Hello: Shannon Turley, Strength & Conditioning
First reported($) by 2016 OL commitment Erik Swenson to Scout and later confirmed by many places, including a lot of Stanford players: Shannon Turley, the Cardinal's Director of Football Sports Performance, is taking the same job at Michigan.
If Turley departure news is true, potentially devastating news for Stanford -- countless players will say Turley built program's advantage
— David Lombardi (@LombardiESPN) January 4, 2015
Turley has been at Stanford for eight years, arriving with Harbaugh and staying on after his departure. He first met up with Harbaugh the year before they made the move to Stanford, with Turley taking an equivalent job at San Diego.
Turley is an ideal candidate. Stanford built its program by taking lightly recruited guys and turning them into half-hog, half-demon, all-man on both sides of the line. The first wave of Stanford NFL hits came from the two- and three-star ranks of Walt Harris's recruiting: after consecutive drafts that saw no Stanford players taken, Toby Gerhart was a second rounder in 2010 and a TE and FB went in the seventh round. Since, Stanford linemen and backs have been regular features—13 in the last four drafts, with few of them four-stars and exactly zero true blue-chippers (ie, top 50-ish players with a raft of offers).
Turley has been a large part of that success. Credited as an innovator whose techniques have drastically reduced Stanford's on-field injuries…
From 2006, the year before Turley arrived on the Farm, as Stanford’s campus is known, through last season, the number of games missed because of injury on the two-deep roster dropped by 87 percent. In 2012, only two Cardinal players required season-ending or postseason surgical repair; this year, only one.
…Turley was named the 2013 S&C coach of the year and scored a New York Times encomium just over a year ago that described his Chip-Kelly-esque approach to making his players functionally strong and resilient:
His approach is grounded in physics, on the premise that low man wins on contact, that to get low requires mobility and stability and the ability to apply force in the opposite direction. His players bench press, but he cares more about how they lift — with hands closer together, without bouncing the bar off their chests — than how much. He wants them to bend all the way down when they squat.
Freshmen in Turley’s program do not lift weights upon arrival. Instead, for the first few weeks, they do “body work,” or push-ups and pull-ups and squats or lunges without weights; basically old-school, military calisthenics.
“You have all these different genres of training, and we steal from them all,” Turley said. “CrossFit. Bodybuilding. Power lifting. But ultimately, it’s none of those. It’s a system we’ve developed to train football players.”
Turley builds "real-world applicable man strength," and has done so at the place having the most success at doing so relative to recruiting expectations in the country; he has been doing it for eight years. He's young and innovative, but experienced. He's intimately familiar with Jim Harbaugh. He is currently the subject of an outpouring of well wishes mixed with regrets from current and former players on Twitter…
Can't believe what I am hearing about coach turley. That man built the Stanford program and is the most important person within.
— Lee Ward (@LeeWard36) January 4, 2015
…and he's headed to Ann Arbor.
HIGHLIGHTS
We have some!
Here's a podcast featuring Turley as well, and an extensive Bleacher Report article that's worth your time.
PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE
UPSHOT FOR REST OF COACHING STAFF
Well, with Stanford DC Lance Anderson suddenly a thing again despite the fact that DJ Durkin is, according to Sam, in town means many things are possible. Michigan's coaching staff is now this Sportscenter commercial:
RIP Stu Scott
We should know most of the names by tomorrow or Tuesday, with maybe two or three spots (RB, TE, DBs) still to settle.
January 4th, 2015 at 7:33 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 7:34 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 9:04 PM ^
Prediction Based on Flimsy Evidence video of Clubber Lang predicting pain
January 4th, 2015 at 7:37 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 7:45 PM ^
This calls for a celebration....
January 4th, 2015 at 8:03 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 7:48 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 8:38 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 7:40 PM ^
This guy is the Jim Harbaugh of S&C coaches. So suck it, everyone else. We got the best.
January 4th, 2015 at 7:41 PM ^
Nice pickup. I don't think S&C has been one of the most glaring issues at UM in recent years, but this feels like an innovative hire that will only help player development. And what seems like a theme, it's another young guy.
January 4th, 2015 at 7:58 PM ^
I might disagree as we seem to have had a ton of injuries of late and our lines have not been blowing people away. This should be an improvement.
January 4th, 2015 at 9:18 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 7:43 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 7:43 PM ^
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January 4th, 2015 at 7:43 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:26 PM ^
Gosh dang it MattAttack.
January 4th, 2015 at 7:53 PM ^
"Encomium"
Now there's a word you will never see on RCMB.
January 4th, 2015 at 9:58 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 7:57 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 7:59 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:00 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:05 PM ^
How many grass fields do we have in the B1G?
Just wondering...I assume there are more in the "west," but I could be way wrong. I never really took the time to think about it.
January 4th, 2015 at 8:39 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:38 PM ^
I'd assume that they were playing on as many natural grass fields before he got there as they have since he was hired.
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January 4th, 2015 at 8:47 PM ^
Anecdotally, I've heard that playing on natural grass is the least injurious environment for players, and it makes logical sense, especially compared to some of the surfaces that have been used. I never experienced any problems with field turf (at least the stuff at UM). If data show a correlation between certain surfaces and rates of injury, I'm sure it won't be long before one of the brilliant statistics minds on here maps out any changes regarding surfaces, on which they played during that time, but from what I read, they have played their home games on natural grass before as well as after the 2006 stadium renovation.
January 4th, 2015 at 9:32 PM ^
Unless they all switched from artifical turf to natural gas just as Turley arrived at Stanford that doesn't mean a thing in relation to his statistical drop.
January 4th, 2015 at 8:00 PM ^
January 5th, 2015 at 10:05 AM ^
This question could only be posed on Mgoblog, I am pretty well certain. Points!
January 4th, 2015 at 8:25 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:07 PM ^
The video of Turley explaining his approach is awesome. My sense of anticipation for spring ball, fall camp, and the new season just went up even further.
January 4th, 2015 at 8:42 PM ^
And I admit to being a loser. I, MGoFriends, hit the snooze button.
January 4th, 2015 at 9:46 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:08 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:10 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 10:23 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:10 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:41 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:53 PM ^
His assistants have shown to be loyal to him. That doesn't happen if you operate that way.
January 4th, 2015 at 8:12 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:16 PM ^
In just the last eight years, we've had ...
This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_intensity_training) guy:
This (http://www.barwismethods.com/) guy:
This guy:
... and, finally, the guy who, on paper, appears to outrank all of them.
Thoughts?
January 4th, 2015 at 8:22 PM ^
It's sort of weird that JH is poaching key assistants from his own assistant and successor. I wonder if Harbaugh is on his way to being disliked on the Stanford campus.
January 4th, 2015 at 8:32 PM ^
a normal man.
January 4th, 2015 at 9:28 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:34 PM ^
January 4th, 2015 at 8:36 PM ^
Stanford wouldn't have a modern program without Harbaugh
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