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How to Build a Bully: Inside the Stanford
Football Strength Program
Stanford Cardinal
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Max Rausch
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We bow to no man, we bow to no program. We are going to build a bully.Jim Harbaugh
In the winter of 2006, on the heels of their fifth straight losing season and an embarrassing 1-11
record, belief that the Stanford Cardinal could put a competitive team on the field was wavering.
There were even rumblings that Stanford should drop down a division, presumably to compete
against its brainy Ivy League brethren, or drop football altogether.
Cue the fiery Jim Harbaugh and his young staff. They recognized that while Stanford could not
lower its academic standards to broaden the talent pool, it could take advantage of the Stanford
student-athlete's unique psychology and "inherent competitiveness," as current head coach David
Shaw puts it, to build a winner.
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Before that process could start on the football field in spring practice, it would be introduced by the
Kissick Family Director of Football Sports Performance, Shannon Turley, in summer conditioning.
He was, and still is, responsible for planting the seeds of belief in Cardinal freshmen and getting the
upperclassmen to buy into the philosophy the Harbaugh regime was selling and Shaw continues to
sell.
Senior linebacker Shayne Skov gets a lift in at the
Arrillaga Family Sports Center.
"When you are losing and you are 1-11, there are people that are frustrated," said Turley. "They
know that there are things that are unacceptable being accepted and they want a change."
To begin, Turley said the Stanford Player Development team enlisted the aid of upperclassmen who
were "borderline obsessed" with change. "Then we empowered them so they could impose their own
expectations on the roster, which is so much more effective than any coach talking."
Year Rushing Yards Attempts YPC National Ranking
2006 7 81 367 2.1 115th
2007 1334 446 3.0 103rd
2008 2395 490 4.9 31st
2009 2837 536 5.3 10th
2010 27 7 9 535 5.2 18th
2011 27 38 518 5.3 20th
2012 2440 549 4.4 39th
If there were a way to statistically quantify a teams bully factor, it would be rushing yards and
rushing yards allowed. These stats are heavily dependent on a teams ability to control the trenches
and impose its will on the opposing offense or defense. Classic bully characteristics.
Year Rushing Yards Allowed Attempts YPC National Ranking
2006 2526 519 4.9 118th
2007 2032 480 4.2 7 3rd
2008 1835 47 5 4.0 7 6th
2009 17 34 386 4.5 62nd
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2010 1515 37 2 4.1 23rd
2011 1084 349 3.1 4th
2012 1140 400 2.8 4th
In the six years since Turley brought his strength and conditioning program to The Farm, as
Stanford is known to many, the defense has cut the number of yards allowed per carry nearly in
half, and the offense has more than tripled its production on the ground.
A bully was born. Heres how Stanford did it.

"I Don't Care How Much You Can Bench"
Harry How/Getty Images
There arent a lot of bells and whistles on The Farm; the Stanford program focuses on simplicity and
execution. I dont have a lot of secrets or gimmicks, said Turley. There is an old school way that
probably works. Its been working for a long time.
Turley does not have some sort of magical formula, nor are his players putting up Zeus-like
numbers in the weight room.
"I dont care how much guys can bench squat or power clean," Turley said. "It has nothing to do
with playing football. Football is blocking and tackling. Its creating contact, avoiding contact and
gaining separation if you are a skill guy on the perimeter. Thats football."
What they are doing is building one of the most comprehensive and successful player development
programs in the country through highly specialized training, personalized by position and player.
Stanfords player development team focuses its efforts on injury prevention, athletic performance
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and mental disciplinein that order. Basically, the Stanford weight program doesnt worry about
having the "strongest" guys in college football. It focuses on football strength, technique and
making sure the best Cardinal players stay on the field all season.
This is an unusual and forward-thinking focus, said Will Carroll, the Sports Medicine Lead Writer
at Bleacher Report. I guess we should expect that from Stanford. Most teams use the weight room
and even advanced tools like Alter-G treadmills, SwimEx pools and the like in a caveman fashion.
Its all get bigger, get faster, which is easily measured. Injury prevention is more subtle.
The guiding principle is do no harm, and Stanford has been wildly successful in doing so. In the
six years since Turley took over the Stanford strength program, games missed due to injury has
decreased 87 percent.
That kind of drop is stunning, Carroll explained. I think most programs would be happy with 10
percent. For an NFL team, that kind of drop would be worth a win or more, as well as about $20
million in lost payroll.
