Turner began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Pacific before earning his first full-time college job coaching running backs and receivers at University of Arizona (1978–1980). He moved on to be an assistant at Northwestern University (1981–1982), the University of Pittsburgh (1983–1984), the University of Southern California (1985–1987), Texas A&M University (1988), and Stanford University (1989–1991), before earning his first head coaching job at San Jose State University in 1992. Turner was the head coach at San Jose State for one season before being hired by Dave Wannstedt in the first of his two stints as the Bears offensive coordinator.