Isaiah Turner Named All-American by AFCA

MADISON, N.J. (December 10, 2018) – Senior linebacker Isaiah Turner of the FDU-Florham football team was named a First Team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association Monday. The senior becomes just the fifth All-American in program history, and first First Team choice. Turner joins Ira Epstein (1984), Eric Bray (1986), Frank Illidge (1987) and Vic Moncato (1993) as AFCA All-Americans. "Isaiah had a once in a lifetime season for us," said Head Coach Brian Surace. "His productivity from the linebacker position was shown in every major defensive statistical category. I've never been around that in my 25 years of coaching at all different levels. And this led us to the second most wins in school history." Last week, Turner joined classmates Mike Panzarino and Robert Planter as All-East Region selections from D3Football.com. Turner and Panzarino were First Team honorees, with Planter gaining Third Team accolades. The trio became the third, fourth and fifth players in school history to earn All-Region from D3Football.com. Turner gained First Team All-Middle Atlantic Conference honors this season, after being named Second Team and Honorable Mention the last two seasons respectively. Turner closed out his illustrious career with 139 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks, while also adding five forced fumbles and three interceptions. The Rockaway, N.J. native also has been named the ECAC Defensive Player of the Month on two occasions this year. For the second time in three seasons, he was chosen to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team and is eligible for Academic All-American honors. Turner is fifth in the country with 13.9 tackles per game, and third with .5 forced fumbles per contest. The senior had a big game in a 21-17 win over Widener, recording 16 tackles, including a season-best 10 solo stops. He also recorded 3.5 tackles for loss (19 yards), while also notching two sacks for a loss of 14 yards. Turner also made a diving interception to stop Widener's momentum. The senior notched double-digit tackles in all but two games, and recorded a season-best 17 against Lebanon Valley on Homecoming. The senior finished his four years second all-time with 427 tackles, including 227 solo and 200 assisted. His 227 solo stops were 34 better than the previous school-record, set by Tom Pouliot from 1996-00. His 16.0 career sacks ranked him just .5 out of the top-five, and his 10.5 sacks this season was just one away from tying Mike Gibson's single-season mark of 11.5 from 1994.