USA TODAY Sports
David Yankey
For those who say numbers in the weight room are important measure of success on the field,
Turley would counter with the example of Stanfords 65, 313-pound All-American guard David
Yankey, who Turley says can barely bench his own body weight.
Hes got to have some pop, I get it, said Turley. But isnt the rate at which you strike more
important than moving a bunch of weight around really slow?
Turely explains that bench press and squat goals dont even factor into his thinking when he
designs a workout for a player. He is concerned only with a players ability to move as he needs to
on the football field.
For an offensive lineman like Yankey, this means the mobility and stability of his shoulder, the
stability of his core and the mobility of his lower body. Optimizing those characteristics allows him
to get low and quickly apply force in the direction he intends to move, thus fulfilling his role as a
blocker.
Stanfords focus on injury prevention over athletic performance, along with the absence of the
almighty record board in the weight room, sets its program apart from other powerhouse
programs (yes, Stanford is a modern-day powerhouse).
This functional focus, with less emphasis on big muscles and gallons of sweat, is brilliant, Carroll
said. Each player has a function and certain movements and patterns that help him fulfill that
function. Stanford is way ahead of the curve on this.
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Our numbers are very unimpressive, said Turley. But were not chasing numbers. We are
chasing lean muscle, reducing body fat and making guys functionally strong for football.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Stanford football is a year-long commitment. Between the season, spring practice, fall camp and
three six- to seven-week offseason training sessions, the Cardinal players are participating in
football-related activities for 43 weeks out of the year. Of those weeks, 19 are spent exclusively in
the weight room and on the track under Turleys supervision.
The winter program is focused on recovery from the season, while the spring offseason program is
the only time the Cardinal focus on speed and power development.
Things heat up in the summer when conditioning is the main focus. From late June through the first
week of August, Turley will run his players through a variety of position-specific exercises that
focus on the movements they are going to execute repeatedly in fall practice and throughout the
season.
During the season, the Stanford program focuses on recovery and restoring mobility to sore bodies
that have performed the same action over and over again on the field.

Specialization
The stated goal of Turleys strength program is to develop lean, athletic players that can play with
low pads and leverage and exert force in the direction that they intend to move. Turley builds
football players, not weightlifters or track athletes. We are not training for a 40 because you dont
run a 40 in football, he said.
All of Stanfords workouts are grounded in the SAID (Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands)
principle Turley has carried with him since his days as a student assistant working under Mike
Gentry at Virginia Tech.
Turley fundamentally and firmly believes the best way to train for football is to practice and
repeat the specific movements a player is required to make on the field, and he designs
personalized workouts for each player accordingly.
Turley and his staff start with separate workout templates designed for each of the six player
groups (skill, big skill, linemen, quarterbacks, specialists, freshmen) and personalize based on a
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players injury history and predetermined movement patterns, which usually stem from
experience playing other sports or previous injury. As the players bodies mature throughout their
careers, the workouts change.
I think the more specialized you can be, the more things you can influence in the physical and
mental development of your players, said Turley.
All-American tight end Coby Fleener is a great example of a player who came in with a pre-existing
injurya herniated discthat Turley was able to work around.
During Fleeners five years at Stanford, Turley said he modified the tight ends workout based on his
injury and his individual needs. It was a lot different when he was a 219-pound freshman and a
250-pound senior, he said.
Dont be mistakenTurley doesn't take it easy on a player because he has a pre-existing weakness
from an injury, poor training or overuse on the field. His challenge is to find a way to offset that
weakness to allow the player to reach optimal performance on the field.
For example, Stanford senior right tackle Cameron Flemings right hip is locked up due to
overuse. This is a very predictable situation for a right tackle, according to Turley.
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The Stanford linemen's summer workout schedule which focuses on conditioning in preparation for
the season.
Fleming plants and drives off his right leg on virtually every rep he takes in practice or a game. At
Stanfords average of 69.1 offensive plays per game, thats 967 plays per year, in addition to
countless practice reps. Thats a lot of wear and tear.
We are going to train him as a right tackle because thats what he is and thats what hes got to be
good at, Turley said. But with that comes a certain overdeveloped musculature and firing pattern
[in his hip and leg]. I cant take it easy on him, per se, but weve got to do more mobility work to
address his risk.

