Hello: Shannon Turley, Strength & Conditioning Comment Count

Brian

imagepixel[2]

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.

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…

…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.

Comments

bklein09

January 4th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^

I wonder if all the confusion related to the defensive staff is the same thing that happened with the Harbaugh search. Maybe Harbaugh is pinging / interviewing multiple candidates before decided who is best. And somehow that is turning into "done deal" reports? I guess we'll know for sure in a few days.



Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

bronxblue

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.

UMForLife

January 4th, 2015 at 7:57 PM ^

Finally, there is a chance we won't lose all our good players to injury. Last year was devastating... We need to control at the line and that is exactly what Stanford does well. Should I expect some good old RB pounding from M. Can't wait for April. Go Blue!

readyourguard

January 4th, 2015 at 8:00 PM ^

There's no debating an 87% drop in missed games due to injury. But occurs to me that Stanford played a lot of games on natural grass. I wonder if there's any correlation. Grass fields in the PAC Stanford UCLA USC ASU

mgo한국

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.

Toledo_Wolverine

January 4th, 2015 at 8:25 PM ^

It's one thing to keep loyal assistants on your way up the coaching ranks, but it's another to get said assistant to make a lateral move under you. It really does say a lot about Harbaugh!

DonAZ

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.

BlueMan80

January 4th, 2015 at 10:23 PM ^

Which will lead to winning. The president wants to pursue excellence and Hackett and Harbaugh are intent on delivering it. Leaders and Best is the plan for Michigan football...period. This is exciting to see.

RobM_24

January 4th, 2015 at 8:10 PM ^

Any chance that JH led on Durkin bc he didn't think Anderson was an option? Maybe Anderson showed interest, and now he's choosing between Anderson and Durkin (??).

turtleboy

January 4th, 2015 at 8:12 PM ^

What I see when I read this? Proven development of players. Lack of injuries. Stronger/better/faster than our opponents, especially in the 1st and 4th quarters. Hail.

Don

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.