Delarrin the Decapitator
BURTON, Texas - You don't have to spend a lot of time watching 2018 Hempstead, Texas safety offer Delarrin Turner-Yell's junior highlights to realize he enjoys contact. When you watch him live you realize those highlights don't quite put his interest in football physicality in proper perspective.
In short, Turner-Yell likes to hit anyone and everyone.
The 2018 Sooner safety offer, during a scrimmage against nearby Burton high school, worked as a receiver as well as his projected future position of safety. Though it may be where most project him, it's clear from watching that same junior tape and watching him work with his coaches on Friday evening in Southeast Texas that safety is something he is still getting comfortable with.
In fact Oklahoma has talked to him about playing both should he head to Norman.
"Mainly safety and nickel, they haven't talked to me too much about corner. Safety is what I actually want to play in college so that fits me perfectly," Turner-Yell said.
And watching him try and lower the boom after one ball carrier after another, and having success in a few cases, it's not hard to imagine what Kerry Cooks sees in Turner-Yell as a potential future enforcer in his secondary. But Cale Gundy may be looking for another blocker at slot receiver with the way that Turner-Yell tried to bury one defender after another.
So often young receivers, even ones destined to play there in college, go through the motions of blocking. However, Turner-Yell, playing a position that is secondary for him, blocked with eagerness and a nasty streak that left more than one defensive back feeling a bit chippy afterward.
But make no mistake, Cooks will have no intention of allowing Turner-Yell to end up anywhere other than the secondary. The two have hit it off as Oklahoma continues to make a run at the former Baylor commitment.
"(Cooks is) excellent, great guy. He knows the right things to talk about with a younger guy. I guess he has been doing it for a minute, of course. He knows what to say and knows how to approach a kid," Turner-Yell said.
Though his physicality stands out, while watching Turner-Yell you can't help but notice that proverbial 'twitchiness' that so many elite defensive backs have. When he sticks his foot in the ground and drives toward a ball carrier, he does so with zero hesitation and has the quickness to arrive at the ball in a hurry.
Some might claim that ability is thanks, in no small part, to time spent on the track. A track background that has helped him befriend one Sooner commitment who has already been hard at work to bring Turner-Yell with him.
"One of them, I ran track against him - Jaquayln Crawford - I ran track against him so we communicated heavily. When he saw the action of Oklahoma coming onto my Twitter, he didn't force the issue but he brought more fans," he explained. "I've talked to (Treveon Johnson) too."