Jim Turner outlines his vision for Aggies' offensive line

Jim Turner, Texas A&M’s hard-nosed offensive line coach, admitted he was late.

He was scheduled to host a post-spring football press conference at 6 pm on Monday night. He showed up about 20 minutes later.

The excuse he offered is that there are no excuses.

“You have 19 games (starting) experience from that whole unit,” Turner explained. “Of course, going into this season is that the setup for an excuse? In no way, shape or form. These guys will be ready to play.

"That’s why the repetitions, the repetitions, the repetitions are so important. There’s no way to give up those 20 minutes. Down the road that 20 minutes is going to add up with these guys. Every rep I get is so critical to their development that I’ve obviously got to utilize that time.”

Turner pointed out that senior left tackle Avery Gennesy has 13 games of starting experience, sophomore guard Keaton Sutherland has five and senior guard Jermaine Eluemunor has one.

Despite that dearth of experience, Turner, who helped recruit and develop the Aggies’ 2012 offensive line — the gold standard of A&M lines that featured five NFL players, including three first round draft choices — believes the 2016 A&M offensive line can be extremely effective.

In that case, he has a lot of work to do. Last season the Aggies often struggled in run blocking, particularly in short yardage situations. They also allowed a whopping 37 quarterback sacks.

Turner is undeterred.

“I love the challenge of building,” he said. “The linemen I inherited … I’ll treat these kids like they’re my sons and (like) I recruited them. I didn’t recruit them, but they’re my responsibility. I will get the most out of these players.”

He obviously feels he has good material with which to work.

Turner lauds redshirt freshman Erik McCoy’s attitude and work ethic.

“I don’t know that there’s a lot of guys that football means more to,” Turner said of McCoy. “He’s a guy who exudes his love of the game. He’s going to have a great career. He’s young. He hasn’t played in a game yet. He’s obviously our starting center, right now. He’s as coachable a kid as there is. He’s smart. He’s hard-working.”

Turner praised sophomore tackle Koda Martin’s athletic ability.

“He’s as athletic a player as there is,” Turner said. “He has the reach. He has the height. He’s fast. He has the footspeed to play that position.”

Turner added: “Obviously, we’re going to need him to play right tackle. His development is critical. He’s a long way away, but he’s taken great strides.”

Turner also praised the versatility of sophomore Keaton Sutherland, who is sitting out spring drills because of injury.

“He can play more than one position,” Turner said. “He’s smart enough to play center. He’s got five games under his belt, so he has enough experience. He’s played a little bit of tackle and a little bit of guard.

“I want him to be a backup center. I want him to be able to back up other positions as well. He’s versatile that way. Now does that mean he won’t be a starter? No. He has a good chance to be a starter. Obviously, you’re not going to hold it against him because he got injured.”

Despite Sutherland’s versatility, Turner indicated Sutherland would likely remain at guard.

“Right now, he looks like he’ll play either guard position,” Turner said. “Our tackles, I think, are going to be alright. Our guards will do a good job as well, but I think he’s a bit more comfortable at the guard position right now.”

Gennesy, the most experienced lineman, said Turner is always stressing details like gaining a yard on the first step and refining pass blocking techniques.

“He teaches us every day how to play the game,” Gennesy said. “It’s a learning process. All the young guys want to learn. We all want to learn together.”

The lessons aren’t easily learned, which was apparent in the Friday Night Lights scrimmage last week.

Turner indicated the line play wasn’t up to his standards, but that it has gotten better.

“Did they play well? They’ve played better than they’ve played on Friday night,” he said. “The great thing about today was they played a lot better today than they did Friday night.
 
"Is it good enough? No. But like anything in this profession you’re building. From Day One until now, are they building? Are they getting better? Yes they are. I am happy with the progress, but there is a long way to go with this crew.”

That’s why he takes those extra 20 minutes to keep working on those repetitions.