Dalton Elliott will serve as the Miners’ director of strength and conditioning after UTEP head coach Scotty Walden hired him in January 2026.
Elliott continues his career in the Lone Star State after serving as Texas Tech’s assistant strength and conditioning coach in 2025 under head strength coach Lance Barilow. Elliot brings almost a decade of experience while also gaining exposure in the NFL in his young career.
Elliott specifically worked with the Red Raiders’ defensive line, outside linebackers and headed up the return-to-play procedures for injured players. Texas Tech finished the 2025 campaign 12-2 overall with a Big 12 Championship and a trip to the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl.
Before going to Lubbock, Elliott spent 2024 with the NFL’s New York Jets as a seasonal strength and conditioning intern. Elliot worked with the tight ends, quarterbacks and specialists, while also leading individual player development meetings with members of the Jets’ rookie class.
Elliott gained massive experience for two years as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the BYU program, which coincided with the Cougars’ transition to the Big 12 Conference. It was the first full-time football position for Elliot, who moved across the state in 2022 following three years at rival Utah State. Elliot began his tenure in Logan as a graduate assistant before being named an assistant strength and conditioning coach in July 2020. He was briefly the interim head of the Olympic sport strength program during the spring and summer of 2021. He oversaw the training of all 13 Olympic sports teams.
Elliott began his coaching career at LSU as a strength and conditioning intern during the summer of 2018 for a staff that featured Barilow. It was his coaching opportunity after ending his own playing career at linebacker for the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. Elliott was voted on the team’s leadership council by his teammates while playing for a Cougar program that made three consecutive NCAA Division II playoff appearances and claimed the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) title in 2016 with a 12-1 record.
Elliott earned his bachelor’s degree from Sioux Falls in December 2018, graduating with double majors in exercise science and psychology. He added a Master of Education in Sport and Physical Education from Utah State in 2020.
Elliott and his wife, Kelli, are parents to a son, Dallas.
