After transferring late, D.J. Turner ends up lifting Pitt's passing game

As late as midway through training camp, D.J. Turner was just a name on somebody else’s roster.

If he had walked through the doors of Pitt’s practice facility almost any day in August, he might have been asked to leave.

Yet, here he is, shouldering much of the responsibility to make Pitt’s offense go.

Where would the Panthers have been without Turner’s eight catches for 186 yards in the loss to N.C. State last Saturday? Definitely not within two points of winning.

After four games, Turner leads the ACC and is eighth in the nation with 319 yards in receptions. Yes, Pitt has played four games — one or two more than 13 of the 14 other teams in the conference — but that doesn’t diminish his productivity or offensive coordinator Mark Whipple’s trust in his 5-foot-9 wide receiver.

He is here largely because the Big Ten postponed the start of its season, and Turner wanted a guaranteed place to play. Also, a big tip of the cap to Turner’s brother, Mark Hayes, who played for Pat Narduzzi a quarter-century ago when Pitt’s coach was an assistant at Rhode Island.

Turner was set to play for Maryland this season.

“I definitely planned on having a big season,” he said. “But it goes to show that I’m here for a reason.”

He didn’t enroll until late August. Good thing, too.

Pitt has been short-handed at the pass-catching positions in multiple games, with injuries of varying severity to wide receivers Jordan Addison, Jared Wayne and Taysir Mack and tight ends Lucas Krull and Kyi Wright. Krull and Wayne have missed three games, Mack and Wright two and Addison, who had 21 receptions in the first three, sat out the second half of the N.C. State game.

That opened up opportunities for Turner, who responded by averaging 28.2 yards per reception after halftime, 23.2 for the game. For the season, he is averaging 18.8 per catch.

His 186-yard total was the most by a Pitt player in 16 years, more than he had in any one of his four seasons at Maryland and earned him ACC co-Wide Receiver of the Week honors.

Yet he laments the inability to gain one more yard.

With Pitt trailing 17-13 in the third quarter, he landed on the 1 after a 27-yard reception. With four shots at the goal line, Pitt couldn’t advance the next 36 inches and gave up the football without denting the N.C. State lead.

“One more yard and we might have won that game if I had punched that one catch in on the 1-yard line,” he said. “Still a lot more work to be done.”

Have to love Pitt’s consistency.

Drops/Catchable targets by game:

AP - 4/23
Cuse - 4/29
Lville - 4/28
NCSU - 4/28

Rough estimate is Pitt has lost about 18% of its expected yardage due to drops this year.

— ??️♈️? (@ADavidHaleJoint) October 6, 2020

There is also the issue of dropped passes. ESPN research notes Pitt, as a team, has recorded four of those in every game. Turner, a senior, believes he can overcome those mistakes.

“We throw the ball around a lot,” he said without mentioning quarterback Kenny Pickett leads the ACC in passing yards (1,123) and is second in attempts (133). “There are going to be drops. The biggest thing with that is just play the next play.

“You do what you can on the field, but you can’t really control everything. No one goes on the field planning on dropping any passes, but if you do, just play the next play.

“The coaches are confident in us, if we do drop one, to come back to us the very next play. You have to have that mental edge to not let that bother you.”

Narduzzi added, “Kenny threw it well and receivers caught the ball most of the time.”

Turner said it didn’t take long to form a connection with Pickett.

“I feel a certain amount of trust with him when I’m in the game,” he said. “He feels comfortable giving me the ball.”

Repetition helps, he added.

“I got plenty of opportunities at Maryland, but not as many as I’m getting here.”

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