Jack Turner's time is here

Jack Turner’s football career has been a waiting game.

From prep days at Cedar Ridge High School to the Division I level at Louisiana Tech, his time on the bench has outweighed his in-game action. In both his junior and senior seasons at Cedar Ridge, he served as backup quarterback. Two years at Navarro Junior College went the same way as he appeared in seven games from 2020-21 with 26 pass attempts to his name.

No starts to speak of. And in his first two seasons at Louisiana Tech, Turner played the familiar role of reserve again, with Hank Bachmeier starting the season behind center in 2023 before he went down four games with a shoulder injury. Turner filled in for four starts, only for Bachmeier to replace him once he was back to full health.

In 2022, three other quarterbacks started games over him as the Bulldogs struggled to find a dependable answer to run their offense.

You get the idea. Turner’s been passed over more than he’s passed downfield in his recent football life.

But now, he’s preparing for his shot — a chance to make up for lost time and opportunities not afforded — after Sonny Cumbie officially named him Tech’s starting quarterback for the 2024 season at Conference USA Media Day on Tuesday.

As you might have guessed, Turner was thrilled to hear the news and have his patience finally pay off.

“There’s definitely a lot of excitement. You can feel it inside you a little bit that it’s around the corner,” Turner said. “Excited to do it with the group that we’re with. We’ve been working really hard this summer and I’m really excited to see what the guys have been doing. There’s been a lot of growth and maturity this summer. I’m excited for us to put it on the field, perform and show the country what we can do.

“There’s still pressure on me from behind because the quarterback room pushes me and forces me every day to work really hard and to stay after it. I think taking and drawing from all my experiences in the past, I know what it takes to prepare on a week-toweek basis. I’m able to make tweaks from years past. I’m really excited to go into this year in the position I’m in and lead the younger guys behind me.”

Turner, a redshirt junior, put up 1,017 yards with 5 touchdowns and 5 interceptions in eight games last season, including a career-high 292 yards with a touchdown and pick in his first career start at Nebraska on Sept. 23. The experience proved to be a mixed bag for Turner as he got his feet wet last fall, but it was time well spent according to Cumbie.

For the third-year head coach still searching for the right recipe to turn Tech around, Turner’s moment feels like the stars finally aligning. Cumbie believes what Turner lacks in game experience is made up for with pure leadership qualities — someone who’s earned the respect of teammates by doing things the hard way, having not been given anything. Years of watching and listening should matter.

“I think it’ll help in terms of who the guys look to. I think undoubtedly, they look to him for their leadership,” Cumbie said. “And that’s not different from any offense. You go as your quarterback goes. I think the experience he had last year of starting and the experiences he had playing are only going to help him learn and grow and be better this year. I think our players look to him and they follow him. This is another opportunity for him to show that leadership style off the field and then hopefully when we get on the field, he’s got the skins on the wall to go out and do that and have credibility with our players.”

Teammates following Turner’s example isn’t just a bending-of-the- knee to the team’s newly named starter. On the first day of spring practice on March 25, Cumbie said, “I think if you were to quiz our guys who was the top leader of our football team, probably 100 percent would answer him.”

And the Bulldogs certainly need Turner to be ‘the’ guy this fall as three straight 3-9 seasons have taken the program from CUSA contender status to the worst record of all FBS schools in Louisiana (9-27) in that period.

A lack of stable quarterback play has been among the many reasons why that’s taken place, with the Bulldogs unable to have a true season-long quarterback since before COVID-19.

Since the 2020 season, Tech’s week one starting quarterback has not had more than eight starts in a season. The last time Tech had a true starter was J’Mar Smith, Tech’s week one starter in 2019, who started 11 of the team’s 13 games that year — the last winning season for the program.

Turner is up for the challenge of not just showing he’s worthy of the starting job but leading Tech back into respectability.

“I think the biggest thing is just winning,” Turner said of his personal goals. “The last two years while I’ve been here, we’ve struggled to do that. We’ve had a lot of talent and a lot of guys that are capable of doing great things, but we haven’t been able to put that together. That’s my goal for us is to come together as a team and be able to win.”

But why take on such responsibility given his lack of college starts or prolonged stretches of playing time? What makes Turner confident in himself and the system around him to make 2024 different?

It’s the fact that he’s waited and worked to get here. No point in backing down from the spotlight now.

“I think honestly it comes from a desire to lead,” Turner said. “I’ve always had a desire to lead, a desire to have a voice. And quite frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever been in the position to. It’s been a lot of waiting and learning from others and seeing others lead. But now, I feel like I am in a position, and I do have a platform to lead. A lot of trial by error. There are some things that I’ve tried and said, ‘I don’t necessarily like how I do that’ and go back to the drawing board and try to figure out what is my way to lead.

“The biggest thing I think is just serving those guys around me. Just doing my best every day to build them up. There are a lot of guys with a lot of talent and ability, and sometimes they don’t even realize it. Just building those guys up and making them aware of how talented and capable they are.”

Turner will lead Tech in its season opener on Aug. 31 against Nicholls State at Joe Aillet Stadium.