Herschel Turner Jr. (middle standing) has felt the love and support of a big extended family after losing his father to gun violence when he was 7 months old. (Instagram)
With Nevada and Middle Tennessee tied at 24 points apiece with 8 minutes remaining last month, the Wolf Pack faced third-and-24 from its own 11-yard line. It put the ball in the hands of Herschel Turner Jr. on a dump-down pass hoping to get a few yards before punting.
Instead, Turner had the ball punched out. A fumble. A Middle Tennessee takeaway. And five plays later, the Blue Raiders scored the game-winning touchdown. A disastrous loss. And a heartbroken Turner, who in his first season at Nevada in 2025 struggled with fumbles and lost playing time as a result.
“Really, the whole next week I was feeling a way because I fumbled and I feel like it cost us a game,” Turner said. “It was just eating me up.”
While that was the low point in Turner’s Wolf Pack career, he has perspective that life is more than football. He learned that lesson before his first birthday. Turner’s parents were young when he was born. His mom was 17; his father 18. Turner’s dad, Herschel Sr., died of gun violence when his son was just 7 months old. Turner doesn’t have any memories of his father, but he does have pictures and videos. And he has stories passed down from his father’s friends.
“I had a lot of support,” Turner said. “A lot his friends stayed in my life, and a lot of older cousins tried to be that positive male role model for me. His friends told me he was a good guy, he loved me a lot, loved my mom and he was really excited to get a chance to be a dad.”
Turner is proud to represent his father’s name in life and his family’s name on the back of his uniform. Growing up in the Bay Area, Turner was a record-setting high school player. As a senior at Mt. Diablo High School in Concord, Calif., he rushed for 3,027 yards and 42 touchdowns, both school records. He averaged 17.1 yards per carry and 275.2 yards per game. The 3,027 rushing yards were a Bay Area regular-season record as he crossed 200 yards in nine of 11 games with six 300-yard games. Also a menace of defense, Turner began his college career at Utah State before transferring to Nevada before last season following an Aggies coaching change.
With star potential projected, Turner’s first season in silver and blue was difficult. In the season opener at Penn State, he rushed for minus-15 yards. He dealt with multiple injuries, including a nagging ankle ailment, and was limited to 353 yards with more fumbles (two) than touchdowns (zero).
“A letdown to a lot of people — the fans, the coaches and myself, most of all,” Turner said of 2025.
But he didn’t scurry back into the transfer portal this offseason. He stayed and fought for the starting job. That was awarded to sophomore Dominic Kelley out of fall camp, but Turner’s carries have increased after the Middle Tennessee fumble. Instead of being discarded to the doghouse following that loss, Turner has seen his time share increase and responded with back-to-back career highs, rushing for 111 yards and two touchdowns against Air Force before a 192-yard outing last week versus UTEP. That included a career-best 72-yard touchdown run and Mountain West offensive player of the week honors.
Wolf Pack head coach Jeff Choate said the way Turner approached things after fumbling against Middle Tennessee earned him the opportunity to keep getting carries.
“It’s hard to take that guy off the field,” Choate said. “I think he’s one of our most explosive football players. You saw him chinning and clawing when he was 40 yards out in front of guys the other night (against UTEP). I know he wore that very, very much after the Middle Tennessee game. He was devastated. He felt awful about what had happened in that particular situation, and maybe that was one of the things that led me to believe we could still have trust and confidence in him because I could tell he cared. This wasn’t something where he was, like, ‘Oh, no, big deal. I won’t put it down next time.’ He was devastated and he wore it, and I think he’s on a mission to prove, ‘I’m here to help this team win, not cause it to be in a bad situation.'”
Much of Turner’s success has come on the edges of the offensive line. While Kelley has earned the role of battering ram between the tackles, Turner’s speed and athleticism has tested defenses outside the tackles. That explosiveness has allowed Turner to average 7.3 yards per carry, the top figure of any MW running back. His 426 rushing yards in five games this year are more than he accumulated in 10 games last year.
Turner said Choate giving him another chance following the Middle Tennessee game was important.
“Him showing me he still had a little trust and confidence in me, that’s really all I needed,” Turner said. “It just told me to show up and I’ll be good.”
Despite his 5-foot-9, 195-pound frame, Turner also has improved running between the tackles. Against UTEP, he logged a career-high 19 carries, which were six more than his previous Wolf Pack best. With Turner in his third season of college, Choate said the running back’s maturity across multiple areas has unlocked a better version of himself.
“He’s attacked the weight room,” Choate said. “He’s physically stronger. He’s a little faster than he was a year ago. I think he understands what we’re trying to do offensively at a higher level than he perhaps did when he first got here a year go. He had some fumble issues that were massive early last year. He’s had the same thing happen against Middle Tennessee, and then responded the way he responded against Air Force and again against UTEP. I think it’s just maturity and growth. I think he’s got his personal life and his personal house in order a little bit more. He’s got this academic world in order little bit more, and all those things allow you to be the best version of yourself on the football field.”
And Turner said the football field is where he finds the best version of himself. It’s where he found peace and solitude as a child who not only lost a father but one of his best friends to gun violence. The football field is where he got away from those realities.
“It was the thing that took my mind away from everything,” Turner said. “You don’t really have to worry about what people are saying, what people were thinking. Just play and have fun. Seeing a lot of loss at a young age, I understand it can be our time anytime. Every carry, every day has got to move like it’s my last one.”
Turner also is setting the stage for his younger brother, who plays football for powerhouse Folsom (Calif.) High after his mother moved from the Bay Area to the Sacramento region. Turner’s brother is a freshman wide receiver and checks in at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, with Herschel admitting to some jealousy over that size.
“Every time I see him, it’s crazy,” Turner said with a laugh.
What hasn’t been a laughing matter has been Turner’s production in Nevada’s last two games. Before the year began, Turner predicted he was going to show his Wolf Pack teammates and fans something they’d never seen from him before. And while he’s making good on that promise so far, Turner said there’s a lot more in the tank.
“There’s way more to show,” Turner said. “Way more to show for sure.”
NSN director of operations Chris Murray also serves as a columnist and on-air host providing insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.
