The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazer Profile: Senior Defensive End Bryant Turner
10/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 12, 2010
By Sarah Fitzpatrick
UAB Athletic Media Relations
With an athletic upbringing and an impressive sports résumé to date, one would probably assume that UAB defensive end Bryant Turner is an avid sports fan. You know, the typical 20-something male athlete that lives and breathes college and professional sports. Turner is not your average sports fan.
Growing up, Turner played every sport under the sun, including basketball, softball, track & field, soccer, and of course, football. In high school, the Daphne, Ala., native narrowed his sports down to football and track & field. He was all-state honorable mention in Class 6A as a defensive lineman and helped lead his team to the state championship game as a senior. He also had success in track & field, finishing as the runner-up in the shot put at the state meet his senior year.
At UAB, Turner has played a significant role on the Blazer defense the last three seasons, seeing action in every game. Last season, he finished with 23 tackles, including 15 for a loss. He also had six sacks and blocked a kick in the Green and Gold's season opener against Rice.
Already in 2010, Turner is on track for another successful season. He has recorded seven tackles for a loss, including five sacks. As of Oct. 2, he was tied for third nationally and ranked third in Conference USA in sacks. He is No. 7 all-time at UAB in sacks with 16.
But give Turner the option to attend the BCS national championship game or go to the local movie theatre to check out the newest release, and you might be surprised with his answer.
"I'm not a big sports fan really," Turner says. "One thing most people don't know about me is that if I were given the choice to either go to a big sporting event or go to the movies, I would probably go see the movie. When we had the day off, I watched TV from 3 p.m. until I went to sleep. I didn't watch anything sports-related during that whole stretch."
No SportsCenter? No ESPN College GameDay? Not even a little Monday Night Football?
"During the season I'll check on scores just to keep up with how other teams are doing, but other than that, most of the time when I get back from a game, I watch TV shows because I don't really want to watch football. I couldn't care less about watching other sports, too. Sometimes I'll get sucked into watching different games if my teammates are all watching, but I don't watch sports normally."
Another thing Blazer fans might not know about UAB's starting defensive end is his involvement with his fraternity. When he's not fulfilling Blazer football duties, Turner is busy serving as the president of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated. While the coaches know about Turner's presidential duties and are not always thrilled about it, Turner works hard to balance his time between the team and his fraternity.
Before you start envisioning a scene out of Animal House, Turner's fraternity devotes a lot of time to helping out the local community.
"We stay busy holding educational tables and doing a lot of community service. We typically prefer to do things with kids, so we are often at the nearby Glen Iris Elementary School helping out with field days. Our fraternity also performs step shows for local kids. I think the last place we did it was Bessemer High School. I am out there with the guys and I think I'm pretty good at it. We enjoy it and the kids find it pretty entertaining, so everyone has a good time."
The fact that Turner chose to be the leader of his fraternity should not be a surprise to anyone, considering his leadership role on the UAB football team. He is one of the few athletes remaining on the team that was at UAB during the changing of the coaching staffs. Turner redshirted during the former staff's final season at UAB and saw his first action in 2007 as a redshirt freshman during head coach Neil Callaway's first season.
"I've seen the ups and downs with the two different coaches. Only a few of us have witnessed the big difference with the new coaching staff. We're all pretty much on the same page concerning where we're trying the get this program. We know that we are like forefathers of the program, so we're going to take hits, but we take it all in stride. It's getting easier because more people are starting to take on leadership roles on the offense and defense of this team. We've helped bring the younger players up to get on the same page of the coaches, and everybody is pretty much working together. The leadership part is becoming easier because we're all becoming leaders."
While Turner is a leader both on and off the field, his leadership comes largely into play on game day. While he relies on the linebackers to get the defense pumped up and ready to play, he concentrates his efforts on preparing the defensive line for the first snap of the game.
"The linebackers control the defense, so I leave it up to the them to lead the whole defense. I try to stick strictly to the defensive line and make sure that everybody's focused because it all starts up front. A lot of people say the offensive and defensive lines are where the game is won, and I believe that is the truth. So, I try to focus more on that part because offensive linemen and defensive linemen have different ways of getting ready for a game. It seems like (the defensive line) has to be completely focused, while other teammates have to free their minds of all the stress. For example, the defensive backs and wide receivers don't want stress before the game.
"To get the defensive line ready to go before the game, we sit down and talk about what we need to focus on in this game in particular and what we need to do on the first snap. Prior to the Tennessee game, we were saying that we needed to go out and hit them in the mouth on the first snap and let them know that we were just as physical as they are. The most difficult part is getting them ready for the first snap of the game, but from then on, it's pretty easy."
So far this season Turner thinks that the defense has done a good job of playing physical and continues to improve as the season goes on.
"I feel like we have been doing well. We haven't kept all of our goals, but we've been playing physical. The effort is there, and we've had just a few mistakes, which at practice, I felt that we have made up for. We're correcting those mistakes, so I feel pretty good. We're going up not down or staying even."
For the rest of the season, Turner's goals for the team include everyone improving their game. The coaches grade the team after every game and he would like for everyone's grades to go up. The defense is currently receiving between a 65-70 percent for its performance, which is average, so he would like for himself and his teammates to continue doing the right things.
"If our opponents beat us, let it be because they're faster or something. I don't want it to be a mistake on our end that causes us to get beat. I'd rather it be that the other team just made a great play call, perfect pass, perfect catch or something along those lines rather than an error on our part."
With UAB halfway through the season, Turner and the Blazers are focused on working hard, righting the team's mistakes thus far and getting on the winning track. The only difference between Turner and his teammates is that after a hard day on the gridiron, you're more likely to find him cracking up to Peter Griffin on his favorite show Family Guy than checking out the latest sports news on ESPN.
