Former University of Idaho and NFL punter T.J. Conley has been promoted to assistant athletic director for athletic performance for the Eastern Washington University athletic department.
 
He will have oversight of the entire sports performance department at EWU and direct the training of all 14 varsity sports and a staff of six assistants, which include a trio of graduate assistants.  While overseeing the entire program and assisting with all teams, he will work primarily with men's and women's basketball. 
 
Conley has been at Eastern since April of 2019 as an assistant athletic performance coach while working with men's and women's basketball and assisting with football. While at EWU, he completed his master's degree in physical education in 2020.
 
Conley is a 2004 graduate of DeSales High School in Walla Walla, Wash., where he was a three-sport All-State athlete (football, basketball, & baseball), and then played football at Idaho as a punter. He graduated in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.
 
He spent six seasons with three National Football League teams from 2009-14, including his first four years with the New York Jets where he broke a franchise record for net punting and led the NFL in fair catches in 2011. While he was with the Jets, he did an internship with the team's strength and conditioning department.
 
Conley also spent 2 1/2 years working part-time at U-District Physical Therapy in Spokane, while coaching kickers, punters and long snappers at Whitworth from May of 2016 to August of 2018. He also was a strength and conditioning coach at Gonzaga from August 2017 to June 2018 before joining EWU in August of 2018 as a graduate assistant working with the football team. He took over a full-time position in April of 2019.
 
He and his wife, Tassie, have two children -- Brayden (9) and McKenzie (7).