Asa Turner Feels Right at Home in Husky Secondary Now
Someone should have warned Kent State about the stadium caretaker.
The night watchman.
The resident aide.
Pick one, and this aptly describes Asa Turner.
Envision the veteran University of Washington safety in a robe and slippers, roaming the concourses of Husky Stadium, rummaging through the concession area or the Don Jame Center looking for something to eat before he stretches out on a training table, pulls a Big W blanket over him and goes to sleep.
Kalen DeBoer does.
"I swear he's living somewhere in this building," the Husky football coach said. "He's got a bed, he's got his dresser. He's got all of his clothes somewhere in this building."
Turner is so well acquainted with the eight-story high-rise by the lake, in fact, he knows where they keep the interceptions.
Six seconds into Saturday's game, he checked one out at the Kent State 39.
Twelve minutes into the third quarter, Turner picked up another at the UW 5.
Knowledge is everything. Familiarity breeds success.
"He is here nonstop, every day," DeBoer continued. "That's not just this fall, that was this spring, that was this winter. He's just around the building."
Credit the new Husky staff for making the junior from Carlsbad, California, not want to leave his place of recreation plus care a lot more about what he's doing as a starting safety without question or a second thought.
A year ago, it almost seemed as if Jimmy Lake and his coaches had moved on from him.
Turner won't admit it, but he often seemed detached, almost bored, maybe even preoccupied with his hair, which is the longest on the team, while safety tryouts were held continuously last season.
Seven different players, including Turner, started at safety in 2021. To be fair, he got banged up at midseason and missed a couple of games. Yet he sat much of the time when he was healthy, starting just four times.
The criticisms of his game, from others who played his UW position before him, were that he took bad angles on tackles and got beat in coverage too much, or that he just didn't seem to care.
Whether any of that was true, the 6-foot-3, 201-pound Turner is fully invested in what he does now, encouraged by a new staff to go to great lengths to realize the football talent that he possesses. DeBoer insists this has all been the veteran safety's doing, using his own motivation to advance his game, yet the defender seems extra inspired.
"He's either doing treatment on his body to make sure next the next day at practice that he's feeling good," DeBoer said. "He might be watching film on his own and it's coming up to ask a coach about the film he's watching.
"He's in the weight room stretching. He's getting some extra lifts on his own, by himself. That preparation leads to confidence, and the way he practices, which is hard all the time."
Which led to last Saturday night's season opener, where, on the first play, it was all about Turner making the perfect break on a pass coming across the middle. He was aided by hybrid Husky defensive back Dominique Hampton, who squeezed the play as well, and the Huskies came up with an instant turnover.
"Getting out on the field for that first play was like anything he does in practice, just because he practices so hard and everything he puts into it, the preparation," DeBoer said. "He had the trust that that receiver was going to be coming to him and, if he did his job, and trusted I think it was Dom outside of him, and he did his job, they would be in the right spot.
"The way he practices, which is hard all the time, and the reads took him to the right spot and he made the play. That's just fun to see."
So is Turner in his pajamas clutching a toothbrush, cranking up the stadium sound system to another timeless rendition of "Atomic Dogg" reverberating through the double decks before shutting off the lights and getting in a good night's rest in Montlake.
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