John Turner has a new job starting today, though he won’t actually be coaching for quite a while.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s offensive line coach the past five seasons, Turner has accepted a similar job at South Alabama, which is in the process of launching its football program and won’t play its first game until 2009.
Turner is in Mobile and starting his new job today, though an official announcement of his hiring isn’t expected until Wednesday.
“It’s an exciting opportunity because they haven’t bought a helmet yet, they haven’t bought a jersey yet ... it’s wide open and nothing is set in place,” Turner said. “It will be interesting to see how it progresses from the ground floor up and to be a part of the process of starting a program.”
Turner was one of Mocs coach Rodney Allison’s first hires when Allison took over the program in 2003 and was the last remaining member of that first staff; he was promoted to assistant head coach in January 2006. Turner and Allison also worked together at Clemson in 2001 and at Auburn in 1997.
“Rodney’s been great to me. He’s done a lot for me, and he’s been very instrumental in my career,” Turner said. “Rodney and I have been together for most of the last 10 years, and I actually, when I took the job at Clemson, lived with him and his family for about two months.”
Allison’s response to that: “He wouldn’t leave. I finally had to kick him out.”
Jokes aside, Allison said he was happy to see Turner move on to an exciting opportunity at South Alabama.
“John’s done a good job for us here,” Allison said Sunday. “I appreciate everything he’s done since he’s been here, and I appreciate his loyalty.”
South Alabama, which plans to play a full Football Bowl Subdivision schedule by 2013, hired former Birmingham Southern coach Joey Jones as its inaugural head coach earlier this month. Turner and Jones got to know one another more than a decade ago when they were both coaching high school football in Alabama. Turner, who recruited in Alabama for UTC, coached at three high schools in the state, including UMS-Wright in Mobile.
With no games this fall, Turner said it was going to feel strange not being on the sideline for the first time in many years.
“That will be the first (fall) I haven’t coached a game in about 20 years, and going back to my playing days it’s probably been 30 years since I haven’t been involved on either Friday night or Saturday afternoon,” he said. “I might actually get to enjoy a Saturday afternoon without all the stress of coaching.”
The departure of Turner is also a loss for University because his wife, Kim, is the assistant dean in the College of Business at UTC (she will stay in town through the end of the semester).
With the departure of Turner, the only assistant coaches that are still around from the end of the 2007 season are offensive coordinator Carmen Felus, wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Jason McManus and defensive backs coach Bobby Allison. Of the seven coaches that have accepted jobs elsewhere, three went to FBS programs and one went to the NFL.
Allison has already interviewed several candidates to replace Turner and said the position will likely be filled in the next day or two.
John Frierson is in his fifth year at the Times Free Press and fifth year covering University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletics. The bulk of his time is spent covering Mocs football, but he also writes about women’s basketball and the big-picture issues and news involving the athletic department. A native of Athens, Ga., John grew up a few hundred yards from the University of Georgia campus. Instead of becoming a Bulldog he attended Ole ...
