Democrat-Gazette’s Tom Murphy as Hogs land new tight ends coach

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —Veteran tight ends coach Morgan Turner has been tabbed by coach Sam Pittman to lead Arkansas’ tight ends.

Turner just finished his 10th season as the tight ends coach for the Stanford Cardinal after spending 13 seasons with the program. During his tenure in Palo Alto, Turner built Stanford into a national brand among tight ends by producing numerous NFL tight ends such as Dalton Schultz (Dallas), Austin Hooper (Tennessee), Coby Fleener, Levine Toilolo, Zach Ertz (Arizona), Kaden Smith and most recently Colby Parkinson (Seattle).

The latest in Turner’s long line of productive tight ends is junior Benjamin Yurosek, who caught 49 passes for 445 yards and a touchdown this past season to earn second-team All-Pac-12 honors.

Yurosek’s 49 receptions were second-most on the Cardinal roster and second-most among all tight ends in the Pac-12. Yurosek’s sophomore campaign in 2021 was even better, leading the Cardinal with 658 receiving yards to earn honorable mention All-Pac-12.

He averaged 15.3 yards per reception, recorded three games of 90+ yards receiving and hauled in 13 receptions of 20+ yards – all three ranked among the top three tight ends in the Power 5.

Parkinson is the latest of Turner’s tight ends to make an impact in the NFL as a fourth-round selection by Seattle in 2020.

He was a semifinalist for the Mackey Award – given annually to the nation’s top tight end – and earned second-team All-Pac-12 recognition in 2019 after catching 48 passes for 589 yards and a score.

Schultz was a fourth-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys in 2018 after earning All-Pac-12 First Team leading a talented group of tight ends for Stanford in 2017.

The unit snagged 12 of the team’s 23 touchdown passes that season. Hooper is Turner’s most recent All-American, having earned the distinction in 2015 after being named a finalist for the Mackey Award and first-team All-Pac-12 for catching 34 passes for 438 yards and six TDs. The Atlanta Falcons picked him in the third round of the 2016 draft.

In 2012, Turner assisted Ertz in becoming a unanimous All-American, Mackey Award finalist, first-team All-Pac-12 and a second-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Ertz led all FBS tight ends in 2012 in receiving yards (898) and catches (69) to go along with six touchdowns. Along with Toilolo, Stanford tight ends led the nation that season in productivity catching a combined 93 passes for 1,291 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Turner has also displayed the ability to land elite recruits while also developing tight ends. He recruited Parkinson and Schultz, who were four-star tight ends coming out of high school, and molded them into top NFL draft picks. He developed three-star recruits Hooper and Yurosek into All-Pac-12 performers for the Cardinal with Hooper eventually becoming a third-round NFL selection.

Before taking over the tight ends, Turner spent two seasons at Stanford as an offensive assistant and one as a sports performance intern.

Prior to Stanford, he coached quarterbacks at Indiana State for one season (2009) after getting his start in coaching at Central (Ill.) High School in 2008 as the team’s quarterbacks coach and scout team coordinator.

Turner graduated from Illinois in 2009, earning a bachelor’s degree in finance. The Champaign, Ill. native served as a student coach for the Illini football team in 2004 and is the son of longtime NFL and collegiate head coach Ron Turner.

Turner and his wife, Melissa, have two children, a son, Nicolas, and a daughter, Mia.

The Turner File
Birthdate: August 27, 1985
College: Illinois, 2009 B.S. Finance
Family: Wife – Melissa; Son – Nicolas; Daughter – Mia

Coaching Experience
2009 Indiana State (Quarterbacks)
2010 Stanford (Sports Performance Intern)
2011-12 Stanford (Offensive Assistant)
2013-22 Stanford (Tight Ends)

Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.