If you flipped on the NFL Today pregame show on CBS this morning, you saw the No. 3 most prolific passer in Terrapin football history seated in the chair that used to be occupied by the Terp QB with the second most passing yards in school history.
That’s because senior Terp quarterback Chris Turner passed former Terp and NFL Pro Bowl quarterback Boomer Esiason on the program’s all-time yardage list against Duke on Saturday.
Turner passed Esiason on his 67-yard touchdown pass to running back Davin Meggett in the third quarter of the Terps’ 17-13 loss at Wallace Wade Stadium.
After the sloppy loss, I was curious what Turner thought of his climb toward the top of the list, especially passing someone as high-profile as Boomer.
Turner’s response showed that it was about as high on his priority’s list as starting a “Hillary Clinton in 2012″ campaign fundraiser. (And the government and politics grad wore an “Obama ‘08′ t-shirt in the teamhouse this week.):
“It’s nice. It’s cool. It’s just bittersweet, you know? It’s tough to get a loss and then have someone tell you, ‘Oh, you just passed Boomer Esiason,’ who’s obviously a great quarterback. To be honest, I’m really not that concerned about it right now. Whether it’s right or wrong, I don’t know.”
For the record, Turner now has 6,307 passing yards, topping Esaison’s 6,259 yards compiled from 1981-83.
Next on the list is Scott Milanovich, who racked up 7,301 yards from 1992-1995. (Milanovich had a much more modest NFL career and is now the offensive coordinator for the CFL’s Montreal Allouettes, if you’re keeping track.)
To get there, Turner will have to average 248.5 yards per game in his last four contests. So far this season Turner has averaged 229.1 yards per game, although he was about on pace before lackluster sub-200 yard performances in the rain the past two weeks.
It’ll be interesting to see if the third-year starter gets there. Especially if the struggling Terps continue their offensive woes, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Jamarr Robinson get a few series per game down the stretch. That might hurt Turner’s chances.
Either way, it’s probably one of those things that Turner will be able to appreciate a lot more come the end of his career than he could during a post-game Q-and-A in Durham, N.C.
But I appreciate him trying to do it for me.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Football Team columnist. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.