Isometrics
The most unique aspect of the Stanford strength program is its focus on isometric and eccentric
exercises. While other college football programs and weekend warrior weightlifters focus on the
force-delivering or concentric aspect of a lift or exercise (rising out of a squat or pushing up the
bench press bar), Turley preaches the control of the weight. This increases stability and durability
of the muscle.
Concentric-focused training is power-focused and creates great numbers in the gym, but it puts
athletes at greater risk of injury.
"While some programs do similar things, its seldom the focus," explained Carroll. "Its secondary or
worse. Anyone whos been in a weight room has done 'negative reps' or 'slo-mo reps,' but this kind
of program built around those things is unique."
Turley starts all the playersupperclassmen and freshmen alikewith body weight movements or
accentuated eccentrics (the lowering phase of a pull-up) and isometrics (holding a push-up or squat
in position for an extended period of time). These exercises teach players how to control their
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bodies and learn how to have the endurance to do it correctly when they get fatigued.

Shock to the System
In their first summer in the program, freshmen work almost exclusively on conditioning, flexibility
and core strength through the use of accentuated eccentrics and isometrics. They do your gym
teachers favorite exercises: pull-ups, push-ups, body weight squats and lunges. They even climb
rope like old-school gym class, said Turley.
The workout Stanford freshmen are responsible for after their three week acclimation period. They
are not allowed to lift during their acclimation period.
The bright-eyed rookies face a big shock when they first first show up at the weight room. They
dont get to touch the weights, at least for the first three weeks.
They want to go lift weights, but Im not gonna let em, said Turley. Its pretty frustrating. But its
part of the mental discipline. You find out who can concentrate, who can take coaching, block out
the noise and keep grinding through it and find a way to meet the standard and get it done.
Somebody is going to break; its inevitable.
An 18-year-olds first few weeks on a college campus are tough enough without the pressure that
comes with playing football at a Division I school, so Turley is careful to ease his new players into
the program. These guys are used to being big fish in small ponds. But when they arrive on The
Farm, the pond expands, and the fish get bigger and stronger.
The initial shock is the productivity and the amount of work we are going to compress into a run,
said Turley. "That volume and intensity of the conditioning is overwhelming. We get done with the
first 15 minutes of warm-ups some days and these kids are already spent. The stress of having to
compete when theyre already fatigued is almost emotionally traumatic."
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Align Your Choices with Your Goals
Turleys mental development program kicks into high gear immediately when a new group of
freshmen arrive on campus. The shock factor is an opportunity for you to impact their first
learning, Turley said.
He firmly believes that what Stanford football players learn first, they are going to learn best,
which makes a players buy-in during those trying first three weeks all the more important to his
eventual success in the Stanford program.
The first summer is all about getting the newbies to invest in the process and develop the right
habits in football, training, diet and lifestyle. For Stanford players, investment in the process
means consistently making choices that align with a players goals for himself and the team. Turley
calls this buy-in fundamentally important.
Turley uses accountability and personal challenges as the major tools of mental development. He
describes his program as process-focused, which means he sets effort and improvement goals for
his players rather than chasing result-oriented goals. "I dont care [about] the number," he said. "I
care about their ability to improve it."
The team code of conduct is simple: technique, effort, attitude and mental discipline. "Four things
you have complete and total control over, that take absolutely no talent and no ability. Thats
where we want to invest ourselves," Turley explained. "In every situation they are in with us, they
have complete and total control over that."
Ownership is of paramount importance to the psychology of Stanford teams. Every summer the
seniors draw up a team covenant with Turley. The seniors use the covenant to set the goals for the
season and an action plan for how to achieve them. They take ownership of the covenant and self-
police the underclassmen.
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Stanford's team covenant from 2007 , Shannon Turley's first year with the team.
As you can imagine, the 2007 version looks a lot different than the 2012 version. The 2007
version is cluttered, unfocused and reflects a losing culture. The mission and goals are very
outcome-focused, and there are a ton of rules that might fall under the common sense umbrella. At
the bottom are a few statements basically begging players to buy in.
Thats a pretty awful team covenant, said Turley. It was great for what we needed at the time, but
that shows you where the culture was.
The 2012 team covenant only lists one goal: Win the Pac-12 championship.
Mission accomplished.
All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted; photos by author unless otherwise noted.
Follow Max Rausch on Twitter @MaxHRausch.
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