Aquinas’ Turner is a legitimate local option for Miami at quarterback in 2022

Player comparisons in sports usually exhaust me and oftentimes remind me how lazy many sports pundits and fans can be.

But let me jump on the bandwagon for a quick second and make one of my own.

Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas 2022 quarterback Zion Turner reminds me a lot of current Miami Hurricanes quarterback Tate Martell as a recruit.

Turner is a dual-threat quarterback who can beat a defense with his legs or his arm, which was nearly identical to the scouting report on Martell coming out of Las Vegas Bishop Gorman in 2017.

247sports.com lists Turner at 6-foot-1 on his profile page, two inches taller than Martell was listed as a recruit. Both lack the prototypical height of many college quarterbacks. Of the top 12 dual-threat quarterbacks ranked by 247sports.com for the class of 2022, only one is listed as being shorter than Turner.

Like Martell, Turner took over a highly-ranked private school as a sophomore and led his team to an undefeated season and state championship. Martell wound up going undefeated two more times and finished his high school career with a perfect 43-0 record with nearly 10,000 yards of total offense and 148 touchdowns accounted for.

While those are lofty and likely unreachable expectations to put on Turner, his impressive sophomore season out of nowhere has put him on the recruiting map nationally as 247sports.com has him ranked as a 3-star prospect and the No.11 dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2022.

According to MaxPreps.com, Turner completed 62 percent of his passes and threw for 1,782 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2019 for the Raiders. He also rushed for 402 yards and 12 touchdowns.

He accomplished all of that with no previous varsity football experience as he served as the Raiders’ junior varsity quarterback in 2018.

Why does this matter for Miami? Because while the Hurricanes do not yet have a verbal commitment secured for a 2021 quarterback, they have already offered Turner a scholarship for the 2022 class, according to 247sports.com.

The Hurricanes have not signed a quarterback from Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties since inking David Thompson of Miami Westminster Christian to a scholarship in the class of 2012. Thompson never took a snap for Miami as he opted instead to focus on playing for the Hurricanes baseball team after a redshirt year in 2012.

The last South Florida high school quarterback Miami signed who wound up playing for the Hurricanes was Stephen Morris in the class of 2010 out of Miami Monsignor Pace.

Since Miami does not appear to be actively recruiting any South Florida high school quarterbacks for the class of 2021, it could be ten years in between the Hurricanes’ last two local signings at quarterback.

Quarterbacks Miami has missed out on from South Florida since 2010 include Teddy Bridgewater, Jacoby Brissett, Quinton Flowers and Lamar Jackson.

Might Turner be the next South Florida high school quarterback to sign with the Hurricanes? It is way too early to forecast that as new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee has not even coached a game yet with the Hurricanes and Turner will have plenty of options to choose from nationally on where he wants to play college football.

He currently holds offers from Arkansas, LSU, Texas A&M, Maryland, Kentucky and Louisville among others according to 247sports.com.

The Hurricanes and many other programs will be monitoring his junior season whenever COVID-19 allows high school football in Florida to take place.

The interest will only grow in Turner if he and the Raiders put together another season like they had in 2019.