Chris Turner

Christopher Evenson Turner (born September 8, 1987) is an American football quarterback.

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.

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.

He played quarterback for the Maryland Terrapins at the University of Maryland from 2007 to 2009.

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.

In 2007, as the second-string quarterback, he saw his first action against Villanova 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.

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.

Turner was born in Simi Valley, California to parents John and Grace Turner.

His father was the original drummer of the glam 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 completions on 265 attempts, 2,047 yards, 16 touchdowns, 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 Washington, D.C., partly due to his interest in politics.

When the unranked Terps faced 10th-ranked Rutgers, Steffy suffered a concussion and Turner again filled in.

He led drives for two touchdowns 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.