Ja’Kyrian Turner Has Enough Speed to Follow an All-American

Ja’Kyrian Turner is fast. Very fast. He’s also very new to Pittsburgh, so he hasn’t had a chance to race star running back Desmond Reid yet, but he wouldn’t shy away either.

Turner — a 5-foot-9, 170-pound running back from Wildwood, Fla. — is confident, though. He ran a 4.29 40-yard dash at Miami (followed by a 4.32), and while those are unverified times, the speed is evident.

And Turner is a little bit bigger than Reid, but they’re both undersized receiving backs with a lot of speed. He feels like a natural successor.

“I see myself fitting the same thing he did because I feel like I can come in and make the same impact he did last year,” Ja’Kyrian Turner said last week at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. 

Pitt added three running backs in the class of 2025, and all three fit the mold of what offensive coordinator Kade Bell has prioritized in the backfield. He has a type. They’re all shorter, slimmer athletes with the ability to play in the backfield and outside. But Turner, specifically, is a recruit that the coaching staff watched on film and decided to keep inside.

Turner played running back growing up, so it was a natural fit once he arrived in Pittsburgh, but he knows his receiving experience will help — not just in running routes out of the backfield (as Reid did quite frequently last season) but in lining up out wide.

Turner had the speed to do just about whatever he wanted at the high school level. Even on a South Sumter squad that struggled offensively, he carried the ball 134 times for 978 yards (7.3 yards per carry) and 10 touchdowns and added nine receptions for 111 yards (12.3 yards per reception).

He wasn’t able to showcase his receiving chops as much as a senior, but he did show his speed and toughness out of the backfield. Maybe no game was more indicative than his 19-carry, 315-yard performance against Lake Minneola.

Much like Reid, Turner has the quick burst to get past defenders and the track star speed to outrun any pursuers. But he’s a powerful runner, able to bounce off contact and withstand would-be tacklers, too.

Turner has a long way to go in terms of learning the playbook and adapting to the college level, but he certainly looks like a player who would thrive in the Pitt offensive system. He arrived early for a reason — to hone that speed on the football field the best way possible.

“When he told me how he was going to use the running backs in the offseason, I fell in love with it,” Ja’Kyrian Turner said. “But when I actually saw it on TV, I fell more in love with it because I see myself doing the same thing. And I feel like I can just fit the program well and make an impact.”

He’s a Florida kid, which isn’t uncommon in Pittsburgh now (Reid himself is from Florida, too), and there’s something to be said about the speed in Florida.

“Playing with my speed, I don’t feel like nobody has the speed I have, so I just gotta know to use it in different ways and make them miss,” Turner said. “And I just gotta learn how to change in my direction and get better at it. I feel like I can always get faster.”

Turner doesn’t need to be Reid. He doesn’t need to be anybody but himself, but he has the speed to follow in some big shoes.