In most offenses in football, fullbacks are often the invisible player. Their job is often regarded as the least glamorous position in the entire sport. The fullback often has to run straight ahead at an oncoming defender and stick his head into him. It’s not something a guy typically aspires to do in a football career.
In Oregon’s spread offense, the position doesn’t even exist. Within the spread, holes are created from the scheme itself; there isn’t a need for a guy to be clearing a way for the running back.
At least that was the case with Dennis Dixon running the offense. Dixon practically parted an opposing defense with the flick of a wrist – he was football’s equivalent to Moses, he and the offensive line created some gaping holes.
But with the Ducks’ current crop of less mobile, inexperienced quarterbacks, that hasn’t been the case and having that extra blocker to give freshmen Cody Kempt or Justin Roper that extra second in the pocket might be beneficial. Even a banged-up Jonathan Stewart could appreciate having a guy take the hit in front of him.
The discussion of a fullback in Oregon’s offense has often been a question many reporters the past two years have asked and was often met with sneers from the coaches who replied that the reporter didn’t know enough about football to ask that question. This year, the question seemed unfounded the way the offense was piling up yards. Why waste having a guy on the field if the hole was already there to begin with?
Still, after the Arizona game, questions arose about the Ducks’ scheme.
“I hear everybody say ‘Why don’t you get in an “I” formation?’ but until we recruit a fullback, it’s a little tough to get in an “I” formation,” offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was quoted saying before practice last week. “We take what we have player-wise and try to manipulate them and try to put them in positions where they have a chance to be successful.”
That comment hit hard for West L.A. junior college football coach Glen Turner who said Oregon does have a fullback. His son, junior Jason Turner, plays the position on the Ducks’ scout team.
“It broke my son’s heart,” Glen Turner said. “Those are fighting words. That’s a lie.”
Dad’s displeasure
Glen Turner said that Oregon coaches have told him for the past two years that his son would be featured in special packages as a fullback, particularly by Gary Crowton, last year’s offensive coordinator.
Those plans were in place until Jason Turner suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Oklahoma in 2006. Crowton, now Louisiana State University’s offensive coordinator told the Sporting News in February that he planned on using the power-running schemes that he now implements at LSU, but after Turner’s injury, those plans evaporated at Oregon. Instead, the offense operated without a fullback and has since.
But Glen Turner said that wasn’t what he was told after Crowton changed jobs. He talked to Kelly in the spring about Jason’s role and said there were still plans on using him as fullback in certain schemes.
That never happened when the offense exploded as Dixon matured and became a master of deception. There was no need for a fullback and Glen understood that.
But when Dixon went down and the offense fell in shambles, Glen thought the coaches would finally make his son a part of the offense, something they promised to do a long time ago. Nothing ever materialized.
“They lied to me all year long,” Glen Turner said. “I’ve lost all respect for that coaching staff.”
Glen accepts the fact that his son may only see the field sparingly, or not at all. Being a coach himself, he understands that coaches will always have preferences on what offenses are run and what players are used. But to lie to him, and then to the media is what caused him to speak out.
Glen said he’s talked to special teams/tight ends coach Tom Osborne multiple times about Jason. After persistently bugging Osborne about his son, Osborne finally relented and told Glen that Jason Turner wasn’t good enough to play a significant role.
That answer didn’t comfort Glen Turner at all. Not when Crowton and Oregon coach Mike Bellotti praised Jason Turner’s ability. Glen Turner said Bellotti approached him at one point and told him that Jason Turner was the only guy on the offense who could knock guys down. Why would Osborne and Kelly feel differently?
“I would have been happy with seven or eight plays a game,” Glen Turner said. “But if they give Jason a chance, they’re going to have to play him.”
He believes that favoritism, as well as personal pride, is playing a decisive role in the coaching staff’s decisions.
“I wished they just told me the truth,” Glen Turner said. “He could have played his fifth year somewhere else and had a ball.”
As a result, Glen said he would steer any junior college recruits interested in Oregon away from the school after the way his son’s situation was handled.
Jason’s struggle
Jason Turner was recruited out of West L.A. College as a linebacker but Crowton converted the 6-foot-2, 221-pound bruiser to block in his spread offense. Turner is currently listed as an H-back but hasn’t seen the field much this season.
“I come to the first day of fall camp and I’m an H-back, I guess,” Jason Turner said. “It was a little bit of a curveball so I’m just trying to make the best of it right now.”
Jason Turner, while he spoke about his role in a team-positive manner, it was obvious he was upset about missing the UCLA trip and tried to answer the questions in a non-controversial way.
