| Don’t tell Broncos RB coach Bobby Turner he has an easy
job. Sure, having one of the NFL’s truly elite performers, RB Terrell Davis,
playing for you might seem like a trip down Easy Street. After all, coaching Davis is in
some ways like having Michael Jordan on your basketball team — no matter what you do
or how you coach, the great players will always make you look good.
Don’t tell Turner he is lucky either.
Though he says he is grateful for having a player like Davis on his team, Turner is
quick to point out that Davis was not a self-made superstar coming out of college.
"People seem to forget that Terrell Davis had to be coached into a great running
back," Turner says. "There are certain things we look for in a running back
coming out of college, and he had those things.
"People say I have it made because I’m coaching Terrell Davis, but I have to
instruct him. I have to tell him to get wider or get closer (around the ends)."
There certainly has to be more to it than that. After all, when Davis was drafted out
of Georgia in the sixth round of the 1995 draft, not many people saw a star in the making.
Turner was one of the few who saw something more than a late-round afterthought.
"He was the person we were looking to draft," Turner says. "We were
hoping he’d still be there (in the sixth round). He was the guy we wanted."
It is not often that a sixth-round choice will produce the fourth 2,000-yard rushing
performance in league history, but Davis did when he rushed for 2,008 yards last season.
It is not often that a sixth-round choice becomes a Super Bowl MVP, which Davis became
in the first of Denver’s back-to-back championships two seasons ago.
And it is not often that a sixth-round choice helps make an already great quarterback,
John Elway, into one of the best of all time by providing a punishing running game to
complement Elway’s golden arm.
But if you tell Turner he has been nothing but lucky as he enters his fifth season with
the Broncos, you might get him a little riled up.
"Now, I know I get emotional," Turner says, "but it’s all right to
be emotional. We spent a lot of time and effort on him. We did a lot of groundwork. We
didn’t just say ‘Hey, there’s Terrell Davis. Let’s pick him.’ We
did our homework."
Davis and Turner both entered the league in 1995.
Turner had previously served as an assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and RB
coach at Purdue. He had also coached at Ohio State, Fresno State and Indiana State, where
he starred in football as a defensive back and in basketball before beginning his coaching
career in the mid-’70s.
His college pupils provide a fine indication of the kind of results he has produced.
Turner coached Buccaneers FB Mike Alstott at Purdue and Vikings RB Robert Smith, among
others, at Ohio State. Other current or former NFLers who have worked under Turner include
Raymont Harris, Aaron Carver, Scottie Graham and Jeff Cothran.
"We’re looking for certain characteristics in players we draft and that I
recruit," Turner says. "We want players who want to win. Our jobs are on the
line every Sunday. And the bottom line is, players (have) got to produce."
But for all of his success, some people might still look at Turner and all the running
backs he has coached and think luck has been on his side. After all, his job description
limits his impact on the whole team. He has only five or six players to worry about on a
53-man roster.
"I have to know the game," Turner says. "I take pride in knowing the
offensive linemen’s assignments and how to pick up the blitz and knowing what the
defense is doing, so I can take that information and give it to the players. I need to
know the players are ready.
"The technical part of the game is something I’m still learning. I’m
coaching all the way up to game time. I’m coaching my butt off to get every possible
piece of information to our players."
When he provides information to Davis, Turner is giving it to a superstar.
Oddly enough, Turner had a chance near the beginning of his career to provide
information to another superstar — in the basketball arena.
During his tenure as an ISU football assistant, Turner was offered the chance to coach
on the 1978-79 Indiana State basketball team. The team’s star was Larry Bird, and it
made it all the way to the national-championship game before losing to Magic
Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans. But Turner decided football was his calling.
"It would have been a heck of an opportunity (to coach Bird)," Turner says.
"I remember walking around Indiana while I was recruiting, telling people about Larry
before anyone knew who he was. He became everything I thought he would."
Now, at 50 years old, Turner said there is more he wants out of his career.
Though he is happy about being a part of two Super Bowl-championship teams and a number
of winning teams in college, as well as coaching many players to success in the NFL, he is
not yet totally satisfied.
"I consider myself a coach, period," Tuner said. "Not a running-backs
coach, but a coach. And the only thing I haven’t achieved is head coach. My dream is
to be a head coach. Obviously, even with the success I’ve had, that’s the only
thing I haven’t achieved. I’d like to be a head coach in college or the
pros."
Should that occur, he’ll try his hand at developing more superstars. And not just
at the RB position. |
