Turner Takes His Husky Farewell Tour Up Against Tulsa

It's outing No. 2 of a dozen University of Washington regular-season football games and Asa Turner is on a farewell tour.

This is his fifth and final college season, even though the 6-foot-3, 200-pound player from Carlsbad, California, by way of Hawaii, has yet another year of football available to him through the COVID freebie program.

While he acknowledges how crazy things have been lately for the conference, Turner doesn't care about the Big Ten move. It doesn't register with him.

Once this much-anticipated Husky season plays out, Turner is moving on, hopefully for all points NFL, ready to share his big frame and long hair with the professionals.

"I'm not going to lie, as an older person and it's my last year, it's something I really don't think about," he said. "It's my last year regardless. If the Pac-12's not here next year, it really doesn't affect me like it does other players."

For now, he's a fifth-year junior and one of the pillars of a Husky defense that hasn't been fully unleashed, that promises to be more of a disruptive, turnover-forcing unit in the games ahead.

"It's one of our mottos as a defense this year is kind of play behind the line of scrimmage, with tackles for losses and sacks," Turner said. "That really shuts down the offense confidence when you take the ball away from them."

As he heads into Saturday's non-conference game against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (1-0) at Husky Stadium, the veteran safety has his left hand and lower arm wrapped tightly in a cast, residue from a fall camp mishap.

He's considered the senior statesman of the UW secondary, someone who has started games in each of the four previous seasons, even as a true freshman.

Turner knows all of the assignments back there, all of the responsibilities, and the Kalen DeBoer coaching staff has put a lot of trust in him. He leads the team with six career interceptions, with at least one coming in each of those four prior seasons, so he know about takeaways.

He's more of a physical player now, quieting some of his fan-base critics who have questioned his desire to hit someone, but he doesn't hear them anyway.

With this, his final Husky season when it doesn't have to be, Turner simply gets to play free and loose out there. He's ready for his defense to be much more disruptive.

In fall camp, the Huskies showed different alignments in which they had four edge rushers down in a stance up front and no defensive tackles anywhere to be found, which should generate an interesting response from opponents when utilized in real time.

"There were some points against Boise when we had a bunch of people down the line of scrimmage and stuff like that, pulling some tricks out of the hat," he said. "I'm sure we'll see more of that."

So it's a future of more Husky defensive deception and, at some point in the far distance, no more Turner.

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