Turner Has Found the Right Words for Himself

Quite often, a player builds a relationship with his position coach. These are bonds which carry on long past their eligibility on the roster, and Colorado State special teams coordinator Tommy Perry is pretty sure he and Paddy Turner will remain in touch the remainder of their lives.

The bond extends even further to Perry's two young daughters, Joanna and Jude. Perry is convinced it would be a travesty in life if Turner isn't blessed with children because he's so darn good with them.

Which is why Perry used this relationship to teach his punter a lesson during fall camp.

As it turns out, Perry's wife, Roberta, forewarned Perry that Jude had a difficult day at an athletic event, and as a father, he knew he had to find the right words. So, he asked Turner, knowing how close they are, to write down key things he'd say to her.

"He wrote down three or four things. I didn't look at them," Perry said. "I said, let's flip the tables. You're me. You have a punter who cares so much about this sport and this team and his head coach and coaching staff, the players and the community, so, are you going to say those things your wrote down to him? He rolled his eyes and said, 'you got me.'

"I told him, this is how you need to talk to yourself. I think he was doing it, but I really noticed it after the conversation."

A lot has changed for Turner in three short years. He arrived on campus having never played a down of football, let alone punting one. Even still, there was something amazing about the young man from Australia. His concern for his teammates and his devotion to the team was apparent, which led him to being named a team captain.

He was honored with the selection again this season, doubling down on something coach Jay Norvell had never seen.

"Paddy is an amazing leader. I've never had a punter who was a captain, and he's been voted twice, and that just shows the impact he has," Norvell said. "He's active in everything, not just punting the ball. He's talking to everybody about special teams, how their actions can affect their punter, blocking schemes, tendencies, all of that. I couldn't be prouder of Paddy. There's nobody more invested than him in our team. I'm just fortunate to have a guy like that. Frankly, he probably played the best of all our guys on Saturday.

"He's a team player. He's very invested in everything we're doing. There's not a thing he wouldn't do for his teammates, and the guys know that, and I think that's why he's been voted captain."

The funny part was, as good as Turner was at being uplifting for his teammates, he was never very good when it came to giving himself a pep talk.

No pressure, but you've never punted a ball and all you have to do is replace the NCAA career punting-average leader, Ryan Stonehouse. Who by the way, broke the NFL single-season record for punting average as a rookie.

Top it off by wearing his number.

Turner wasn't trying to be Stonehouse exactly, he just wanted to be really good right away. All it would take was one bad effort to derail a practice or a game.

"I've gotten better mentally, and that's what's increased my performance. I've got a long way ahead of me," Turner said after being named one of Ray's 8 for the second week in a row by the Ray Guy Award. "For one, I'm not as good on Twitter, and there's a lot of coaches in there who tell me how to do it. The mental game helps everyone. I think this week was the perfect example.

"I take full responsibility for it; I didn't execute my role as well as I should have on the first punt, it got partially tipped. I think 2022 Paddy would have shut down then. That's advice for any young person going into any sport, your first rep doesn't define your career or that whole game."

His numbers are much better and have consistently climbed. He averaged 39.1 yards per attempt his first season, increased to 43.3 last year. Through three games, he's up to 44.7, six of his 14 attempts have pinned the opponent inside the 20 and five of his punts have covered at least 50 yards.

Getting out of his head was key, which Perry sees all the time now.

For example, he listens to Turner walk the sidelines, and what he hears is the punter speaking out the goal. He starts with how the drop will go, what his leg motion will be and the angle, where the ball is going to travel and how far. He even puts out into the universe the returner will muff it and the coverage team will snare it.

One punt against Colorado really caught Perry's eye, because it didn't go the way he thought it would. It was good, mind you, but not what he remembered them talking about. Turns out, he forgot part of the conversation.

Another test upcoming.

"There was a great misdirection punt from left to right and there was a fair catch because we had everybody down there. I wasn't exactly the drop I expected, the punt I expected," Perry said. "When I got him on the sideline, I tried to bait him into it. Last year he'd get go on the field and go, 'I don't like this look, I'm going to try to hit it this way and then the snap would come, it wasn't what he thought, and he'd tried to change midstream. I tried to trick him. Why did you drop it like a hammer? He said, 'I made the decision on the sideline, that's what I told you. I'm not going to make any thinking decision in the playbox, I'm going to do it in the thinking box. When I cross the decision line, that's what I'm going to do.'

"He said it just like that, even keeled. I've been coaching specialists for 20-something years. That's a very mature answer."

Turner never set out to be a captain. It happened because of who he is. He never set out to become a sports psychologist, but he's pursuing the career, again, because of who he has become. Some of it makes sense to him as his mother was in education, so is his girlfriend and it is what he was studying back home.

He's just taken it a step further, to help athletes in another way. He finds it funny how life can lead someone down a path they never saw, but personally, he's glad he's followed both routes.

As well as learning to speak to himself as he would others.

"I learned the words I tell myself are not the words I tell other people. Which in the whole scheme of things was the whole point," Turner said. "It was an enlightening moment for me."

As it turns out, for his punting, too.

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