AJ Turner is back with South Carolina’s offense. How he’s impressing his new coach
March 19, 2019
THE STATE
Before Tuesday, South Carolina running backs coach Thomas Brown‘s main experience with AJ Turner as a tale back was limited to watching cut ups of his film.
The Gamecocks senior’s sojourn to defensive back ended with the second week of spring practice. Was there any rust to knock off.
“No, he’s a ball-player,” Brown said. “He’s good to go every day.”
Turner taking a turn at defensive back has been a point of interest since December. The small runner chips in on almost every special teams unit and was a good safety in high school, so it stands to reason he could do a little something on that side of the ball.
But that distracts from a more central point: Turner has been a pretty solid running back through his three years. Once he got back on the field, it matched what Brown saw on tape.
“”He’s a hard-working guy,” Brown said. “Very explosive on some moves in the open field and also has some ball skills out of the backfield. Looking forward to him doing more, competing more and also add more leadership to the room. We need that.”
In his first two seasons, it seemed as if work just found Turner. He emerged as a redshirt freshman starter in 2016, and even as Rico Dowdle came on, Turner ended up a 497-yard back. The next year, he had more competition from Dowdle and Ty’Son Williams, but managed to lead the team with 531 yards.
Last season there were some injuries and a smaller workload, but when he got the ball, he averaged 6.4 yards per carry.
Brown admitted Turner is sometimes getting pulled in all different directions. Coleman Hutzler wants him as a “special teams warrior.” Will Muschamp and Travaris Robinson are taking up chunks of his time as a reserve on defense.
But what he adds to the running back room goes behind a season pair of hands toting the ball.
“AJ is probably one of the more mature guys I have in the room,” Brown said. “He’s really studies in the meeting room as far as taking notes, asking questions. He’s got his silly side to him, but obviously when it’s time to get down to business, he can obviously go attack it.”
March 19, 2019
THE STATE
Before Tuesday, South Carolina running backs coach Thomas Brown‘s main experience with AJ Turner as a tale back was limited to watching cut ups of his film.
The Gamecocks senior’s sojourn to defensive back ended with the second week of spring practice. Was there any rust to knock off.
“No, he’s a ball-player,” Brown said. “He’s good to go every day.”
Turner taking a turn at defensive back has been a point of interest since December. The small runner chips in on almost every special teams unit and was a good safety in high school, so it stands to reason he could do a little something on that side of the ball.
But that distracts from a more central point: Turner has been a pretty solid running back through his three years. Once he got back on the field, it matched what Brown saw on tape.
“”He’s a hard-working guy,” Brown said. “Very explosive on some moves in the open field and also has some ball skills out of the backfield. Looking forward to him doing more, competing more and also add more leadership to the room. We need that.”
In his first two seasons, it seemed as if work just found Turner. He emerged as a redshirt freshman starter in 2016, and even as Rico Dowdle came on, Turner ended up a 497-yard back. The next year, he had more competition from Dowdle and Ty’Son Williams, but managed to lead the team with 531 yards.
Last season there were some injuries and a smaller workload, but when he got the ball, he averaged 6.4 yards per carry.
Brown admitted Turner is sometimes getting pulled in all different directions. Coleman Hutzler wants him as a “special teams warrior.” Will Muschamp and Travaris Robinson are taking up chunks of his time as a reserve on defense.
But what he adds to the running back room goes behind a season pair of hands toting the ball.
“AJ is probably one of the more mature guys I have in the room,” Brown said. “He’s really studies in the meeting room as far as taking notes, asking questions. He’s got his silly side to him, but obviously when it’s time to get down to business, he can obviously go attack it.”
