Chris Turner ( American football ) Chris Turner ( born 1987 ) is an American football quarterback . He played quarterback for the Maryland Terrapins at the University of Maryland from 2007 to 2009 . Turner began his career at Maryland as a redshirt in 2005 and then served as a reserve quarterback before he earned the starting position . After a redshirt season in 2005 , Turner saw no playing time as the third - string quarterback the following year . In 2007 , he replaced the injured starter during the game against 10th - ranked Rutgers and led the Terrapins to an upset victory . After that , he remained as the team ' s leader for the remainder of the season , and against eighth - ranked Boston College , engineered another upset victory . Turner also helped Maryland secure an appearance in the Emerald Bowl . At the start of the 2008 season , he was relegated to backup status , but soon regained the starting position . That year , he led Maryland in wins over four of their five ranked opponents and to an appearance in the Humanitarian Bowl . He returned as the starter for the 2009 season , but suffered a knee injury and was replaced by Jamarr Robinson . Early years . Turner was born on September 8 , 1987 in Simi Valley , California to parents John and Grace Turner . His father was the original drummer of the hair - metal band Ratt . Chris Turner attended high school at the Chaminade College Preparatory School , where he was a three - year letterwinner and starting quarterback in football and pitcher in baseball . As a sophomore , he was on the junior varsity football team until midseason when the varsity quarterback suffered an injury against Valencia High School , a regional powerhouse . Turner described the incident as the last time that he was nervous during a game and said , " It got pretty ugly to be honest . Ever since then , I ' ve always thought to myself , ' It can ' t get worse than that . ' " At Chaminade , he led a pass - oriented offense and , during his senior year , accumulated 139 completion s on 265 attempts , 2 , 047 yards , 16 touchdown s , and 11 interceptions . He was named to the All - California Interscholastic Federation ( CIF ) second team as a senior and the All - Mission League team as both a junior and senior . SuperPrep picked him as a Far West all - region selection and PrepStar as an all - region selection . Turner was assessed as a Rivals . com three - star and Scout . com two - star recruit . He received scholarship offers from Boise State , Illinois , Louisville , Maryland , Oregon , Utah , and UTEP . Maryland offered him after another Californian recruit , Josh Portis , chose Florida instead — although Portis later transferred to Maryland and served as a backup alongside Turner . Turner ultimately chose Maryland , which is located just outside of Washington , D . C . , partly due to his interest in politics . College career . Experience . Turner sat out his true freshman year during the 2005 season on redshirt status . In 2006 , he served as the third - team quarterback behind starter Sam Hollenbach and reserve Jordan Steffy , but Turner saw no playing time during that season . 2007 season . In 2007 , as the second - string quarterback , he saw his first action against when he was substituted for injured starter Jordan Steffy . Turner executed a scoring drive and completed four of six passes , but also threw two interceptions . He sat out the next two games and then took one snap against Wake Forest . When the unranked Terps faced 10th - ranked Rutgers , Steffy suffered a concussion and Turner again filled in . He led drives for two touchdown s and two field goals in an upset of the Scarlet Knights , 34 – 24 . About the then relatively unknown Turner , Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said , " I wish I would have seen this guy before . " Turner started for the remaining eight games of the season . In his career - first start , he passed for 255 yards in a win against Georgia Tech , 28 – 26 . In the game , he threw a 78 - yard touchdown pass , which was caught by tight end Jason Goode rather than his intended receiver , Darrius Heyward - Bey . After a three - game losing streak , Turner led another upset win over a top - ten team , this time against eighth - ranked Boston College , 42 – 35 . In the 24 – 16 loss to Florida State , Turner had his worst performance of the season . Late in the second quarter , he was benched and replaced by Steffy for two possessions . Turner said , " I didn ' t know that my leash was that short in the first place , to be honest . I didn ' t think it would come to this . I guess I should have . " After an uneven performance by Steffy , Turner played the entire second half and showed improvement . The following week Maryland played their regular season finale against NC State and both teams needed an additional win to attain bowl eligibility . Maryland led in the second quarter , 3 – 0 , but was struggling offensively . Turner , a generally immobile pocket quarterback , invigorated the offense when he executed a 41 - yard option run for a first down . He completed 19 of 24 passes for 206 yards and led a shutout of NC State , 37 – 0 . With the sixth win , Maryland was invited to the Emerald Bowl , where they were beaten by Oregon State , 21 – 14 . Turner finished the season as the third - most efficient passer in the Atlantic Coast Conference ( ACC ) . 2008 season . In 2008 , Maryland hired a new offensive coordinator , James Franklin , who installed a West Coast offense . That season started with some controversy when head coach Ralph Friedgen initially selected senior Jordan Steffy as the starting quarterback . Turner considered returning home with a transfer to a Californian school , but ultimately decided against it . When Steffy was injured again in the season - opener against Delaware , Turner was awarded the starting job for the rest of the season . After Maryland defeated 21st - ranked Wake Forest , 26 – 0 , Turner was voted the ACC Player of the Week and ESPN named him an " On the Mark " quarterback . Against 16th - ranked North Carolina , Turner ' s split - second decision to hold onto the ball for a nine - yard run on fourth down and five put the team within range for the game - winning field goal , 17 – 15 . For that , he was nominated for the week ' s Pontiac Game Changing Performance . The win improved Maryland ' s record to 7 – 3 and reasserted control over their ACC championship destiny , although they lost the next game against Florida State , 37 – 3 , which ended the Terrapins ' title hopes . The following week against Boston College , Turner set career highs with 33 completions , 57 attempts , and 360 passing yards , but the effort fell short and Maryland lost , 28 – 21 . In the postseason , the Terrapins played Nevada in the Humanitarian Bowl where Turner threw for 198 yards , one interception , two touchdowns including a 59 - yard long , and a two - point conversion . At the end of the season , Maryland had beaten four out of their five Top 25 - ranked opponents , a feat that was surpassed only by the teams in the BCS Championship Game : Florida and Oklahoma . 