It should go without saying that a given football team's director of sports performance ultimately ends up being the coach that student-athletes spend the most time with.

While it may be a position coach or the head coach that plays the biggest role in recruiting them, strength coaches assume a day-to-day presence with players that is undoubtedly crucial to the success of a program.

After all, wins are not chalked up and touchdowns are not scored with a magic wand. Getting a program in place to do those things is a meticulous process that starts in the weight room.

It is on that note that Colorado's Shannon Turley feels he can make his voice and presence known for Colorado on the recruiting trail.

“I think my role in the recruiting process is to help the players and their parents understand the value and significance that the sports performance coach is going to play in their career and make sure we understand that they’re going to spend more time training, preparing and practicing games than they are actually practicing and competing," he said.

In terms of overseeing a program on a general note, Turley certainly comes to Boulder with some flashy credentials.

When he arrived at Stanford before the 2007 season, the Cardinal football team had won a single game. In two years, Stanford was back in a bowl game for the first time since 2001.

Turley's tenure with the Cardinal saw the football team reach its greatest sustained period of success in program history, evidenced by 10 straight bowl appearances from 2009-2018, a 94-23 overall record during that time as well as two Pac-12 titles (2012, 2013) and three consecutive BCS bowl appearances from 2010-2013.

In 2011, FootballScoop.com named him national strength coach of the year and he earned a similar honor in 2013 from the National Strength & Conditioning Association.

During his time at Stanford, Turley also was responsible for the complete sports performance of the university's other 35 Division I programs.

That's the kind of longterm success Turley has in mind for Colorado, and his message to prospective recruits is that he can forge them into the kinds of players and young men necessary to make it happen.

"We want to make sure that they have a chance to physically develop, mentally develop and become the best person in addition to the football player they can be," he said.

While development on and off the field is the end game, for Turley, the road to achieving that starts with individualizing a plan of attack, player by player and position group by position group.

"I need to make very clear the kind of impact I’m going to have and try to show evidence of that," he said. "But also, what’s the newest, best version of that plan and process and how is that applicable here at CU? How can I make that very individually specific to that player, his goals and his needs?"

"That’s the approach I try to take: demonstrate my value and what an asset I can do to that individual as they set out to achieve their goals here as a Buffalo."

In the world of COVID-19, Turley has had to craft his sales pitch in a virtual manner. Despite the obvious drawbacks that entails, he's had some help in doing so from a familiar face, Colorado assistant director of player personnel Chandler Dorrell, who played a year of college football at Stanford under Turley in 2013.

Dorrell, along with his immediate superior, Bob Lopez, play a heavy role in designing virtual visits for visiting prospects and Dorrell in particular has aided Turley in the presentation of himself and his plan over a Zoom call.

"In the virtual world, that’s really where I’ve leaned on Chandler and his role in the recruiting process, to help give me the opportunity to contribute in a virtual visit," Turley said. "It’s something that we’ve worked together on and I’ve done the best I can in that process."

But at the end of the day, Turley is an in-person, face-to-face kind of guy. He, along with the rest of his sports performance colleagues across college sports, will continue to tough it out and handle their recruiting pitches in a virtual manner until at least May 31.

That said, Turley is hopeful that the NCAA recruiting dead period is lifted in the summer, at which point he can begin meeting with players and their families in-person to go over how he'll impact their lives should they choose Colorado, as well as get to work with the bulk of CU's incoming Class of 2021.

"I honestly look forward to the opportunity of getting our incoming class here in June and hopefully at the same time, getting the opportunity to meet more prospects for the next class and see them in-person," he said. "...(Virtual visits) are not the real, human experience, so I look forward to being able to engage players and parents in-person on campus, hopefully in June if the dead period ends, and try to prove my value to those families.”