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Published Dec 15, 2019
Memphis ATH Darin Turner Recaps Second OV at Arkansas
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Nikki Chavanelle  •  HawgBeat
Managing Editor
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@nikkichavanelle

Prospects don't typically get a chance at a second official on a campus they've already visited but since 3-star athlete Darin Turner hadn't used all five yet, he was able to come on a second 48-hour trip to meet new head coach Sam Pittman.

"'It went good, I really liked it," Turner said. "I liked the coach and the coaching staff he's bringing in, it's really good.

"I knew about him at Georgia, I knew he was the offensive line coach, but I didn't really know too much about him until he came and we sat down and talked. He really speaks from his heart, he's understandable and he's honest. He'll tell you where he's trying to get, and if you can help him out, he really appreciates it."

Turner was one of eight of Chad Morris's 2020 commits to leave the class when he was let go after game nine, but he was one of Pittman's first calls since he was introduced at Arkansas this past Monday.

"I like that he's honest," Turner said. "He wants to win and he's coming from a winning environment. He just wants to make the program better by recruiting top players to help change the Arkansas football program around."

Arkansas still has six commits, all on the defensive side of the ball. Turner's position is up in the air, though it was assumed the 6-foot-3, 210-pound wideout/safety would stick to catching passes when Morris was here.

"They're pretty much leaving it up to me, whatever position I want to play," Turner said. "I mean, I'm a wideout, but I'll play defense to help my team out."

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Turner is not the only former commit Sam Pittman reached out to after he arrived. He's had talks with almost all of them and several want to get back on campus before making a decision.

"Yeah (it was stressful), I want to be here, but by Chad Morris being fired it kind of pushed me back from coming," Turner. "I decommitted until they got a new head coach, and now I'm just now talking to the new head coach and I'm liking it."

As far as a decision goes, Turner will now once again narrow his choices down from his eight offers to one. In the lead, he says, are Tennessee, Ole Miss, Arkansas, LSU and Miami.

"I'm going to make my decision Thursday, December 19 at 12:30 or 1," Turner said. "I'm going to announce it at my school and tweet it out. It'll be tweeted out around that time.

"This weekend's trip really opened my eyes to the education part. I got to understand the school better. A person always told me, if you take care of the classroom then football is going to come natural. I really just focused on the academic part when I came up here this time."

Turner has received Rivals FutureCasts back in the direction of Arkansas this weekend even though he wasn't told anything about who could be leading the offense next season.

"(He didn't talk about anybody) in particular, he's just going to bring in some good coaches. He didn't really tell me too much about it."

Turner was hosted this weekend by a friend and former teammate, Memphis native Shamar Nash, which was the cherry on top of the trip.

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