Ole Miss Defensive Back Brandon Turnage Proves You Can Go Home Again
OXFORD, Miss. — Author Thomas Wolfe was wrong — you can go home again.
After stops at Alabama and Tennessee, Brandon Turnage has returned to his native Oxford to play his final collegiate season in an Ole Miss uniform. Yes, Oxford is Turnage’s hometown, but he is just as familiar with the Rebels’ football facilities from his high school days at Lafayette County.
“I was up here almost every day of every week when I was in high school,” Turnage said.
“It felt like I was a part of the team. Everyone looked at me like their little brother or it was like it was a family and even as of now like it’s still the same feel, still like a family everywhere and we have a great relationship every unit is like cool with the other units so I feel like everybody is bonded together just as it was then.“
Brandon Turnage on feeling at home in Oxford
It wasn’t just the Ole Miss family Turnage looked forward to seeing, it was his family being able to see him.
“Man, it feels great to be home around my family and friends,” Turnage said.
“For a long time I thought about doing this (transferring to Ole Miss) with it being my last year of college football. I just felt like it’ll be good to come back around my family, see how it feels to be home. It makes me go a little bit harder which it does and really just for all my people to be able to come and see me play rather than watch me over the TV.“
Turnage on playing in front of family
It was a roundabout way of coming home. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound defensive back spent two seasons at Alabama where he earned a National Championship ring, then transferred to Tennessee. He came into his own as a Vol earning Southeastern Conference player of the week for his performance against South Carolina in 2021.
Turnage has used his previous stops to add to his natural talent and he still has a thirst for learning.
“It’s been fun,” Turnage said.
“I kind of look at it like this — you never know enough and I feel like playing in different schemes and different defenses, it opens your eyes to a lot more things you know, a lot of things one team does, another team does it with a tad bit of difference but it’s still like the same concept. So I feel like it just extends my knowledge from a standpoint of being under other guys, other coaches seeing how they coach this, seeing what they see and then coming here seeing what these coaches you kind of just put it all together.”
Turnage
The learning curve may not be that difficult at Ole Miss. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding will coach Turnage as he did his first two seasons in college at Alabama.
“I see a difference in how it’s ran,” Turnage said of what the program was like before Kiffin.
“This is more of a pro program. That’s something I really wanted to be part of. I saw how they did things before I got here. I watched it and played against it (while at Tennessee)… Pete Golding’s defense is a pro style defense. There’s no better time and no better opportunity than this.”
Brandon Turnage
Golding is not the only familiar face Turnage sees in the Manning Center. Oxford natives Tavion Prater, Kortlen Wilfawn and JJ Pegues are also on the Rebels’ roster.
Turnage is very familiar with Pegues as the pair played youth basketball together; although, who was the better player is up for debate.
“I think we were pretty even,” Turnage said. “We were great; we lost one game that season and we beat everybody else. The team we beat in the championship game was the team we lost to early in the season so I feel like we were both pretty even.”
If all goes to play, the duo will win another championship together, but this one on the gridiron. Hotty Toddy!
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
