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Jordan Turner back home with Michigan State football team, where he always wanted to be
Linebacker and Wisconsin transfer is leading tackler for Spartans
Oct. 17, 2024 12:49 pm, Updated: Oct. 17, 2024 1:39 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS — The dream. It took awhile.
About five years.
But Jordan Turner is playing college football for the school he always wanted to play for right now. He’s a Michigan State Spartan.
“I always wanted to play here at first, (but) didn’t,” Turner told local media this past spring. “And then (I) hit the portal and had a great opportunity to come back home. … I just wanted to be somewhere where it’s a healthy environment to grow in all phases. Through all the recruiting process, it checked every box for me, so I knew I was coming here.”
Turner is from Farmington Hills, Mich. He was a second-team all-state linebacker for Farmington High School.
His first college prospect camp was at MSU, but he wasn’t offered a scholarship until very late in the process. He ended up instead at Wisconsin, where he redshirted in 2020, played some the following season, then became a two-year starter.
Turner entered the transfer portal after last season, Michigan State went after him, and his dream became fulfilled. Later than he expected, but fulfilled.
He’s a starter for the Spartans (3-3), who host the Iowa Hawkeyes (4-2) in a Saturday night game (6:30 kickoff, NBC).
Despite being a newbie in the program, Turner also is a captain. That says a lot.
“It means a lot to me,” Turner said. “I’m from Farmington Hills, so I always dreamed of playing here. My opportunity finally came to play here, and I didn’t look back when I came here, so I really appreciate it. It hits deep to the core, and I promise I’m not going to let my teammates down.”
Turner is Michigan State’s leading tackler: 37 on 22 solos and 15 assists. He also paces the Spartans with 6.5 tackles for loss.
He had nine tackles, an interception and two quarterback hurries in a 38-7 loss last month against Ohio State. He has made a solid adjustment to a 4-3 defensive look after being in a 3-4 system at Wisconsin.
“I thought (Turner) was a good player last year,” MSU defensive coordinator Joe Rossi told local reporters. “I think I see him getting better each week. I think he's become a guy that we can kind of count on to make plays. He's a guy that is able to rush a quarterback in blitz situations. He's shown up more in coverage, obviously making the interception last game. So I've been pleased with him, and he's a fun guy to coach."
Highly thought of, Rossi was DC last season at Minnesota but was hired away by first-year Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith.
“First thing is (Turner) is a great person. He’s top notch. I love coaching the kid,” Rossi said. “Two, he works his butt off and three, he’s talented. When you’ve got a guy who’s a really good person, who works really hard, who is really talented, those guys are really fun to coach and he’s been awesome. He’s been great for the room.”
Michigan State is coming off a bye week. Its prior game was on a Friday (Oct. 4) at Oregon, so the Spartans will have gone 15 days between contests.
MSU won its first three games, edging Florida Atlantic and Maryland and blowing out Prairie View A&M. It has lost its last three: by four points at Boston College, by 31 to Ohio State and 21 to Oregon.
Smith said this week he gave his team a couple of days off to regroup and refresh.
“(The bye) came at a good time for us,” Smith said this week. “We’re kind of at that midway point, we’ve played six games. We took a thorough look at really every play of those six games. We analyzed them a bunch of different ways. Looking obviously for some tendencies, where we’ve got to improve. Things that we’ve done well that we’ve got to build off of. I thought the coaches and the players did a good job of kind of doing that.
“We’re heading into a big-time challenge Saturday. They’ve got a program I’ve got a bunch of respect for, the way they do things, the longetivity of Coach (Kirk) Ferentz. Probably one of the best in the business. I think I read he just won his 200th game, which is just so impressive. This is an Iowa team that plays a physical brand of football running the thing, high-end defense. Special teams are elite. They can beat you offensively with the pass game a little bit ... So we’ve got a big-time challenge coming for homecoming.”
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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