ARLINGTON, Texas — Jamal Turner doesn't get overwhelmed with admiration much anymore, which is why that moment in June at Nebraska's quarterback camp sticks out.
The NU recruit gathered with the other high school signal-callers, all of them watching and listening as a former Husker starter ran through line-of-scrimmage protocol as if he were reciting the alphabet.
Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson was dishing out the rapid-fire questions. Joe Ganz had all the answers.
And Turner, captivated, started feeling like he did as a 10-year-old kid who used to hop the chain-link fence on Friday nights to watch his idols. Amazed.
“Coach would be like, ‘OK, if they're in a Cover 2, what are you looking for?' And (Ganz) just starts blaring out stuff,” Turner said. “He started calling plays, saying what he'd check to when they did this, this and that. It was cool to know that he knows the game that well.
“I'm like, ‘Wow. I want to be just like that in a few years.' ”
Every now and then, Turner forgets how close to reality that actually is.
He wants to reach the point that he's so comfortable with the checklist-like requirements associated with the QB spot that it's all habitual. No thinking, just reacting. Then his talent can take over.
The 6-foot-1, 175-pounder is the new-age quarterback — capable of running 40 yards in 4.4 seconds but also able to accurately deliver a football to receivers downfield. As a junior last year at Sam Houston High School, a Class 5A school in Arlington, Texas, Turner ran 224 times for 1,809 yards, while completing 61.8 percent of his 249 passes for 1,816.
Scout.com ranks Turner No. 9 among quarterbacks in the 2011 recruiting class. Rivals.com rates him as the sixth-best dual-threat quarterback and the 20th-best player in Texas.
What's difficult to measure, though, is Turner's aptitude for football, his ability to comprehend and apply the game's schematic elements in an instant. That's where he hopes he'll have an advantage when he joins Nebraska's squad next year.
“If I want to be successful, it's going to take time. I understand that,” he said. “So I work hard.”
His pledge to NU remains nonbinding until February, but Turner plans to enroll a semester early. He's spent the last few months waking up at 6 a.m. for summer school. Then, in the afternoon, online courses take three hours. He works out with his teammates just before dinner.
The hard work will pay off when he arrives in Lincoln, Turner says.
He wants the starting quarterback job.
But then again, so do young Huskers such as Cody Green and Taylor Martinez. Freshman QB Brion Carnes will be in preseason camp Saturday. Two-sport standout Bubba Starling may ultimately agree to a baseball contract, but he'll sign a letter of intent before that.
At Nebraska's quarterback spot, there soon won't be much margin for error.
“I don't care about that. I'm competitive, too,” Turner said. “That's how I've always been.”
Turner grew up playing street football just a few blocks away from Sam Houston, where he'd sneak into games until he and his junior high school team were good enough to get invited.
As a sophomore at Sam Houston, Turner earned the right to direct the pass-first offense, structured like the Mike Leach attack at Texas Tech. It took time for him to master the game's mental side, though.
A few years ago, coach Danny Edelman and his staff spent four hours inserting their plays into a Madden NFL video game. That served as the basis for Turner's first tutorials. He got quizzed at the lunch table, in the hallways and after school.
“He was learning passing game integrity, just pocket awareness, controlling a game, route concepts, reads, all the different things that it takes to have a dominant passing attack,” Edelman said. “I wanted him to visualize it, memorize it, know it — like his girlfriend's phone number.”
Turner has spent two years learning not to underestimate a playbook. He's hungry for more.
“People say you've got a busy schedule. But you know, it's not even busy to me anymore,” Turner said. “I know nothing's going to be given to me. I've just got to keep working hard.”
Contact the writer:
402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com
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