Turner West is making his return to college football as the Governors’ linebackers coach after spending the previous four season as a defensive assistant for the Dallas Cowboys.
While with the Cowboys, West worked with Passing Game Coordinator/Linebackers Coach Matt Eberflus, where he assisted with the development of the linebackers. His star pupil during his time in Dallas was Sean Lee, one of the top linebackers in the NFL. In 2016, Lee recorded career highs with 174 tackles and 12 tackles for loss. He was named All-Pro and earned his second consecutive Pro Bowl nod.
Linebackers Anthony Hitchens and Rolando McClain both had multiple strong campaigns while West was an assistant coach.
Prior to Dallas, West spent two years (2012-13) as a graduate assistant, working with quarterbacks and wide receivers, at Middle Tennessee State.
Before working at MTSU, West spent the spring of 2012 with Samford University as a volunteer coach, helping with quarterbacks. In 2011 West served as an intern at UAB, working with the school’s wide receivers.
West played wide receiver at Memphis from 2006-10 for his father, head coach Tommy West.
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The West File
College: Memphis, 2010 (interdisciplinary studies)
Coaching:
2018 – Austin Peay (Linebackers)
2014-17 – Dallas Cowboys (Assistant Linebackers)
2012-13 – Middle Tennessee (Graduate Assistant/Quarterbacks, Wide Receivers)
2011 – UAB (Intern/Quarterbacks)
Healy on West: “Turner West has had experience you can’t pay for, being the assistant linebackers coach and seeing what it’s done like at the highest level I think automatically grabs your attention. He’s a great person, he works extremely hard, he’s a great recruiter, and I think our guys have related very well to him and respect what he does and how he does it.”
