Tennessee veteran DB Brandon Turnage enters NCAA transfer portal

Tennessee is losing another veteran from its secondary to the transfer portal. Days after cornerback Warren Burrell went into the database as a graduate transfer, fifth-year senior defensive back Brandon Turnage entered the portal on Monday morning, sources told GoVols247. The former Top247 prospect began his career at Alabama and played two seasons with the Crimson Tide before joining the Vols in 2021 and playing the past three seasons on Rocky Top, but he is set to play his final season of eligibility elsewhere.

Turnage played in all 12 regular-season games for the Vols this season and totaled nine tackles and one pass breakup, which came against UTSA back in September. He began the season as the No. 2 Star behind Tamarion McDonald before shifting to cornerback, where he provided depth via rotational snaps in 11 games. His playing time on defense diminished as the season went on, though, as he played just 10 snaps in the final three games.

In 31 games at Tennessee over three seasons, Turnage totaled 48 tackles, three tackles for loss, five pass breakups and one interception, which came against Kentucky last season.

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The high points of Turnage’s time at Tennessee came in 2021, when he thrived in a spot start at Star in the win against South Carolina, and a six-game run in the starting lineup at cornerback in 2022.

Turnage, who played at Lafayette High School in Oxford, Miss., before signing with Alabama, appeared in just four games across two seasons in Tuscaloosa, where he was part of the Tide’s 2020 national championship team. The Vols landed him out of the portal the following summer after it looked like he would continue his career at Georgia. Yet playing time at Tennessee was limited his first season as he appeared in just nine games.

In one of those appearances, though, Turnage was excellent. With Theo Jackson and Doneiko Slaughter sidelined by injury, Turnage was the emergency fill-in at Star against South Carolina, and he racked up 14 tackles and two tackles for loss against the Gamecocks to earn SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors after the 45-20 win. Turnage also played extensively in the second half in his return to Alabama, but 101 of his 129 defensive snaps in 2021 came in those two games.

Turnage was slowed by injury during the offseason in 2022 and opened the season as a reserve, playing sparingly on defense until injuries at cornerback forced him into the lineup in the second half of the win against Alabama. He started the following week against UT Martin, but got hurt early in the game. Turnage went on to start the next four games (Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina) before suffering a foot injury in the infamous loss in Columbia, and he missed the final two games of the season.

In 10 games in 2022, Turnage totaled 17 tackles, one tackle for loss, four pass breakups (two against Missouri and two against South Carolina) and one interception, which came off Will Levis in the rout of Kentucky.

Turnage missed spring practice earlier this year as he worked through what he called a challenging recovery process.

“Really, it was a long process,” Turnage said during preseason. “Actually after the injury happened or whatever, I got kind of real down on myself and stuff because it got around to like February to March to April and I still wasn’t feeling really good at all. So really now, just continuing to push as I feel my body healing and doing what I feel like I can do at a high level. I really started waking up earlier so I could get in, get in the building real early, get some treatment and stuff like that, go ahead and get myself feeling good for the day. That’s really how I’ve been coping with the issues with that foot or whatever, but everything’s been pretty good so far.”

Turnage worked himself into position to help Tennessee on defense and special teams this season. He played off the bench at Star in the first two games before sliding to cornerback to provide depth there. Turnage totaled 83 of his 149 defensive snaps for the season in the first four games, but he saw double-digit snaps just three more times (Alabama, Kentucky and Connecticut) the rest of the way even after Tennessee lost starting cornerback Kamal Hadden to a season-ending injury in October and played just six snaps at Missouri and four against Georgia.

He also was a fixture on special teams with roles on the punt-return unit and the punt team.

After redshirting at Alabama in 2019 and getting a free year for the 2020 pandemic-impacted season, Turnage, who completed his undergraduate degree at Tennessee in August, has his sixth and final season of eligibility remaining.