The University of Nebraska Athletic Department has recently added Tucker Zeleny as the Director of Sports Analytics and Data Analysis. Zeleny joins Athletics after building an impressive resume in various areas at UNL.

Zeleny will head a newly formed department that will be in charge of working with Nebraska's 24 varsity sports to collect, analyze and summarize data related to team and individual performance. Zeleny and his staff will also work with support staff areas within the department to collect, analyze and summarize data related to department operations.

“I am excited that Tucker has joined the athletic department and will be leading this newly created department,” said Steve Waterfield , Senior Associate Athletic Director for Performance and Strategic Research. “I have been impressed not only with Tucker's analytical skills, but also with his ability to apply these skills in a practical, effective manner that gives Husker sports teams a competitive advantage. Our sports teams and departments stand to benefit significantly from the information Tucker and his staff will provide.”

Zeleny earned his doctorate in statistics from UNL in May of 2015. His dissertation involved multivariate time series on multiple time scales with applications toward weight lifting data collected by the Husker football team. Zeleny completed his bachelor's degree in mathematics at UNL in 2010 before joining the statistics department as a teaching assistant. He completed his master's degree in statistics in 2012.

"I'm very excited to be joining the athletic department,” Zeleny said. “Sports analytics is becoming a hot area. There is a ton of data out there right now and with new sport technology being made available seemingly every day, there will only be more. Any additional information or advantage we can provide to the various coaching staffs, and to the department in general, is a huge positive."

A native of Carleton, Neb., Zeleny has worked as a data analyst at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital and the Nebraska Athletic Performance Laboratory.