I chickened out as well. Did 2 test turkeys, both of which were failures. So, I wound up using a recipe from the NY Times that got rave reviews. Problem for me was that, after two experiments, I was so tired of turkey that I didn't really want any of the 3d bird when the T-Day finally arrived.
My problem was, I didn't pay attention to plain evidence. I used a ChefAlarm probe inserted into the turkey to let me know how the cooking was coming along. It wasn't until after the 2d failure that I realized those two turkeys were still partially frozen when I put the in the cooker. (The ChefAlarm records high and low temps). What I failed to pay attention to was the fact that the low temp was at 30 degrees or below for each of the turkeys. Lesson here? Even if you think your bird is fresh, it was probably frozen at some point. So, use a temperature probe to make sure it's fully thawed!