Florida is the dream school for Turner

2017 quarterback John Turner (6-2, 205, Smyrna, TN Smyrna High) has grown up loving the Florida Gators and on Monday he got the opportunity to visit his dream school as a prospect.

“It was amazing down there on my visit,” Turner said. “I use to live in Daytona so I’ve always liked Florida and the area down there. My whole family grew up Gator fans so it’s my favorite school.”

Turner, who trains with former Gators great Lorenzo Spikes, was able to see everything Florida has to offer, including walking into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

“We went around the facilities and got the whole tour,” Turner said. “We got to go on the field and into a few of the rooms. We got into the training room and the weight room but we didn’t get to go in the locker room since the players were getting ready for practice in there.”

Like all quarterbacks, the 2017 prospect wanted to see how the quarterbacks are used in practice and on Monday he liked how Florida uses its quarterback in head coach Jim McElwain’s offense.

“Practice was very nice and fast,” Turner said. “The offense is the spread and pro-style mixed together. It’s a mixture of no huddle and huddle, I liked it. They mixed up being under center and in the shotgun. It was pretty neat.”

One other thing that Turner noticed was that offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier was a very hands-on coach when it came to coaching the quarterbacks.

“Coach Nussmeier was very positive towards his quarterback when he was coaching them,” Turner said. “He sounded like he knew a lot of what he was talking about. He was coaching pretty hard.”

Turner didn’t get the chance to sit down one-on-one with any of the coaches due to practice but the coaches made sure to introduce themselves.

“I got to meet coach McElwain and introduce myself to him before practice,” Turner said. “I didn’t get to talk to him much because it was right before practice. I got to talk Coach Hughes for a few minutes because he knows Coach [Lorenzo] Spikes. We got to spend a few minutes with each other.”

One thing is for sure, if the Gators come around and offer the 2017 quarterback then Florida will be tough to beat.

“Florida is my dream school right now,” Turner said. “If Florida was to offer me one day then it would be big to me. It would be a great feeling.”

As a sophomore Turner was 116-206 for 1,333 yards and 10 touchdowns for an offense that runs a lot.

INSIDERS TAKE: Turner has good looking tape and is starting to pick up some buzz around the southeast and after this summer when he camps at several different colleges I expect him to land some offers.

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.