The Cardinal Countdown: 90 Days Until Kickoff

#90 Jacques Turner

Class: RS Senior

Ht/Wt: 6-1/290

Position: Defensive Line

Hometown: D’Iberville, MS

Twitter: N/A

Thoughts: The Cards pulled in a great pickup from the transfer portal less than two months ago in the form of Jacques Turner out of Southern Miss (shout out C-USA days). Turner stayed closed to home out of high school, growing up on the banks of Mullet Lake Jacques traveled 79 miles down the road and played three seasons for the Golden Eagles before entering his name into the portal. Turner was a big get because of the issues I mentioned a couple days ago relating to the void at nose tackle. Satterfield and Ivey knew they needed depth and they sold Turner on some immediate playing time opening up with graduations/departures. Turner also has a relationship with Coach Nicholson (ILB) who was previously at Southern Miss coaching on the line. So how does Turner fit in this mix?

While many point to Turner to walk on campus and chisel his name in base of the Unitas statue as starter at nose tackle I’m a bit more hesitant. Turner sat out all of 2020 due to COVID concerns which means he hasn’t played a snap of football that counts since the end of the 2019 season, and while I have no doubt he’s remained in solid shape another little “tidbit” of information is that he has never really played nose tackle either. Southern Miss appears to have run an a modified 3-4 where they put another guy on the line which meant Turner was mostly seeing reps as a tackle with some time off the edge as well when they went true 3-4. Does some of that translate to playing in the middle of a 3-4, absolutely, but that nose position is just challenging to pickup in one offseason (see; Robinson, G.G.). So while I’m still very excited about Turner and what he can do I want to avoid the savior title being applied a tad early in the process.

I went back and watched some Southern Miss tape (you guys owe me) and I liked his quickness and the way he used his hands up front. You can see some of that in this short clip as well…

I think a guy who consistently got to the QB and brought him down 4-5 times in each of his first three seasons is not a fly by night player, and he will absolutely get reps somewhere on the line I just want to give him a chance to prove it before we crown him Vince Wolfork Jr.

Glad to have Jacques around even if for only one season as I think his experience, similar to Malik Clark, will translate well to the younger players

Sweet Tweet:

Since Turner appears to no longer have a twitter account I pulled a relevant tweet that highlights some career accolades during his time at USM. He is a disruptor without question, and I look forward to seeing what he can do in the ACC.