Buffaloes make several changes to coaching staff
BOULDER» Colorado has promoted two members of the football staff and officially hired another.
On Friday, CU announced that defensive line coach Chris Wilson has been promoted to defensive coordinator and safeties coach Brett Maxie to defensive passing game coordinator, while Shannon Turley has been hired as the strength and conditioning coach.
Also, according to BuffZone.com sources, the Buffs will hire Mark Smith, the defensive coordinator at Long Island University, to coach inside linebackers.
CU is waiting on the completion of Smith’s background check before officially announcing his hire.
Wilson, hired by head coach Karl Dorrell last February, will replace Tyson Summers, who was let go earlier this month after two years as the Buffs’ coordinator.
Turley was the director of sports performance at Stanford from 2007-19 before being fired in April of 2019 for undisclosed reasons.
Turley will replace Drew Wilson, who led CU’s strength and conditioning program for five years but had an expiring contract that was not renewed.
With more than 25 years of experience, mostly at Power Five schools or the NFL, Wilson, 52, has been a coordinator at the Power 5 level once before.
He was co-coordinator at Mississippi State in 2010 before being sole coordinator for the Bulldogs from 2011-12. Wilson was also a coordinator at Northeastern (Okla.) A&M in 1996.
During his three seasons at Mississippi State, the Bulldogs gave up 19.8, 19.7 and 23.3 points per game, ranking top 35 nationally each year.
CU is projected to return several defensive starters in 2021, and retaining Wilson creates some continuity for the group.
Maxie was also hired last year by Dorrell and spent last season working with the Buffs’ safeties.
A 13-year NFL veteran, he has coached defensive backs for 22 seasons at various levels of football.
Turley was the director of athletic performance at San Diego in 2006 under head coach Jim Harbaugh.
When Harbaugh was hired as head coach at Stanford in 2007, he brought Turley with him as sports performance coordinator.
After Harbaugh left Stanford to coach the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers after the 2010 season, Turley stayed and spent eight years with current Cardinal coach David Shaw.
Recognized as one of the best in his field, Turley was named the FootballScoop.com strength and conditioning coach of the year in 2011.
In 2013, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) named him the college strength and conditioning coach of the year.
Stanford was 1-11 before
Turley arrived, went 111-47 with three Pac-12 titles while he was there, and is 8-10 since he was fired.
Despite his success with Stanford, Turley was placed on administrative leave on Feb. 2, 2019, just a few weeks after a 14-13 win against Pittsburgh in the Sun Bowl — Stanford’s 10th consecutive bowl appearance.
Turley was fired about two months later, with Stanford issuing a statement that read, “Coach Shannon Turley no longer works at Stanford. As this is a personnel matter, we will not be providing further information.”
Smith will be reunited with Wilson, as the two worked together at Oklahoma more than a decade ago.
At the time, Wilson coached the Sooners’ defensive ends coach, while Smith was a defensive quality control coach.
Smith was the defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Arkansas in 2018 and 2019.
After a coaching change at Arkansas after the 2019 season, Smith landed a job as the defensive coordinator at LIU, which had its 2020 season postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before his two years at Arkansas, Smith was an assistant at SMU for three seasons, working on offense in 2015-16 and on defense in 2017. He was also director of recruiting for the Mustangs.
Prior to SMU, Smith was a head coach at L.D. Bell High School in Texas. He went to Bell after his stint at Oklahoma.