2009 season . Fifth - year senior Turner entered the 2009 season as the uncontested starter at quarterback for the first time in his career . He was backed - up by sophomore Jamarr Robinson and true freshmen C . J . Brown and Danny O ' Brien . Turner ' s seniority was called critical for the performance of the team ' s relatively youthful offensive line . Head coach Friedgen said , " If I had to choose between a veteran offensive line and an inexperienced quarterback , or an inexperienced line with a veteran quarterback , I think I ' d go with the veteran quarterback . " Upon the conclusion of preseason camp , the coaching staff praised his progress , particularly his game - planning , for which he had been criticized in the past . Turner said , " Mentally , I am way further ahead than where I was last year . " Physically , he dropped 16 pounds by adding muscle and losing body fat , and weighed 220 pounds before the start of the season . Offensive coordinator Franklin said , " You look at him , he was kind of mushy last year . You look at him now and he ' s muscular and shaped . He looks more athletic . " Before the season , Turner was added to the watch list for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award , an annual honor bestowed upon the nation ' s top senior quarterback . At that time , he ranked as the school ' s fourth all - time quarterback in terms of completion percentage , fifth in completions , seventh in total offensive yards , and he is tied for 11th in number of touchdown passes . In June 2009 , Turner stated that he wanted to leave a " legacy " at Maryland in his final season . He also expressed a desire to pursue a professional playing career in the National Football League ( NFL ) if possible . The NFL Draft Scout assessed Turner as the 16th - ranked quarterback out of the 135 available for the 2010 NFL Draft and projected him as a potential seventh - round selection . Playing style and personality . Prior to his senior year , Jeff Barker of " The Baltimore Sun " noted that Turner ' s strengths were " poise , smarts , [ and ] toughness , " while he had room for improvement in arm strength and mobility . Barker said , " He ' s a bit streaky — he calls himself a ' rhythm ' passer . . . But he doesn ' t quit when things go poorly . His coolness can be mistaken for apathy . " Turner typically confines himself to the pocket , as his ability to run the ball himself is limited by his speed . He has made light of his own lack of quickness by saying that he runs a " flat 5 . 0 " - second 40 - yard dash . The CBS Sports - affiliated NFL Draft Scout records his actual time as ranging from a low of 4 . 89 to a high of 5 . 16 seconds , while Scout . com reports his 40 - yard time as 4 . 8 seconds . Turner ' s supposedly one - dimensional nature , however , has occasionally allowed him to make unexpected plays with his feet . The most noteworthy of these were the momentum - changing 41 - yard option run against NC State in 2007 , and the fourth - down nine - yard scramble into field goal range against North Carolina in 2008 . Pundits and coaches sometimes characterized Turner as a quarterback who did not excel during practices , but executed well on game - day . Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen said " He ' s pretty go - with - the - flow . And that ' s his greatest strength and maybe his greatest weakness . The bottom line is , he plays well in games . " " The Baltimore Sun " wrote that he " seems to play his best when it counts — and his worst when it doesn ' t . " Regarding the 2008 summer practices , offensive coordinator James Franklin said Turner ranked in the middle compared with Jordan Steffy and Josh Portis in terms of completion percentage , fewest interceptions , and " explosive " plays that gained 16 yards or more . Turner conceded that Steffy was a better game - planner during practices . Head coach Ralph Friedgen who had offered critical or subdued assessments of Turners ' practice , said his intensity grew after losing the starting position to Steffy prior to the 2008 season . Turner said , " It lit a fire in me in the sense that I had to be ready . " Among his Maryland teammates and coaches , Turner earned a reputation as an archetypal " laid - back " Californian and for remaining calm under pressure . After the 2007 win over Rutgers , offensive tackle Scott Burley described his roommate Turner as " real calm [ in the huddle ] . . . He would say , ' Guys , are you ready to score again ? Are you ready to run the ball on these guys ? ' And we ' re like , ' Yeah , let ' s do that . ' " Turner received the nicknames " Sunshine " and " Napoleon Dynamite " , in reference to his similar appearance to the fictional characters in the films " Remember the Titans " and " Napoleon Dynamite " , respectively . Personal life . Turner graduated from the University of Maryland in May 2009 with a bachelor ' s degree in government and politics . His strong interest in politics factored into his decision on where to attend college . He chose the University of Maryland partly based on its close proximity to Washington , D . C . Turner ' s political views are liberal ; he is registered as a Democrat , and has described himself as an idealist . During the 2008 season , political discussions were common in the Maryland locker room because of the presidential election . Turner and fellow quarterback Jordan Steffy , a conservative and supporter of presidential candidate Senator John McCain , were the most frequent debaters , while defensive tackle Dean Muhtadi was described as the primary instigator . During the summer of 2009 , Turner held an internship on Capitol Hill working for Democratic Representative Steny Hoyer , the House Majority Leader and Maryland ' s fifth district congressman . Turner had previously considered volunteering for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama , which he said probably annoyed his conservative father , John Turner . Describing his experience during the internship , Turner said , " It ' s funny to compare how serious politics is and how serious football is . Depending on who you talk to , they ' re both pretty big deals . . . There ' s more to life than football . " Incidentally , Turner ' s favorite sport is soccer , not football . He is also interested in foreign cultures and expressed regret at being unable to spend a semester abroad because of college football . Turner said that , dependent upon the outcome of his football career , he would like to attend the 2010 World Cup in South Africa .