Daccus Turman passed away
- Thread starter 18IsTheMan
- Start date
Sad. Remember him well. Wasn't highly rated coming out of high school in Georgia but was a tough hard nosed running back.
Uh, I don't know...football is a pretty high calling in the SEC.
He was pretty highly touted coming out of HS. I think he broke Herschel Walker's HS career rushing record for the state.
His production wasn't great in college. I think he was a classic case of being a D1 talent on a small HS team playing against other small HS teams. He was always the best athlete on the field in HS so his numbers looked really good. I remember he got kicked off the team for something. I don't remember what.
His production wasn't great in college. I think he was a classic case of being a D1 talent on a small HS team playing against other small HS teams. He was always the best athlete on the field in HS so his numbers looked really good. I remember he got kicked off the team for something. I don't remember what.
He broke Walker's record but was not highly recruited, we were one of his few offers and UGA offered very late
Tuning out the talk
PAUL STRELOW Staff Writer
COLUMBIA -- He's being followed by the footsteps of a legend, yet South Carolina sophomore fullback Daccus Turman won't look down at his heels.
There's a youthful ignorance about Turman that conveys he either doesn't know or doesn't care.
Even USC coach Lou Holtz doesn't mention his name without referring to Turman as the player who set Georgia's single-season high school rushing record in the fall of 2000, breaking a 21-year mark held by Herschel Walker, an icon in Turman's home state.
How appropriate, then, that Turman's coming-out party -- a career-best 123 rushing yards and one touchdown in last weekend's upset win against Virginia -- has prefaced his trip to Herschel's hallowed ground, Sanford Stadium, where the legendary back produced 41 school records.
"I guess it's something to talk about," Turman said.
Only he won't.
For that matter, Turman -- a squatty 5-foot-11, 229-pound man of infrequent body language and even fewer words -- has no apparent opinion on the way his name has picked up a permanent appendage.
In an innocent manner, he seems to insinuate that there's no reason it should matter.
It's brought to his attention that Walker was the prototype by which the next generation of Georgia running backs (Garrison Hearst, Robert Edwards and Terrell Davis, to name a few) were measured.
"I never really watched football like that growing up," Turman said in almost a whisper. "I was a big wrestling fan."
Turman explained that he grew up a Georgia Tech fan and paid little attention to Georgia.
Because of his size and lack of speed, Turman wasn't initially recruited by either, even though he gained 3,172 yards as a senior at Washington-Wilkes High School to eclipse Walker's record by five yards.
While Walker wore No. 34, Turman opted for No. 32 to honor his dad, Rev. Ledwellyn "Smoky" Turman, a standout running back at Washington-Wilkes in the early 1970s who went on to play at New Mexico State.
Daccus said he never heard from or met Walker in the process.
"I don't think Daccus really cared about it," said Frank Vohun, who coached Turman at Washington-Wilkes. "Daccus wants to do two things -- one, he wants the football, and two, he wants to win."
In fact, USC assistant coach Paul Lounsberry, a long-time friend of Vohun's, was the only recruiter who persistently pursued Turman.
The Gamecocks were his sole Division I-A offer until Mark Richt replaced Jim Donnan as Georgia's coach.
The Bulldogs offered, but Turman had already committed to USC and would honor that commitment after spending a year at Hargrave Military Academy because he hadn't qualified.
"(Our players) from Georgia, they're not Georgia guys," Holtz said. "They came here because those people didn't want them."
"He didn't make many 30, 40 yard runs, but he made a lot of 10-yard runs. And I just liked the body lean he had. He wasn't going to be big enough to be a fullback, and he didn't have speed. There was just something about him I liked."
Essentially, Turman wasn't going to be a clone of Herschel Walker, the sleek, chiseled, slashing runner.
He would continue to do what he did best -- use his vision to quickly find a hole, squirt into it and then drag defenders as far as he could churn.
To get the ball and to win, Turman doesn't need to be able to recite Walker's credentials.
"I just know he won a Heisman at Georgia," he admitted. "I don't know too much else about him."
Not disputing that a lot of people have their priorities out of order.
Yeah, he wasn't flashy and didn't put up huge numbers, but I remember him for being a tough runner.
