Milwood High star Turner eager to repeat before heading off to Texas

Milwood High star Turner does it all

OKLAHOMA CITY — Josh Turner figures it’s only natural that he has fit in so well as a cornerback.

In basketball, his first love, he’s always been called on to defend the best player on the opposing team. Why shouldn’t it be the same in football?

After starting out in the new sport in eighth grade, Turner quickly developed into one of the nation’s top-rated high school cornerbacks. And for Millwood High School, he’s even more.

Turner is a do-it-all star for the Falcons, also playing at receiver, deep snapper, kick returner, kicker and occasionally at quarterback. This season, he’s even expected to get some playing time at running back.

Then, he’s off to Texas, where he made an early commitment.

“I can see myself at Texas being a corner, but I can see also kind of being moved around at receiver and kick return or punt return,” Turner said. “But I want to play corner at the next level.”

Turner said he chose Texas because “it’s not too far from home, not too close, and they have a great program and great coaches, and I have a chance to play early.”

“I know it gets crazy with recruiting during the football season and trying to balance the classwork,” Turner said. “I know Texas was where I was leaning to from the beginning, so I chose just to get it out of the way now.”

The oldest of four brothers, Turner also is a sprinter and high jumps on the Millwood track team and he was a member of the school’s Class 3A state championship team in basketball last season.

A chance at repeating will keep him from joining the Longhorns early to go through spring practice.

“I was thinking about graduating early, but I just couldn’t leave my teammates,” Turner said. “I wanted to … just leave the right way. I didn’t want to leave early.”

Assistant head coach Kevin Cox said Turner impressed coaches by being a quick learner, even coming to the sidelines to point out tendencies the staff hadn’t picked up while watching film.

Cox sees better days ahead for Turner.

“He’s a big physical corner right now. He’s skinny, but if you look at him, he’s got these long arms and long legs and he’s just going to be able to carry 195 to 200 pounds and he’s still going to run a 4.4 and he’s still going to vertical jump 39 inches,” Cox said.

“He’s going to close on people extremely fast, and he’s going to be able to recover if he gets beat.”