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BYU Football Unveils Retooled Strength And Conditioning Staff

Jan 16, 2024, 6:18 PM

BYU Football, Strength Conditioning, Christian Tupou...

Former USC Trojan, NFL player Christian Tupou is now part of the BYU football Strength & Conditioning staff. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

PROVO, Utah – BYU football continues to go through the grind of winter conditioning.

That means the 2024 Cougars are putting in a lot of work with the strength & conditioning staff.

BYU’s new roster has a retooled strength staff this season.

The program announced the restructured strength staff on Tuesday.

BYU’s head strength & conditioning coach remains Ryan Phillis. Phillis joined the BYU program last May, so this is his first full offseason guiding the program in the weight room.

The assistants under Phillis are where there is a shakeup. BYU retained Tanner Maher as associate director of strength & conditioning.

BYU Football Strength & Conditioning Staff for 2024 season

Then BYU brings in Tim Ismail from Army West Point, Zach Shaw from Archbishop Moeller High in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Christian Tupou from Oregon.

Tupou’s name should be familiar if you’re a diehard BYU football recruiting fan. He was a heralded defensive line recruit that BYU pursued heavily in the 2007 recruiting class.

Tupou signed with USC and then played in the NFL for three seasons.

After his playing days concluded, he spent some time as an actor. Then, after that, Tupou was a strength and conditioning coach at his alma mater, USC, and later Oregon.

Two assistants from last year’s strength staff are no longer with the program. Dalton Elliott was dismissed before the end of the regular season last November. Another assistant, Kalani Simeona, was not retained.

Sports scientists Coleby Clawson and Dr. Skyler Mayne oversee the entire strength and conditioning department.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X and Threads: @Mitch_Harper.

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BYU Football Unveils Retooled Strength And Conditioning Staff