Turner Has Mastered Doing More With Less In TCU Backfield

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Throughout his playing career, TCU senior running back Joseph Turner has never really won what he considers big.

That has changed considerably with the TCU Horned Frogs going undefeated and obtaining the Mountain West Conference Championship during the regular season. There is still more to come as the third-ranked Horned Frogs take on sixth-ranked Boise State in Monday night's Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, with an outside chance of splitting the national title.

A big part of TCU's success this season has required Turner to adjust to doing more with less. A study in a ball-control ground game the past few seasons under Gary Patterson, the Frogs have opened up the offense this season to incorporate a potent passing attack in the arsenal.

As if that wasn't enough, Turner has also had to adjust to sharing the fewer rushing opportunities with freshmen running backs Matthew Tucker and Ed Wesley. But it's hard for Turner to find any issues when the 13-0 Frogs are in the midst of their most successful football season since their 1938 national championship campaign, and he's having his best season yet statistically.

"If I can have more carries in years past but with less yards and then this year can have less carries with more yards, apparently something is working," said Turner, who leads the nation's fifth best rushing attack with 732 yards and 11 touchdowns on 140 carries, for a 61.0 yards per game average. "So I can't argue with it at all. How can I argue with less carries and more yards and a better average?

"We've all bought into the system. I have no problem at all sharing carries with Tucker or Ed. They both are just as good, may even be better than me. They just need to get the gray hair (himself) out of the way."

Not only has Turner, who has now led the Frogs in rushing the last three seasons, bought into the three-back rotation, by all accounts he's been key in the quick development of Tucker and Wesley. Turner has been there to impart his wisdom on the freshman duo much the way Basil Mitchell did for a young talented LaDainian Tomlinson in 1997 and 1998.

There is little doubt how instrumental Turner's selflessness has meant to the early success of the two freshmen. Tucker, the combination of a big and fast runner able to block and catch out of the backfield, has rushed for 667 yards and eight touchdowns on 104 carries during his true freshman season. Wesley, probably the fastest of the three, has ran for 630 yards and four touchdowns on 99 carries as a redshirt freshman.

The trio has combined to help the offense rush for an impressive 256.5 yards per game.

"Joseph has done a great job with the young guys," said TCU offensive coordinator Justin Fuente, who had coached the running backs the past two years before moving over to work with the quarterbacks this season. "It says a lot about him that he helped those guys along, realizing we were going to need them along with him to win."

For Turner, winning and team are all he's about, and it didn't take him long to understand that sharing the ball was going to be the key for both.

"Any of my teammates will tell you I'm the most self-less person on the team," Turner said. "If I have to give myself for a teammate, that's what I will do. If I've got to hurt myself for a teammate, that's what I will do. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure we win at all costs. If that means less carries for me, more for the younger guys, so be it. We're winning."

If the Frogs can get one more win over Boise State on Monday, Turner is keenly aware of what that could mean for the program in its first BCS bowl appearance. Whether or not TCU does enough to convince the Associated Press writers to break from the ESPN/USA Coaches and BCS polls is not the overriding concern for Turner as much as finishing undefeated on the BCS bowl national stage.

"I'm not going to be able to contain myself," he said. "I just want to go out and play my hardest and hopefully we will come out with a win."

This year's Fiesta Bowl is a rematch of the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl, where Turner turned in an impressive performance in the Frogs' 17-16 come-from-behind win. Turner scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 17-yard run midway through the fourth quarter to secure the victory.

Turner finished with a season-best 83 yards, but every yard was hard to come by against a stout Broncos defense. Turner sees an even tougher defensive challenge this time around.

"Hard nose football, they play hard, hit hard," he said of the Broncos' defense. "They are a smart defense and they execute. We just have to come out and execute better."