Sundown for Sunshine

With his Terrapin football team down six and his offensive line disintegrating in front of him, Chris Turner stepped up out of the pocket. He found a seam, tucked the ball tight and took off.

Turner's strides are clumsy. He's admittedly awkward — a pocket passer forced to do so much more this season. On Nov. 28 against Boston College, his final game as a Terp, the last gasp for a two-win team hoping to send its seniors out with a win, Turner fittingly was running for cover. And though there were more than 10 minutes remaining in the one-score game, and even with it being the first play of the drive, Turner lowered his head.

The second-most productive passer in program history dove forward and took a big hit from a Boston College defender — putting himself at risk despite playing in his first game back from an MCL injury. He picked up 11 yards on the play. It would be the last first down Turner picked up under center for the Terps.

Chris Turner will go down as the first three-year starting quarterback in Ralph Friedgen's tenure as head coach. He is second in Terp history in passing yards, attempts and completions, and fourth in passing touchdowns. But his career has been marked as much by his success as his limitations. He was, week-to-week, either the hero of admiration or the goat of discontent.

"So many different people perceive me in so many different ways," said the California native nicknamed "Sunshine," whose career record as a starter was 12-18 during three years. "I don't know if people are going to link my name to this season, going 2-10, or last year going 8-5 or the year before that. I'm just as confused as a lot of people."

Indeed, Turner found the limelight early enough, becoming a household name among Terp faithful with a gritty performance in a win at then-No. 10 Rutgers on Sept. 29, 2007. Then a sophomore with a big blonde afro, Turner was carried off the field by teammates after stepping in for injured starter Jordan Steffy, and his cool demeanor attracted praise from media and fans alike.

But with a weak arm, slow legs and shaky teammates, Turner was unable to carry his team to glory. Even as his grit and intelligence shined, his inabilities drew the ire of critics. Even as Friedgen praised his senior leader, he acknowledged Turner was not suited for every play in the playbook. As the 2009 season spun out of control, many questioned whether Turner was still the man for the job, just as Friedgen's job security became an issue of nationwide speculation.

Still, Turner took each question in stride. Uncertain of his legacy, he knew one thing: "I didn't want to be looked at as the quarterback who may or may not have gotten his coach fired," Turner said. "As selfish as that sounds, it didn't sit right with me."

Friedgen will hold retain his job for the 2010 season. Turner will leave the Terps, his impact on the program still up for debate. He was never handed anything: once a late signing as a recruit, later an afterthought in a quarterback battle centered around two players with substantially greater physical gifts. That Turner was a three-year starter who only once won the job in training camp fits right with the rest of his story.

John Turner knew his son was destined to be a Division I quarterback by the time Chris was 11 years old. Throwing the ball came naturally, even as coaches tried to put the oversized kid on the defensive line.

John describes himself as "two cents short of being a psycho dad," and he filled that role as he coerced coaches to give Chris a shot under center. By his junior year at Chaminade High School in the West Hills area of Los Angeles, Turner was nationally recruited, set on attending Louisville under then-coach Bobby Petrino.

But Turner's father, believing Petrino would leave the Cardinals (as he eventually did), opened up his son's recruitment again. Friedgen's persistence made an impact on the quarterback, and Turner packed his bags for a 2,700-mile trip across the country. He made all the adjustments, both socially and on the field, appear natural. He grew his hair out, going with dreadlocks for a season.

"By his second season there, Chris felt like he knew the system pretty well," John Turner said.

After two seasons of waiting in the wings and learning from the coaches and starter Sam Hollenbach, Turner's time had come. Except it hadn't.

Josh Portis was the quarterback of every Terp fan's dreams. He was a speedster with a powerful arm and good size. He had spurned the Terps to go to Florida, but the Gators' pursuit of big-time recruit Tim Tebow sent Portis to College Park after a year in Gainesville, Fla. Jordan Steffy, who had been Hollenbach's backup, was the expected starter.

Chris Turner was a nobody.

Media and fans alike were incredulous about Friedgen's depth chart in the 2007 offseason. Turner may have been listed as the second-string signal caller, but the quarterback competition was clearly between Steffy and Portis. The Diamondback ran a feature after each spring practice charting the progress of Steffy and Portis, but not Turner.

"He kind of got overlooked," said senior fullback Cory Jackson, a four-year starter and Turner's roommate. "But any time we saw in practice, it was always that situation where we knew Jordan was playing, but it was like, ‘What if Chris could get in there?' Then it did, and it clicked."

But before the first game, the team announced Portis would be suspended for the season after a violation of the student Code of Academic Integrity.

Steffy went down in the season opener against Villanova, and Turner led the Terps down the field for a score. Steffy later returned, but Turner finished the game in garbage time. Still, he never looked impressive enough for anyone to question the depth chart. Steffy started the next three games.

But in the first half of the aforementioned Rutgers game, Steffy went down again. Turner entered. Turner passed. He passed well. He won the game.