Conn: Turner unsung hero of secondary

Clemson Tigers junior safety Nolan Turner may have come from a small town outside Birmingham, Ala., to an even smaller town in Upstate South Carolina, but according to coaches, he has the innate skills and football “pedigree” to help his team return to the national title spotlight.

CLEMSON — Clemson Tigers junior safety Nolan Turner may have come from a small town outside Birmingham, Ala., to an even smaller town in Upstate South Carolina, but according to coaches, he has the innate skills and football “pedigree” to help his team return to the national title spotlight.

Turner sometimes gets “overlooked” in the secondary because he didn’t have the media exposure of some athletes coming out of high school and only received one offer to play college football, according to safeties coach Mickey Conn.

That offer came, not from his father, Kevin Turner’s alma mater of Alabama, but from Clemson.

“He is a tremendous athlete,” Conn said about Nolan. “I mean, unbelievable athlete. You're talking about a 6-foot-2, 195-pound kid that can run, change direction. I think his hips, his ability to be able to swivel his hips and change direction. His vision is unbelievable, and he has a great understanding of the defense.”

“(I) would like (him to be) a little bit bigger and improve on his tackling a little bit more. But from where he's come from, I think his confidence has just skyrocketed with him being able to get out there and play.”

Conn said Turner has multiple components necessary to becoming a vital part of the Tigers’ defense.

“So the ability to do it is there, and now the confidence is coming with it, so I'm expecting big things from Nolan,” Conn said, giving a nod to Turner's deep roots in the game. Conn said Kevin Turner was a standout player at the fullback position.

The elder Turner played for eight seasons in the NFL before succumbing to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Kevin rushed for 635 yards and finished with more than 2,000 receiving yards during his professional career.

“He's a got a great pedigree,” Conn said about the younger Turner.

“His dad was a tremendous athlete and played several years in the NFL and was a tremendous athlete himself,” Conn said. “A lot of the same attributes, different positions. Dad was a fullback but had great vision, great hands and great ability to avoid people and that sort of thing. Nolan has that ability with his hips, change direction, and his vision (is) just really, really good.”

Conn said players like Turner often get a chance to shine and can gain valuable playing time because of the system head coach Dabo Swinney has put in place.

“Get them in the game, even if it's one play in a game or three plays in a game,” Conn said. “That's going to make a world of difference in these guys. So we were able to do that with Nolan and then started him in our dime package and our nickel stuff, and he just got better, and better and better.”

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