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Nearly every school backed off of Zion Turner heading into his senior year at St. Thomas Aquinas High School (Florida). The pandemic flipped recruiting upside down, opening the floodgates of the transfer portal and causing a litany of high school quarterbacks to commit early. Schools like LSU, Kentucky, Louisville and Texas A&M nabbed other recruits, burying Turner, a three-star, dual-threat quarterback. An injury to his knee at a camp prior to his final season at St. Thomas Aquinas also didn’t help his chances at landing at a top school either.

Turner stepped onto the field at Brian Piccolo Memorial Stadium with a “chip on his shoulder,” according to former teammate Tellek Lockette. Turner already led the Raiders to an undefeated state championship season as a sophomore and another state title following an 8-1 regular season shortened due to COVID-19. In the first game of his senior year since his knee injury, Turner received the snap with four seconds left in the first half against St. Francis Academy (Maryland).

Turner rolled to his right to try and find an open man. But Harrison Green, St. Thomas Aquinas’ left tackle, was beaten by an edge rusher. Turner heard the defensive end as he began to wind up from the 50-yard line, ducking below his leaping tackle.

Turner scrambled back to the line of scrimmage and lofted a 40-yard pass to senior Jaylan Sanchez for the touchdown. It gave St. Thomas Aquinas a 21-20 lead en route to a 38-23 victory.

“Right then and there I knew he was very locked in,” Lockette said. “And he ended up taking us to a state championship.”

Turner finished his St. Thomas Aquinas career with only two losses in three seasons. Next January, Turner committed to UConn under newly hired head coach Jim L. Mora. He competed with Penn State transfer Ta’Quan Roberson throughout training camp for first team reps, according to his high school head coach, Roger Harriot. Turner ultimately lost the starting job, but on the Huskies’ second drive of the season against Utah State, Roberson went down with a torn ACL, thrusting Turner into the starting role as a true freshman.

“He was keen on the fact that he (could) bring them back up,” Sanchez said. “He can make them great again … because he is one of the best recruits they have in that class.”

Turner said he knew almost instantly that Roberson had suffered a serious knee injury because of his own experience.

“I instantly knew there’s a chance he might not be coming (back),” Turner told the Connecticut Insider. “Right at that moment, I just gathered all my thoughts … regrouping, taking a deep breath, taking that first snap on the field.”

When UConn hired Mora, he offered Turner, who completed 68% of his passes and gathered a 25-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio, an opportunity to sign early. Turner and his family didn’t want to rush the process. It was a decision that took “faith and guts during a convoluted time,” Harriot said.

Turner committed to UConn in February. Though Turner impressed in summer camp, it wasn’t until the day of UConn’s first game that Mora named him the second-string quarterback.

Lockette knew Turner was “balling out” in camp and watched him play against Utah State. Turner’s high school teammate,Jerrod Cameron, said he started slow, throwing an interception on his first collegiate pass. Then, while rolling left to avoid a blitz, Turner threw across his body for a 13-yard touchdown pass to Keelan Marion. Cameron watched from his dorm room at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. “He’s ready,” Cameron remembers thinking.

Turner has always felt like he had a chip on his shoulder, according to Lockette. As a Black quarterback, Lockette said recruiters didn’t think he could throw the ball at a Division-I level despite throwing for 3,169 yards in his final two years of high school. Lockette described Turner as someone with good vision down the field and good pocket awareness to bail on a play and scramble. All Lockette needed to do on the offensive line was open up a hole, then Turner was gone.

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Turner and Sanchez used to practice one-on-one on a middle school field next to the high school, running routes that they’d practiced the day before with the team. During the summer, Turner would text Sanchez every morning and then sometimes later in the afternoon for workouts, which is why he was more frustrated that he couldn’t run and lift with everyone else when he got hurt.

“It was more of a mental thing for him,” Sanchez said. “I feel like that leveled him up because he dug so deep and came out with a whole other dog for that senior year.”

Former Mississippi State dual-threat quarterback Wesley Carroll took over the offensive coordinator job prior to Turner’s sophomore season, and worked with him throughout the next three seasons, helping him blossom into the quarterback he is now. Turner said during his senior year he extended players “very well.”

“UConn has a real winner who’s a fierce competitor and adamant about bringing the football program to prominence,” Harriot said.

Turner steps into the starting role with an uphill battle, leading a UConn team coming off of a 1-11 season. But Mora knows his highest-rated recruit is a proven winner under center as he tries to resurrect the Huskies, and Sanchez believes he’s the best dual-threat quarterback in the country.

“He’s probably going to be the best quarterback coming out of college soon … as far as in our class,” Lockette said. “Yeah, he’s going to do some big things.”

Published on September 7, 2022 at 11:54 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt