For Turner, 'Ready' Meant 'Right Away'
Junior Quarterback Returns as Starter in Road Game vs. Middle Tennessee State

By Eric Prisbell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 4, 2008 11:20 PM

If Chris Turner had collected his belongings two weeks ago and transferred to a West Coast school, he would be adjusting to unfamiliar surroundings Saturday and counting the days until next season's training camp, his first chance to compete for a starting quarterback job. But because Turner remained at Maryland, he suddenly finds himself a starting quarterback for the foreseeable future.

"It has been a roller-coaster, for sure," Turner said. "I don't know -- here I am. I'm happy with my choice to stay, obviously."

Going from one-foot-out-the-door to once-again starter in 18 days is a story uniquely found in college sports, where fortunes change quickly and stay-or-go decisions divert career paths. A California native, dispirited over losing a quarterback competition and encouraged by his father to return closer to home, decides to stay on the East Coast because of a comfort zone, a girlfriend and a politics-driven passion. An injury to the starting quarterback in the season opener then thrusts the 20-year-old back into the starting job he failed to win a few weeks earlier.

The lesson for all players, Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen said, is "you need to be ready; anything can happen. You need to be prepared, and when your opportunity comes, take advantage of it."

When Turner lost the three-way quarterback battle to Jordan Steffy on Aug. 18 and decided two days later to stay at Maryland, he figured it was "inevitable" he would play at some point this season, given the unpredictable nature of the position. He just never thought the opportunity to start would come in the season's second week -- in Saturday's game at Middle Tennessee State -- and never thought Steffy would fracture his right thumb in the second half of the season-opening victory against Delaware.

Turner encountered a similar turn of events last season, when he replaced Steffy in the third quarter of the Sept. 29 game against Rutgers and wound up starting the final eight games of the season. On Wednesday, Turner shook his head about Steffy's star-crossed career and said the promotion is bittersweet because he feels almost as if he did not earn or deserve the position.

Steffy is not expected to return to the field for a month, so when Turner jogs onto the Floyd Stadium field Saturday night, before no more than 30,000 fans in Murfreesboro, Tenn., he will have the opportunity to begin solidifying his status as the starter in the minds of many parties.

Turner, for instance, can win over the confidence of teammates, even though he believes he and Steffy already have the confidence of the team. Friedgen had said that two-thirds of veteran players polled in August about the quarterback competition preferred Steffy, and center Edwin Williams, while also praising Turner, has repeatedly said Steffy was the most prepared player, and by a significant margin.

Turner can also re-energize a fan base that largely disapproved with Friedgen's decision to start Steffy. Ever since Turner helped lead the Terrapins to victories over two top-10 teams, Rutgers and Boston College, the son of the former drummer from the 1980s heavy-metal band RATT has been a quasi-rock star on campus. Noting Turner's curly golden locks, fans affectionately nicknamed Turner "Sunshine Cali" and "Napoleon Dynamite." On one occasion, Turner walked through the parking lot after a game, only to be greeted with fans blaring RATT's two-decade-old hit "Round and Round" from their truck.

And, perhaps most important, Turner can ease the concerns of Friedgen, who once said Turner acts sometimes as if he is "on Pluto." In recent weeks, Friedgen has commended Turner on how he handled losing the quarterback competition and said he has confidence in Turner. But most often, Friedgen has offered tepid praise. When asked Wednesday how Turner has performed in practice this week, Friedgen said: "Okay."

Turner has long fought the perception that he excels in games but lags in practice. In the spring, he vowed that the description fit the "old Chris, not the new Chris." But practice performance in the spring and summer ultimately separated Steffy from Turner on the opening-game depth chart.

In a phone interview before the season, his father, John Turner, likened his son's laid-back demeanor to "being a billionaire sitting at your work table. You have got to make a decision, and you are making it because it is the right decision, not based on emotion. He is able to do that day in and day out. A lot of us get caught up in how pumped up we are. Is that extra anxiety or jumping up and down going to make a better play? It doesn't."

Turner performed particularly well in practice in the days following losing the quarterback competition, and Friedgen felt as if the setback might have stirred a hunger within the usually easygoing Turner.

"Did it light a fire in me?" Turner said. "It lit a fire in me in the sense that I had to be ready. I knew that I had to be ready because, here we are."