’t been easy on the players, but having a support system around them at all times has helped encourage players to continue working is something the players appreciate, Jeffers said.

“This is a great fit for coach Hillman,” Jeffers said. “It was the fact that his first year, he showed results; he showed tremendous results, to be honest. Not only did we develop physically and everything, our GPS numbers show that we worked harder than last year. That’s just all proof in the pudding right there,”

Although Hillmann hasn’t been with the Panthers for long, many players said they can see and feel how much of an impact he has made in such a short time with the program.

“Hillman has been doing a great job,” Fleming said. “After my second practice, he was like ‘I’m going to make you a great ball player.’ I feel like that made me want to work for him even harder.”

Hillmann said being around who he calls an unbelievably good group of guys is the easiest part of his job, but tailoring to all their needs to help them succeed with the help from the rest of the coaching staff is the harder part.

“You have so many different personalities of guys on the team that you have to develop relationships with and you have to tailor your coaching to who they are,” Hillmann said. “I think it’s a little bit of trial and error in terms of how you get the guys and how you get them to trust you. It’s not difficult in the sense of it’s a hard task. It’s hard in the sense of it takes time and patience, which I think has been really one thing that I’ve tried to emphasize this year is patience.”

Payton Liggins can be reached at 581-2812 or at paliggins@eiu.edu.