SI All-American Candidate Andre Turrentine Highlights and Evaluation
Prospect: Andre Turrentine
Status: SI All-American Candidate
Vitals: 6-foot, 175 pounds
Position: Defensive Back/Wide Receiver
School: Nashville (Tenn.) Ensworth School
Committed to: Ohio State
Projected Position: Safety
Frame: Long arms with good definition in upper-body and fairly wide shoulders for size. Flat torso and tight midsection. Well-defined thighs and straight calves.
Athleticism: Has played basketball, and competed in 400-meter sprint, long jump and triple jump in track and field. Balanced athlete with good lower-base coordination. Has solid pedal and foot quickness. Fair hip fluidity in transition with better closing quickness to drive on routes. Ball skills are displayed on offense. Body/shoulder tackler who is physical at collision points in box versus ball-carriers.
Instincts: At his best attacking versus run from depth and second level. Reliable to work as a force player and assert himself in C-gaps. Takes good pursuit angles when hunting. Flashes some ability to disguise coverages and declare late when blitzing. Flashes some upper-body patience in press-man coverage concepts.
Polish: Defensively, works as a split safety aligned to the field with some cover-4/quarters coverage concepts and man coverage concepts. Must improve pure mam coverage skills, especially anticipation and ability to match and copy. Also must maintain a closer coverage gap when in semi-trail leverage. Will circle to close when driving on routes. Strider with some limits to his long speed.
Bottom Line: Turrentine plays multiple roles for his high school team, but projects as a safety at the next level. While he lacks great coverage skills and has room to improve as a pass defender, he possesses good instincts and physicality in the box versus the run. At this point, Turrentine fits best as a split safety in a secondary with cover-2 and cover-4 concepts, allowing him to work as the robber in cover-3 concepts.