Zion Turner, South Florida’s top-ranked QB recruit, talks UM Hurricanes, Michigan, more
Zion Turner is already one of the most accomplished high school quarterbacks in South Florida history.
He’s a two-time state champion as a starter for Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, a two-time first-team all-Broward County selection by the Miami Herald and he holds more than a dozen scholarship offers before the end of his junior year.
Last year, the Miami Hurricanes offered him a scholarship, making him — for a time — a rare, major quarterback target for the Hurricanes from the Miami metropolitan area.
He’s still the Miami metro area’s top-ranked quarterback prospect, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2022, and the No. 11 dual-threat quarterback prospect in the country. As the year-long recruiting dead period creeps toward an end, Turner is ready to seriously dive into the recruiting process.
“I’m really opening my recruitment,” Turner said Sunday after impressing at an Under All-America Camp at Ives Estates Park in Ives Estates. “I haven’t been able to make a decision or slim it down yet, just taking it as it goes.”
The Hurricanes, he said, have mostly slipped out of his recruiting process, though. He said he still hears from the coaches, “a little bit,” but, “not a lot.”
The Hurricanes have instead prioritized four-star Georgia quarterback Jacurri Brown, who is slated to make an oral commitment March 26. Kaden Martin, a four-star quarterback from Tennessee, also committed to the Hurricanes last Thursday to play baseball, although he hopes to play both sports once he gets to college.
Turner still wants to visit Coral Gables this summer, though, and he does fit offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee’s system because of his proficiency in the read option. Last season, the 6-2, 185-pound junior went 84 of 152 for 1,066, nine touchdowns and six interceptions, and ran for 206 yards and seven touchdowns on 44 carries — with two fumbles lost — in nine games.
One of his big goals this offseason is to get in better shape to improve on his average of 4.7 yards per carry. After missing out on a normal offseason last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s trying to slim down and bulk up, and turn his fat into muscle. Right now, he’s at about 195 pounds, he said, and his goal is to get to 205 by the start of his senior season.
His chemistry with St. Thomas Aquinas three-star running back Anthony Hankerson made the read option the foundation of Raiders’ methodical offense in 2020, but he wants to be more than just an efficient plodder in 2021.
“I’ve been doing a lot of speed training ... more explosive, accelerations and those things — elusiveness, in and out of cuts,” Turner said. “The way I run it is good. I know everything, but it’s turning those 7-yard gains into 12 and 20.”
His resume still has Power 5 Conference schools interested. The Arkansas Razorbacks offered him last year and have kept in touch. He plans to visit Fayetteville, Arkansas, once the dead period ends.
Turner has also started to hear from the West Virginia Mountaineers, Michigan Wolverines and Oregon Ducks, all three are on the list to get visits in the coming months.
Michigan, in particular, recruits St. Thomas Aquinas very well. Two of his teammates from last season — four-star middle linebacker Jaydon Hood and three-star cornerback Ja’Den McBurrows — signed national letters of intent with the Wolverines last year and Michigan linebacker Anthony Solomon played for the Raiders with Turner in 2018.
Turner said he has talked to Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh and the two are forming a relationship.
“I’ve been talking to Michigan, my head coach has been talking to them,” Turner said. “I know players that play for Michigan right now. I have a couple friends, so I’ve talked to them a lot. They tell me all the good things at Michigan.”
Still, Turner is waiting on offers from Power 5 suitors.
The coronavirus hampered all sorts of recruiting. Quarterbacks, though, were perhaps most affected by the COVID-prompted dead period. Most schools want to see a quarterback in person — they want to see if he’s really as big as he says and get a first-person look at his throwing form — before extending an offer.
Quarterbacks are still flying off the board, though. The top eight quarterbacks have already committed, as have 15 of the 23 blue-chip recruits at the position. Turner is already interesting, and he’ll only become more in-demand as the spring and summer go on.
“They want to see me in person, which is what a lot of college coaches told me, but they couldn’t come see me in person, so it slowed down the process a lot,” Turner said. “I’m hoping that when this dead period ends, I’ll be right back to it.”
