If you were to make a list of the three people most responsible for Stanford’s historic turnaround from Pac-12 doormat to powerhouse, they would be Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw and Shannon Turley, and not necessarily in that order.
Harbaugh, of course, got the ball rolling and Shaw kept it rolling, but Turley bridged the two eras as perhaps the most important person in the program other than the head coach: the strength coach.
Arriving at Stanford alongside Harbaugh and Shaw ahead of the 2007 season, it was Turley who turned the Cardinal’s “Intellectual Brutality” vision into a reality, molding the players who would create one of the most physical programs in college football.
And now Turley is no longer with the program.
According to Cardinal Sports Report, Turley had been on administrative leave since Feb. 4 but has now parted ways with the program, for reasons that are not entirely clear. From the piece:
In addition to building the players’ bodies and fostering the team’s culture, Turley was also successful at ensuring players’ health, as Stanford was annually one of the healthiest programs in college football while also playing a notoriously physical brand of football. He was recognized by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and FootballScoop as the top strength coach in the industry. (Full disclosure: I also work for FootballScoop.) Turley also oversaw Stanford’s entire strength and conditioning program on top of his duties as the football team’s head strength coach.
In Turley’s absence, CSR reports that assistant strength coach Cullen Carroll has assumed the head strength coach role with the football program, but it remains to be seen if that’s an interim role or a full-time promotion.