I know a lot of Wilkes county people and I remember when he was playing. He had lots of offers from smaller schools but he didn't have the speed to be a 4 or 5 star running back that the big D1 programs wanted. He was really tough for HS players to bring down because of his size so he got a lot of yards after contact. They gave him the ball a lot in each game He was well known in the state of Georgia and I think Richt offered him as sort of an afterthought to keep a connection with the Wilkes county coaching staff. Breaking Walker's record pretty much guaranteed that UGA would at least offer him, at least when Richt got to UGA. Wilkes county hasn't exactly been a UGA resource. Neighboring Lincoln county is more of a UGA recruiting ground.He broke Walker's record but was not highly recruited, we were one of his few offers and UGA offered very late
Tuning out the talk
PAUL STRELOW Staff Writer
COLUMBIA -- He's being followed by the footsteps of a legend, yet South Carolina sophomore fullback Daccus Turman won't look down at his heels.
There's a youthful ignorance about Turman that conveys he either doesn't know or doesn't care.
Even USC coach Lou Holtz doesn't mention his name without referring to Turman as the player who set Georgia's single-season high school rushing record in the fall of 2000, breaking a 21-year mark held by Herschel Walker, an icon in Turman's home state.
How appropriate, then, that Turman's coming-out party -- a career-best 123 rushing yards and one touchdown in last weekend's upset win against Virginia -- has prefaced his trip to Herschel's hallowed ground, Sanford Stadium, where the legendary back produced 41 school records.
"I guess it's something to talk about," Turman said.
Only he won't.
For that matter, Turman -- a squatty 5-foot-11, 229-pound man of infrequent body language and even fewer words -- has no apparent opinion on the way his name has picked up a permanent appendage.
In an innocent manner, he seems to insinuate that there's no reason it should matter.
It's brought to his attention that Walker was the prototype by which the next generation of Georgia running backs (Garrison Hearst, Robert Edwards and Terrell Davis, to name a few) were measured.
"I never really watched football like that growing up," Turman said in almost a whisper. "I was a big wrestling fan."
Turman explained that he grew up a Georgia Tech fan and paid little attention to Georgia.
Because of his size and lack of speed, Turman wasn't initially recruited by either, even though he gained 3,172 yards as a senior at Washington-Wilkes High School to eclipse Walker's record by five yards.
While Walker wore No. 34, Turman opted for No. 32 to honor his dad, Rev. Ledwellyn "Smoky" Turman, a standout running back at Washington-Wilkes in the early 1970s who went on to play at New Mexico State.
Daccus said he never heard from or met Walker in the process.
"I don't think Daccus really cared about it," said Frank Vohun, who coached Turman at Washington-Wilkes. "Daccus wants to do two things -- one, he wants the football, and two, he wants to win."
In fact, USC assistant coach Paul Lounsberry, a long-time friend of Vohun's, was the only recruiter who persistently pursued Turman.
The Gamecocks were his sole Division I-A offer until Mark Richt replaced Jim Donnan as Georgia's coach.
The Bulldogs offered, but Turman had already committed to USC and would honor that commitment after spending a year at Hargrave Military Academy because he hadn't qualified.
"(Our players) from Georgia, they're not Georgia guys," Holtz said. "They came here because those people didn't want them."
"He didn't make many 30, 40 yard runs, but he made a lot of 10-yard runs. And I just liked the body lean he had. He wasn't going to be big enough to be a fullback, and he didn't have speed. There was just something about him I liked."
Essentially, Turman wasn't going to be a clone of Herschel Walker, the sleek, chiseled, slashing runner.
He would continue to do what he did best -- use his vision to quickly find a hole, squirt into it and then drag defenders as far as he could churn.
To get the ball and to win, Turman doesn't need to be able to recite Walker's credentials.
"I just know he won a Heisman at Georgia," he admitted. "I don't know too much else about him."
I'm thinking that was Demetrius Summers. Wasn't he one of the ones who stole his own poster from the football ops building? It was an excuse for Spurrier to clean house of guys he considered troublemakers or at least not team players.
edit: A quick Google shows he was accused of hitting his GF. Charges were dropped. She was charged with a filing false police report.
What I said about the domestic violence stuff was about Turman. Charges were dropped and the girl was charged for a false police report. Was he encouraged to transfer by Spurrier? He only has 2 years of stats.