"The Conductor": The many talents of Wake Forest DT Kobie Turner

Kobie Turner's musical background is intertwined with his skills on the football field

Today, Wake Forest football fans know DT Kobie Turner as a standout defensive player with a catchy nickname — “The Conductor.” But his story is much richer than that. It’s a tapestry woven with the threads of music and football. And for a while, before he began his football career at Richmond, Turner wasn’t sure which thread to follow.

“There was a time when I didn’t know whether it [was] football [or] music,” Turner said. “[It] was part of the reason I didn’t get recruited as much. My junior year, I ended up going on a lot of college visits trying for music scholarships. I went to college, actually, for choir instead of going for football.”

Though football wasn’t at the front of Turner’s mind when he enrolled at Richmond, his career on the field exploded once he got there. Turner went from a walk-on to a three-time all-conference selection in the Colonial Athletic Association and was the CAA Co-Defensive Player of the Year in the 2021 spring season.

Along the way, he developed the nickname “The Conductor”, a nod to his musical background and leadership qualities. During his days at Richmond, he was a double major in math and music. It all started with a simple team-bonding moment during his sophomore year.

“One day in the locker room, we were  dancing and playing music and I started conducting,” Turner said. “One of my teammates, the captain at the time, said, ‘that's actually a really good celebration.’ The next game, I got a safety and started conducting in the end zone. And after that, it just kind of took off.”

THEE CONDUCTOR 🎵 https://t.co/SAaUXq3D03 pic.twitter.com/6fPrQKwpRW

— Wake Forest Football (@WakeFB) September 27, 2022

Now, Turner’s teammates and coaches use the moniker here at Wake Forest. The term is much more than just a nickname. It’s a reflection of his identity, one that’s deeply rooted in both music and football.

“I enjoy it,” Turner said. “It’s a great way of bringing that musical side of me to the field and showing off who I am as a complete person.”

As Turner says, football is only one part of who he is. To tell his whole story, we need to go back to the beginning, where he got his start — in music and in football.

As for the music, it runs in the family. More specifically, he gets it from his mother.

“Since I was a kid, it all stems back to my mom,” Turner said. “My mom was a part of the worship team growing up. I always went to rehearsals with her. She was always playing gospel whenever we were driving, playing reggae on Saturdays whenever she was cleaning up. And I’m the youngest of four, so [my siblings and I] knew all the church songs and we would just be harmonizing , having a good time.”

Football, on the other hand, was introduced to him by his father and his older brothers.

“My dad always tells me as a kid I was tackling vacuum cleaners,” Turner said. “It’s a huge football family. I played Pop Warner two years up with my middle brother, I was always playing with his team. It was always a part of my family’s life — I just kind of fell right in.”

As he grew up, Turner’s life became a story with two sides — music and football. In high school, he ran three — yes, three — a cappella groups in addition to participating in choir. At the same time, he was making a name for himself on the gridiron, eventually deciding to walk on at Richmond in December 2021 and playing four years there before coming to Wake Forest as a graduate transfer.

Turner has become a household name around the Wake Forest community this season. He’s one of the biggest success stories of this year’s team, totaling 16 solo tackles, a sack, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and two passes defended through 11 games. Turner has received national recognition for his play as well, landing on the Pro Football Focus Midseason All America Team. Within the program, head coach Dave Clawson has spoken highly of him on numerous occasions, calling him one of the most impactful players on the defensive line.

“Every single week Kobie Turner makes a play on film that makes you proud to be a football coach,” Clawson said.

But even as he has come into his own on the field, Turner still made time for music, serving as the musical director of an a capella group during college and even living up to his nickname by conducting a few pieces. For Turner, music and football have remained intertwined — and it’s impacted how he views and plays the game.

“Music allows you to find relationships between different things,” Turner said. “Thinking with a musical mind has allowed me to pick up things that maybe other people don’t. I’m able to see certain patterns. I feel like the music background has helped me to recognize things when they’re coming at me full speed. Recognizing patterns in music, I feel like that starts getting  your brain working in a way that’s helped me.”

“Also the habitualness of music,” Turner continued. “The more you play, the more you practice, the better you get. The better you start to see things and find different patterns. Very similar to watching film and seeing different things in practice runs. It all ties together at the very foundation of music and football.”

Turner has had a lifelong passion for both music and football. For him, one is not more valuable than the other — his career 188 tackles, 17 sacks and laundry list of other accomplishments are just as important as the time he’s spent playing guitar, singing with his family or conducting musical pieces. The intersection of both sides of his story has brought him knowledge and purpose.

“There’s a joy that comes from being able to do the things that you love along with other people who are likeminded in that they're doing the thing that they love,” Turner said. “The fact of sharing your gift with other people, and also allowing other people to take part in you sharing your gift gift. And then you guys sharing your gifts together, and then go out to entertain people to help them feel a certain way. That’s the biggest thing music and football have taught me.”

This overlap, this harmony, is why the nickname “The Conductor” is so important to Turner. It reveals the balance in his life that makes him both a force on the football field and a talented guitarist, composer and singer. The music brings life to the football, and vice versa. To ignore one side or the other would not be telling the whole story.

“If I’m leaving out a part of me then I’m not bringing my full self to the table,” he said. “That’s something I’ve learned, is just to own it — the music and the football side. I’m being me out there on the field. I don’t have to do a celebration like a “normal” player. I can get out there, make a play and start conducting. That’s me and I can be 100% who I am.”

Turner is now nearing the end of his fifth season of college football. As he caps off a remarkable career, his next destination is crystal clear — the NFL. Turner’s dream is to play at the highest level on Sundays — a goal that’s well within his grasp to achieve. His name has popped up on one mock draft as a late first-round pick.

But the dream doesn’t end there. One day, hopefully in the distant future, Kobie Turner the football player will have to hang up his cleats. After that, he wants to become a high school choir director, to help others fall in love with music the same way that he did. More than that, he has an exact vision for who he wants to be and the legacy he wants to leave behind — on the gridiron and beyond.

“I hope to leave behind the idea that you can be yourself, that being yourself is enough,” Turner said. “Fighting to be the best version of you, that's enough. That’s all anybody’s asking for. I also hope to leave a legacy of  work ethic. I’m going to work for what I get. I’ve been knocked down so many times it’s ridiculous. But if I get knocked down, I’m getting right back up. I hope to leave behind that if you put your mind to it, and you really care about it, you can do anything.”

Turner’s story is still in its infancy. That’s one thing he made clear — he’s just getting started. And that mindset applies to this Wake Forest team — despite recent struggles, there’s still work to be done. Because in music, football and in life, the beat goes on.

“It’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish,” Turner said. “It’s about the whole process. At the end of the day, I haven’t done anything yet.”

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