Billy Turner feels comfortable

Mounds View's mountain of a lineman Billy Turner has had a big hand in his team's third straight trip to the State tournament. His quickness and obvious size have been noticed by many Division I schools. Turner didn't wait around to be courted by schools. Even though he received a number of recent offers, Turner stayed with where he felt most comfortable all along.

The Mustang's season started off a little uneven. They struggled with turnovers early and that cost them a couple of regular season games. The more the season wore on, the more comfortable the team became and with that comfort came more wins.

The same can be said about Turner's season. It had been a couple of years since Turner, who is being recruited as an offensive tackle, has played full-time both ways. In addition to offensive tackle, he has also been playing up and down the entire defensive line. It took him a couple of games to get into a grove playing both ways, but as he got comfortable his play improved.

Once the team got into a grove, it was not hard to find out what the formula is for the Mustangs to be successful.

"We run the Wing T and obviously that's primiraly a run offense" said Turner. "We have three good runningbacks and personally I think we are a run dominated team and if we can't run the ball then I really don't think that we are not competing to the best of our abilities. All of our games this year we have said the game is going to be won up front on the offensive and defensive lines."

During the season Turner didn't really focus on a specific thing to work on, but more on his overall game. Before the season started, he hit a number of camps, but one school stood out right away.

"I went to Northern Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, North Dakota State. Going to all those schools I kind of had a top three in my mind. I chose North Dakota State, Northern Illinois and Minnesota. When I went to NDSU I just felt something. I just liked the town I liked everything there."

That didn't stop the offers from coming however. South Dakota and Illinois State offered Turner without even personally seeing him. In the end, the Bison did everything right to get Turner to commit.

"I chose NDSU because when I was there I felt something," said Turner. "I felt like I was comfortable there. They offered me this summer so they offered me early. That was something I liked. They showed they wanted me and wanted me early. They called me every single week and some of these other schools wouldn't call at all. NDSU just stayed on recruiting me hard. The coaches made me feel at home. The coaches weren't like other coaches. They didn't just throw the school at you, they seemed real."

After committing to the Bison, Turner knows what the biggest adjustment will be for him next season. At 6'5" and 290 pounds, he wants to continue to get bigger and stronger, but the speed of the college game will be what he focuses on once his senior season ends.

"Pass blocking I think is something everyone has to work on to transition to the college game," said Turner. "I will probably overemphasize working my feet backwards and sideways so when I do get up there this summer they can see that I have been working on my pass blocking."

No doubt that when Turner gets comfortable in his new surroundings, and adapts to the college game, he will keep his quarterbacks comfortable too.