Josh Turner: 2011 Football Recruiting Spotlight

Vitals

Name: Josh Turner

Position: CB

Height: 6'0"

Weight: 175

40 Time: 4.5

High School: Millwood

Rivals Rating: 4*, 5.8

ESPN Recruiting Evaluation ($)

Turner is an electrifying skill player with the speed and quickness needed to produce and shine in all three phases of the game at the next level. A great athlete with play-maker potential. He has a strong, wiry frame in need of additional bulk but is such a quick-twitched athlete and feisty competitor that he breaks countless tackles with the ball in his hands on offense and shows similar physicality on defense. As a corner he has the fluid hips, great recovery burst and overall speed to stick tightly to receivers in man-to-man. Can redirect sharply with good burst out of his cuts. Reads the quarterback well and has good anticipation skills. Transitions extremely quickly out of his breaks with direct angles and great initial burst. An explosive athlete who takes direct angles to the ball. Range, ball skills and breaking quickness are excellent. He can leap and make great adjustments to the ball. Excellent high-pointer and displays great overall ball awareness skills. Plucks the ball extremely well on offense when lined up at receiver; will have the eventual size to play outside and shows a good feel for finding the underneath soft spots as a slot. Soundly tracks and consistently comes down with the difficult deep pass demonstrating great hand-eye coordination and body control. Can stick his breaks sharply as a short-to-intermediate route runner and create separation. Has big-play ability after the grab. Can pull away with great initial speed and quickness, make you miss with loose hips or keep his wiry frame moving to break out of initial contact. However, he has relied on pure athleticism at times, particularly at corner, and will need to hone his pedal, footwork and overall coverage skills. Shows he can play press and be aggressive off the line but his longer frame will need to continue adding upper-body strength and bulk. Route running will need to be polished as well. That said, Turner has a lot of natural ability to develop at the next level and could see early playing time with athleticism and versatility to contribute in all three phases of the game.

Strengths

Turner is a big time player at cornerback who has all the tools to be a star at the college level. He's got good CB height at six feet tall and, unlike similarly talented WR/DB Curtis Brown coming out of high school, has no aversion to playing physically and will willingly come up to make a tackle in the run game. 

Josh is a fluid and explosive athlete who can jam at the line of scrimmage as well as turn and run with a receiver stride for stride. He shows good hips when turning with receivers and great on-field awareness when the ball is in the air.

One of the most exciting points of strength in Turner's game is his playmaking ability in the passing game. His background as a WR on the offensive side of the ball really shows as he fights for the ball like he expects to win it every time and is absolutely electrifying with the ball in his hands. Can really high point the ball well and does a good job not getting beat deep. Once he makes a pick, the offense better be paying attention because he's heading for the endzone in a hurry.

Understands how to drop in zone and cover his area as well as having quick play recognition and a good break on the ball.

Turner's speed, elusiveness, surprising break-tackle ability, and sharp cuts make him a candidate to play kick and/or punt return at Texas.

Weaknesses

Josh is pretty strong for his body size, but he'll need to add bulk once he gets on campus. This will help him continue his physicality in the run game prevent him from having to be hid from the line of scrimmage. He also needs some work with tackling at lower body points because right now he spends too much time trying to take players down at their chest level instead of their legs and hips. Other than that he'll just have to adjust to the intricacies of playing CB in college.

Target Body Type

I really like Turner's frame and he should be able to put on at least 10 pounds pretty easily once he gets to Texas to play around 185 or 190.

Final Analysis

Expect Turner to take a redshirt year to improve his muscle tone in 2011 and come in with a great chance to contribute as a RS freshman in 2012 if the young corners ahead of him like A.J. White and Carrington Byndom fail to live up to expectations. Love Turner's future potential to turn into a shutdown corner as he really doesn't have any discernible weaknesses at this point in his career and definitely has room to grow into his large frame without sacrificing speed. Has a chance to be a truly great player at Texas for new DB coach Jerry Gray.

Player Comparison

Curtis Brown

Read past Texas recruiting spotlights