Football
Turley, Shannon
vs
Houston
Sep 12 (Fri)
5:30 PM
Shannon Turley
- Title:
- Director of Strength & Conditioning
- Email:
- shannon.turley@colorado.edu
- Phone:
- 303-492-6472
Shannon Turley is in his second year as CU’s director of football sports performance as he was named to the position on January 29, 2021. He is the 10th specialist in school history to oversee the area that includes strength, conditioning and performance since it became a full-time position for the Buffaloes in 1982.
Turley, 44, has long been considered as one of the nation’s top strength coaches. In 12 years at Stanford under head coaches Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw, the Cardinal won three Pac-12 titles, earning five New Year’s Six bowl berths, with 42 players drafted into the NFL, 10 of those going on to earn Pro Bowl status.
Turley is a two-time national strength coach of the year, acknowledged by FootballScoop.com in 2011 and by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) in 2013.
At Stanford, he was renowned for his innovate approach to strength training, which included many more components than just weights and conditioning. Integral parts of his program included sports nutrition education, lifestyle management and sports psychology programming, all of which ensured the optimal physical and mental preparation of Stanford’s athletes. He was also responsible for planning meals for the program’s training table, travel and game days to guarantee optimal nutrition and hydration. He also collaborated with the sports medicine staff to develop an individualized, sport and position specific, active integration rehabilitation plan to ensure the successful return to competition of all injured players.
It all added up to a creative and comprehensive player development program designed to achieve three primary goals: injury prevention, athletic performance enhancement and mental discipline development.
He accompanied Harbaugh to Stanford from the University of San Diego in 2007 and was the sports performance coach for football his first seven years there; in 2014, he was promoted to the director of sports performance, overseeing all 36 Cardinal varsity programs.
Prior to his time at Stanford, Turley was the director of athletic performance for all 16 sports at the University of San Diego for a year, including the football team for Harbaugh (2006). That had followed five years at the University of Missouri, where was a graduate assistant strength coach his first two years there (2001-02), before being promoted to the assistant director for the remainder of his time there. He also simultaneously logged time in 2001 with the Wichita Wranglers, the Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.
Prior to coming to CU,. he was serving as a performance consultant to the XFL, where he advised commissioner Oliver Luck on best practices for performance with philosophy, structure and staffing, as well counseling on strategies for staff development, training, nutrition and analytics.
A 2000 graduate of Virginia Tech, where he earned his bachelor’s in Human Nutrition, Food and Exercise, it was where he first ventured into strength and conditioning, serving as a student assistant working exclusively with the Hokies’ Olympic sport programs. He earned his master’s from Missouri in Education and Counseling Psychology in 2003.
Turley found his life’s calling in a most interesting fashion: as a senior in high school on a Fellowship of Christian Athletes trip to see the defending national champions Florida State play at Wake Forest, they toured the football facilities. That is where he met Scott Swanson, one of Wake’s strength and conditioning coaches, and after a brief visit with him, had an immediate interest in the profession. As a freshman at Virginia Tech, he witnessed the Hokies winning 10 games and learned how vital strength and conditioning was to the team’s success.
He joined the track team as a walk-on in the fall of 1996 and gained further exposure to the performance program and its coach, Mike Gentry, who was regarded as one of the best coaches in the profession. Gentry led an elite player development system for the football team and gave him the opportunity to serve in his program working with the Olympic sports under Jay Johnson. He credits their mentoring and support to launch my career, and from their tutelage, also drew a lot of his own philosophies.
A native of Bluefield, W.V., he graduated from Bluefield High School where he lettered in football and track and field. His hobbies include spending time with his family, playing, training, learning, traveling, exploring and seeking outdoor adventures. He is married to the former Brittany Epperson, and the couple has three children, two daughters and a son. He had an interesting take on getting involved in sports: “My first experience playing organized sports was soccer during first grade and with my best friends on the team. We finished an undefeated season as county champions and I have been chasing the feeling ever since.”
