COLUMBIA — A.J. Turner faces the critics and the haters each morning as he leaves his room. Taped to the back of his door are items printed out from the internet, all saying some variation of the same thing.
Too small to play running back in the SEC.
“I’m not saying it’s forever long, or it’s short,” the South Carolina redshirt freshman said of the collection. “But it’s a good amount.”
It all serves as daily motivation for a player who’s long faced questions about his size. At 5-10 and 195 pounds, Turner doesn’t possess the bulk of Georgia’s 228-pound Nick Chubb, LSU’s 230-pound Leonard Fournette, or even 220-pound David Williams, the leading returning rusher on USC’s roster.