COLLEGE PARK - He's from Southern California, has curly blond hair and can appear as placid as a sunset over the beach.
Maryland junior quarterback Chris Turner, named the starter for today's game at Middle Tennessee State, might occasionally amble to the practice field while his teammates urgently race past.
But Turner's teammates and coaches have a message about the laid-back surfer-dude signal caller, whose father was a drummer in a hard-rock band. Don't be fooled, they caution. Beneath the slow-burning exterior, they say, lies a deep competitive streak and a penchant for rising to the occasion.
"Looks can be deceiving," said Ben McEnroe, Turner's coach his last two years in high school and now the coach at Cal Lutheran University. "It's kind of been his dream to be a Division I quarterback. He takes that pretty seriously in spite of the vibe and persona he gives off."
McEnroe said he never doubted Turner's toughness. One moment proved it.
It came after Turner took a wicked hit in a high school game. "I said something like, 'That looks like it hurt,' " McEnroe said. " He gave me a look I'll never forget, kind of a half-cocked smile. He just laughed it off. He doesn't get flustered."
Still, Turner doesn't always move as quickly as Maryland coaches would like.
A classic Turner moment:
It's nearing time for a spring practice and Turner, wearing his gold practice jersey, saunters to the field. "Why are you jogging, man?" he says to a teammate. "Why are you in such a hurry? We've got three minutes."
Said center Edwin Williams: "That's his personality, that's how he is. Everybody is a character on this team, everybody has their personalities. But once he gets on that field, he's a leader, he's the captain. He's a hard-nosed player, a tough guy."
Offensive coordinator James Franklin is sometimes the yin to Turner's yang. Animated and intense at practices, Franklin literally gets into players' faces. Turner is more reserved.
"I think on the East Coast we have some stereotypes about the West Coast guy - the surfer guy or the football player or whatever - as laid-back, easygoing. And, really, he fits a lot of those stereotypes," Franklin said on Terrapins Rising, the team's in-house reality TV show. It was the show's cameras that captured Turner ambling to practice.