Former Denver Bronco head coach Vic Fangio was Stanford’s defensive coordinator in 2010 and gave a ringing endorsement of Turley. “During my season at Stanford, I gained a lot of respect for Shannon’s ability as a strength and conditioning coach,” Fangio said. “He’s a knowledgeable, highly regarded coach who gets the best out of players. I’m happy for Shannon and believe he will be successful at the University of Colorado.”
Turley, 44, has long been considered as one of the nation’s top strength coaches. In 12 years at Stanford under head coaches Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw, the Cardinal won three Pac-12 titles, earning five New Year’s Six bowl berths, with 42 players drafted into the NFL, 10 of those going on to earn Pro Bowl status.
Turley is a two-time national strength coach of the year, acknowledged by FootballScoop.com in 2011 and by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) in 2013.
At Stanford, he was renowned for his innovate approach to strength training, which included many more components than just weights and conditioning. Integral parts of his program included sports nutrition education, lifestyle management and sports psychology programming, all of which ensured the optimal physical and mental preparation of Stanford’s athletes. He was also responsible for planning meals for the program’s training table, travel and game days to guarantee optimal nutrition and hydration. He also collaborated with the sports medicine staff to develop an individualized, sport and position specific, active integration rehabilitation plan to ensure the successful return to competition of all injured players.
It all added up to a creative and comprehensive player development program designed to achieve three primary goals: injury prevention, athletic performance enhancement and mental discipline development.
He accompanied Harbaugh to Stanford from the University of San Diego in 2007 and was the sports performance coach for football his first seven years there; in 2014, he was promoted to the director of sports performance, overseeing all 36 Cardinal varsity programs.
Prior to his time at Stanford, Turley was the director of athletic performance for all 16 sports at the University of San Diego for a year, including the football team for Harbaugh (2006). That had followed five years at the University of Missouri, where was a graduate assistant strength coach his first two years there (2001-02), before being promoted to the assistant director for the remainder of his time there. He also simultaneously logged time in 2001 with the Wichita Wranglers, the Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.
Prior to coming to CU,. he was serving as a performance consultant to the XFL, where he advised commissioner Oliver Luck on best practices for performance with philosophy, structure and staffing, as well counseling on strategies for staff development, training, nutrition and analytics.
A 2000 graduate of Virginia Tech, where he earned his bachelor’s in Human Nutrition, Food and Exercise, it was where he first ventured into strength and conditioning, serving as a student assistant working exclusively with the Hokies’ Olympic sport programs. He earned his master’s from Missouri in Education and Counseling Psychology in 2003.
Turley found his life’s calling in a most interesting fashion: as a senior in high school on a Fellowship of Christian Athletes trip to see the defending national champions Florida State play at Wake Forest, they toured the football facilities. That is where he met Scott Swanson, one of Wake’s strength and conditioning coaches, and after a brief visit with him, had an immediate interest in the profession. As a freshman at Virginia Tech, he witnessed the Hokies winning 10 games and learned how vital strength and conditioning was to the team’s success.
He joined the track team as a walk-on in the fall of 1996 and gained further exposure to the performance program and its coach, Mike Gentry, who was regarded as one of the best coaches in the profession. Gentry led an elite player development system for the football team and gave him the opportunity to serve in his program working with the Olympic sports under Jay Johnson. He credits their mentoring and support to launch my career, and from their tutelage, also drew a lot of his own philosophies.
A native of Bluefield, W.V., he graduated from Bluefield High School where he lettered in football and track and field. His hobbies include spending time with his family, playing, training, learning, traveling, exploring and seeking outdoor adventures. He is married to the former Brittany Epperson, and the couple has three children, two daughters and a son. He had an interesting take on getting involved in sports: “My first experience playing organized sports was soccer during first grade and with my best friends on the team. We finished an undefeated season as county champions and I have been chasing the feeling ever since.”
Former Denver Bronco head coach Vic Fangio was Stanford’s defensive coordinator in 2010 and gave a ringing endorsement of Turley. “During my season at Stanford, I gained a lot of respect for Shannon’s ability as a strength and conditioning coach,” Fangio said. “He’s a knowledgeable, highly regarded coach who gets the best out of players. I’m happy for Shannon and believe he will be successful at the University of Colorado.”
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