After the unexpected firing of
Mario Cristobal, and the back-and-forth roller coaster with
Butch Davis,
FIU finally has their man. Former
University of Illinois coach and
San Jose State coach
Ron Turner, will be introduced as the school's third football coach.
If his name sounds familiar, it should. Turner is brothers with former
San Diego Chargers coach
Norv Turner. But is this the best pick for FIU?
Turner was most recently connected to the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their quarterbacks coach. At the college level, Turner spent eight years at Illinois, but only had two winning seasons during his tenure. He did win the Big Ten Championship in 2001 before losing in the Sugar Bowl.
In terms of record and for comparisons sake, Turner went 4-19 in his last two season at Illinois. Cristobal went 18-20 in his last three seasons at FIU. Only time will tell how this move will shape for the Panthers, but now Turner's concern will be getting back some high-quality recruits that were lost once Cristobal was fired.
FIU will start next season as new members of the C-USA conference.