Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel will bring at least five days a week. The Wednesday read offers a comprehensive look at 4-star cornerback prospect DJ Turner II from North Gwinnett High School.
DJ Turner II is part of the trio of players from North Gwinnett High School — the defending GHSA Class 7A state champion — who picked up offers from Georgia earlier in March. It was an interesting occurrence that was chronicled on this page.
Turner’s most interesting storyline, however, could be the Bulldogs branches in his family tree.
“My cousin played [at Georgia],” Turner said. “He actually played with [coach] Kirby Smart.”
His cousin is former defensive lineman Travis Stroud, who made sure to call Turner to congratulate him soon after news of the offer came out.
“He’s already barking in my ear a bit about Georgia,” Turner said earlier in March.
Turner rates as a 4-star recruit and is listed as the nation’s No. 26 cornerback prospect on the 247Sports composite rankings. His teammates in the secondary who have Georgia offers — Quinton Newsome and Warren Burrell — are rated as 3-star prospects.
“It was cool to have that Georgia offer,” Turner said. “The school from the state that you lived in. It was cool that they had already offered both of my teammates. Our whole secondary guys that are coming back this year now have a Georgia offer.”
He also is the most decorated of the three big-time secondary players at North Gwinnett. His 247Sports profile page lists 30-plus offers.
Look for him to make his college decision sometime before his senior season gets underway. He said Clemson, Georgia, Penn State, Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama and Florida State have been hitting him up the most.
The scouting book on DJ Turner
He will check in at 6 feet and about 170 pounds.
Turner is considered the football savant of the North Gwinnett secondary. He has the highest football IQ. Even his highly competitive running mates in the Bulldogs secondary grant him that.
That is a nod to his versatility as a player. He drifted from safety to cornerback last season after being seen as perhaps the team’s best cover man at corner during his sophomore year.
Turner was credited with 78 tackles (50 solo stops) for the state champions last fall. He also had 2 interceptions.
“He’s probably one of the most explosive kids I have been around,” North Gwinnett coach Bill Stewart said. “Great cover skills. Even in that state championship game the competitive part of him really came out. We had him on their best slot guy, and DJ had a couple of big plays in that game.
“Even in that semifinal game against McEachern, he really made a couple of plays that were special plays. The kind of play where you are like, ‘All right, that’s somebody at another level than some of these other guys,’ and he brings that to the table. True competitor.”
Which school will snag his commitment? There is already one thing that seems certain about that.
“He’s going to a school that will play press man at corner and calls on him to do that,” Burrell said. “DJ is going to a press-man school. It won’t be a zone team. He will go play for a program that presses you and gets right in their face with their corners on defense. Every play. Whoever shows him they will use him like that the best, that place is going to get him.”
Eric Wright, who coaches the secondary at North Gwinnett, said all three of his charges share one key trait.
“They are all just very competitive to the nth degree,” Wright said. “They all have swag. For sure. But as far as coaching-wise, I feel like I coach the most competitive position on our team. They love competing with each other. Competing with receivers. They want to clamp them up. Hit everybody. It really doesn’t matter. They all want to hit and compete with their opponents. DJ will hit. Warren will camp you up. Newsome will do both. They all really have that very much in common.”
Quick intro to player from Class of 2020
Cooper Mays is a 3-star center from Knoxville, Tenn., in the Class of 2020. Let’s take on the obvious question first.
Yes, his brother is Cade Mays, the 5-star tackle who signed with Georgia on Dec. 20. He enrolled in January and is going through spring drills this week.
Mays will be locked in a battle with 2017 5-star tackle Isaiah Wilson for the next several months to figure out the pecking order at right tackle.
Cooper Mays already rates as the nation’s No. 1 center in 2020, according to 247Sports.com. The Mays brothers, along with the rest of the family, are close. Cooper also lists an offer from Georgia.
In fact, it is his pinned tweet at the top of his Twitter timeline. The interesting part is that he has had that offer from Georgia since January 2017. That was well before his brother de-committed from Tennessee after the series of curious events that plagued the last ride of the Butch Jones era in Knoxville.
Cooper Mays, a 6-foot-3, 250-pound sophomore, will see his body grow a lot during the next two seasons. He is listed as a guard on his Hudl highlight film.
Those snaps feature a lot of reps with him working at left guard next to his brother in the 2017 season.
Miss any Intel? The DawgNation recruiting archive will get you up to speed faster than DawgNation Daily podcaster Brandon Adams can find a reason to say something snarky about that SEC East rival from The Sunshine State.