Nov 8, 2014 4 min read

It’s easy to pick out Jon Turner on the football field.

Just look for the hair.

Turner, a 6-2, 230-pound junior defensive end at Washington & Jefferson, has a lot of it, and it seeps from every part of his helmet.

Did we talk about the beard?

It’s a magnificent conglomeration of growth that drew some kidding from head coach Mike Sirianni.

“He said I look like (Tom Hanks in) Castaway,” Turner laughed. “Our running backs coach thinks I look like Jim Morrison.”

On the football field, Turner plays like Brett Keisel, terrorizing quarterbacks, registering 10 sacks and playing a key role on a defense that helped put the Presidents on the precipice of the NCAA Division III playoffs with an 8-0 record. A win at Thiel (2-4, 3-5) today (1 p.m. kickoff) would clinch the Presidents’ Athletic Conference’s automatic bid to the playoffs.

Turner is third in Division III with 10 sacks – Bethany’s Nadim Raddar leads with 12 1/2 – and 15 1/2 of his 46 tackles have gone for losses.

His 9-tackle, 3 1/2-sack effort in last weekend’s 51-12 rout of Geneva earned Turner Defensive Player of the Week honors in the PAC.

Interestingly, Turner did not start out as a defensive end in college.

“I was a linebacker at Freeport (High School), and they moved me three weeks into my freshman year,” he said. “My defensive coordinator (Shawn Rohrer) called it the Turner Project. I actually thought it was a slap in the face (to move me). I’m not a big guy, but speed is a factor now on defenses.”

When he won the starting job last year as a sophomore, the move seemed to pay off. He got his first quarterback sack that season against Wooster in the opener.

“It was the end of the first quarter, and I did a stupid celebration dance,” he said. “I don’t know why I did it. I was close to getting penalized.”

Turner said he uses a couple of moves to reach the quarterback.

“A push-pull move and a straight speed rush around the end,” he said. “(Steelers linebacker) James Harrison used to do that. You can’t just have one move.”

Turner said the two toughest quarterbacks he faced were Christian Brumbaugh of South Fayette when he was a junior in high school and the two teams were playing in the WPIAL semifinals, and Kevin Burke of Mount Union last year in the first round of the Division III playoffs.

“He’s our only captain who is a junior, so that shows his leadership skills,” said Sirianni. “(Quarterback) Bobby Swallow was our last junior who was a captain. The rest were seniors.”

The sack record at W&J is 17, shared by Mike Brooder (1994) and Shawn McGee (1993).

“I just try to do what works,” said Turner. “I pattern myself after Lawrence Timmons, even though he’s a linebacker.”

W&J’s Ryan Ruffing has 24 touchdowns, 21 of them rushing and three receiving. The W&J single-season record for rushing touchdowns is 32 and was set by Chris Babirad in 1992. Babirad caught two touchdown passes that season and set the single-season touchdown record with 34.

The turmoil of last week that led to the forfeiting of a game against Gannon last Saturday is waning. The question is: How much did it hurt the Vulcans?

They will find out today, when they play Mercyhurst in Erie. A win, coupled with Indiana (5-3, 6-3) beating Gannon (6-2, 7-2) would put Cal in the State Game for the PSAC Championship Nov. 15.

The Vulcans also can reach the championship game if there is a three-way tie with Gannon and Slippery Rock (6-2, 7-2) for first place because each team has a 1-1 record against the others. The second tiebreaker is record against opponents in the division. Cal is the only team with one loss against the PSAC West. Gannon and Slippery Rock each have two.

Mercyhurst can win the conference if there is a five-way tie for first place with 6-3 records.

Slippery Rock can win the division with a win over Clarion (2-6, 2-7) and losses by Gannon and Cal. But if Cal and Slippery Rock tie for first, Cal goes.

The Vulcans forfeited last week’s game against Gannon after some football players beat a man outside a California restaurant two days before the game. Six players were ultimately arrested and suspended from the team. The school implemented a zero-tolerance policy, and commissioned a task force to evalute the program.

The NCAA does not recognize a canceled game as a loss, so it will not affect Cal’s standing for a playoff berth.