“They needed other guys to make plays and travel,” he said. “I’m behind this team 100 percent and if they call for a fullback, I’ll be ready.”
While he continually said he respected the coaches’ decisions about what will give the Ducks the best chance to win, he wonders why he hasn’t been given the opportunity to show off his skills, particularly when the team needs him the most.
“All the defensive guys tell me I do a real good job at it,” Turner said. “They come back after games like USC and told me I was twice as good as that guy.”
It’s not just the defense players supporting him, he said some of the offensive linemen approached him and said he should talk to the coaches about his role in the offense.
“I told (the coaches) I’m ready if you guys need me, I’m healthy and ready to go,” Turner said. He said he’s been healthy for a couple of months after recovering from last year’s injury.
He talked to offensive line coach Steve Greatwood, who told him the coaches would discuss his role in Monday night’s gameplan. On Tuesday night, Kelly said that no such discussion occurred.
Jason Turner said that while Dixon was healthy “Dennis did a great job” and was fine with sitting on the sidelines, but after the injury, something had to give.
“I feel like sometimes it’s time to evolve,” Jason Turner said. “Some people are down and there’s an opportunity for me to help the team and I feel like I shouldn’t be marginalized and should be out there and given a shot.
“The best thing you can do is go out there everyday put your best foot forward and hopefully something comes about,” Jason Turner said. “But that hasn’t really been working, but we’ll see.”
On Tuesday, the day after the interview, Jason declined to have his photograph taken for this article. Glen Turner said that Jason is worried he’ll face repercussions from the coaching staff.
Both Osborne and Kelly declined to answer questions about their conversations with Glen Turner. Kelly said he would not discuss the deployment of personnel for games but Osborne has this to say: “Jason Turner is an awesome young man. I love coaching him. He has a great attitude. He’s a great person and a very positive member of our football team and he’s a great young man and he’ll do a great job at whatever he does when he’s done playing college football.”
Teammates want Turner playing
While the stor
y may sound simply like a father wanting to see his son on the field, the fact that members of the offensive line approached Jason Turner to speak out is a sign that there’s more to it. That, and part of Crowton’s running schemes were completely scrapped after the ACL injury, it doesn’t seem to be a matter of Turner not being good enough to play.
Freshman quarterback Cody Kempt seems to think he’d benefit from a having a fullback block for him in pass protection.
“That is a good thought, actually,” Kempt said. “I never thought of that.
“At fullback he’s amazing. He just blows up people left and right. He’s a beast.”
Former starting linebacker John Bacon, who is out of the season with an ACL injury, saw plenty of Turner when he used to play along side him when Turner used to be a linebacker and when faced off against in practice as a fullback.
“Jason’s an athlete that’s very diverse,” Bacon said. “We’ve seen him line up in that fullback position and do some great things. It would be really fun to see him in action and see what he can do.”
While Bacon didn’t think Turner’s exclusion is a result of his playing ability, he believes the fullback doesn’t have a place in a spread offense.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with his playing ability,” Bacon said. “The bad thing we’re coming to see in this day and age is the extinction of fullbacks.
“It’s tough for him that our offense changed since he’s been here.”
Tight end Ryan Keeling said that Jason Turner is a great player, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he should have a spot in the offense.
“My dad thinks I should be the starting tight end. Everyone’s dad thinks their kid should be starting,” Keeling said. “Everyone doesn’t realize that you can’t change the offense in one week.”
Chew you and spit you out
While Turner’s story is unfortunate, the nature of football is to use athletes and exploit them while sometimes never giving them the satisfaction of letting them play the way they’ve always dreamed of.
Coaches love to have players like Jason Turner because he’ll practice like his spot on the team depended on it in hopes of earning a starting role. Having players like him on the scout team only makes the entire team better. But when he never makes a significant contribution on the field, especially when a team’s offense is desperate for a spark after averaging 1.1 yards per carry in its last game, why wouldn’t the offensive coaches finally relent and give him a few looks to see how it turns out?
Maybe the coaches are tired of having Glen Turner in their ear, urging to get his son in the game, or maybe they don’t want popular opinion to dictate the way the offense is run. Or maybe Jason Turner simply isn’t good enough to start on offense.
With the way the unit’s been playing, and the way the season is ending, it would only make sense to try something different, or to give a guy who works his butt off every single day a chance to see what he can do. How hard would that be?
But that’s how the football machine works. It’ll take on skilled players willing to sacrifice their bodies for the benefit for the team and give them false hope about playing time they’ll never receive.
Despite it all, Glen Turner kept things in perspective and was satisfied knowing his son got an education, which is the most important thing, after all.
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