'19 CA ATH Asa Turner (Washington Verbal)

[IrishLax]

It’s tough that the two All Star games held sway over his decision to pick Safety and Washington over Linebacker and Notre Dame. The Rover position is so different from an All American bowl’s linebacker position. I think at 6’4” 230lbs he could’ve been a tremendous Rover and I think his ceiling is higher than at Safety for Washington. Hats off to Washington for beating ND for the 10,000th time it seems in the last few cycles. Asa Turner is a good prospect btw and definitely not irrelevant. Army All American and Polynesian Bowl All American is a pretty damn good achievement out of high school.

Yeah, I agree. I edited my post to be more clear and less flippant, but bottom line is if he's that set on playing safety he should go to Washington. His highest NFL upside is in a hybrid LB role like how we use the Rover position, but godspeed if he has his heart set on something else.

I'll be very interested to see what his situation is 3 years from now...

 

[Irish YJ]

"UW was the safe pick" is not very complimentary for UW....

said he didn't feel comfortable playing LB at the Adidas AA game, but the Poly Bowl reinforced his desire to play S. I guess had he had a bad game in Hawaii, he'd probably be Irish lol...

Wish him the best. Still, I'll bet Vbucks that he's outgrown the S position in 2 years. Either that, or he's starving himself and not lifting in order to stay at weight.

 

[BobbyMac]

How times have changed. A few years ago, this would have been the end of the world losing a prospect of Turner's level but ND is loaded at the S/Rov/Buck position, and loaded with young All Americans to boot.

It's no secret the Huskies are my back up team. I'm glad he's heading to Montlake if it couldn't be ND.

The most important thing to take away from this? Besides being behind the 8 ball with being unable to offer him the position he wanted to play PLUS being up against one of the best recruiters/position coaches in the country, the Irish staff was able to beat UDub. Had they given him an ultimatum on ESP, he admitted he would have signed with ND. Turner chose ND over UDub for school. Turner liked everything about ND more than UDub except for the position available to play and ND knew that and effectively let him walk by not nailing him down when they could've.

This is the best possible outcome in my eyes. It's just one less player that will have to transfer from ND's loaded safety and LB groups and it's a scholarship that can be used on an offensive skill position of need.

 

[NDMIA]

How times have changed. A few years ago, this would have been the end of the world losing a prospect of Turner's level but ND is loaded at the S/Rov/Buck position, and loaded with young All Americans to boot.

It's no secret the Huskies are my back up team. I'm glad he's heading to Montlake if it couldn't be ND.

The most important thing to take away from this? Besides being behind the 8 ball with being unable to offer him the position he wanted to play PLUS being up against one of the best recruiters/position coaches in the country, the Irish staff was able to beat UDub. Had they given him an ultimatum on ESP, he admitted he would have signed with ND. Turner chose ND over UDub for school. Turner liked everything about ND more than UDub except for the position available to play and ND knew that and effectively let him walk by not nailing him down when they could've.

This is the best possible outcome in my eyes. It's just one less player that will have to transfer from ND's loaded safety and LB groups and it's a scholarship that can be used on an offensive skill position of need.

I agree with this, but ND has examples of guys who were successful playing positions that they weren’t starting their career’s at. Keivarae Russell was a RB, CJ Prosise moved positions, Drue Tranquil moved from S to LB, Matthias Farley was a WR then a S I believe, and Jafar Armstrong was a WR. I don’t know if those guys were dead set on their original positions like Asa Turner might be, but ND has been successful in projecting where a guy should be and how best to use his skill set. If he has no interest in playing LBer then I understand and agree but he’d be the 6th most prestigious recruit coming in at LBer (ahead of JD Bertrand, Drew White, Jordan Genmark-Heath, Jonathan Jones, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Marist Liufau, Ovie Oghuofo, and Jack Kiser). The dude is really talented and would’ve projected really well at Rover but at Safety I think he would’ve been a waste of a scholarship because they have a ton of young talent back there.

 

[GBdomer]

Really classy interview he did with both Washington and to Loy and Sinclair. They handled this recruitment the right way and so did Asa. He seems like a awesome kid and I hope he kills it at safety at Washington, becomes an All Pac 12 player and gets his shot at safety. Good luck young man, just sucks you have to play for Jimmy Lake.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

TBH, no sour grapes here. I'll root for Asa and to a lesser extent UW. I mean, who do we want winning the PAC12? Not Stanford and certainly not USC.

I wish Asa would've come to ND because it would've been another very athletic option but he wouldn't have been a safety for us. To all future recruits, this is how you deal with a difficult decision.

 

[NDIrish88]

I feel bad for Asa because Jimmy Lake is gonna bounce and and the next DC is gonna be like, "so we need linebackers . . . ."

 

[Irish#1]

I agree with this, but ND has examples of guys who were successful playing positions that they weren’t starting their career’s at. Keivarae Russell was a RB, CJ Prosise moved positions, Drue Tranquil moved from S to LB, Matthias Farley was a WR then a S I believe, and Jafar Armstrong was a WR. I don’t know if those guys were dead set on their original positions like Asa Turner might be, but ND has been successful in projecting where a guy should be and how best to use his skill set. If he has no interest in playing LBer then I understand and agree but he’d be the 6th most prestigious recruit coming in at LBer (ahead of JD Bertrand, Drew White, Jordan Genmark-Heath, Jonathan Jones, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Marist Liufau, Ovie Oghuofo, and Jack Kiser). The dude is really talented and would’ve projected really well at Rover but at Safety I think he would’ve been a waste of a scholarship because they have a ton of young talent back there.

Sure we've had a lot of kids end up at different positions, but they were willing to do it. He had his mind set at playing safety. Even if he was the 6th best, if your mind and heart aren't in it, his production is probably going to show it.

I'm more curious as to why he's stuck on playing safety when only one school projected him at safety and the others recruited him at LB? Seems it's one of two thoughts......He either isn't found of taking a physical beating on pretty much every play or he has aspirations of playing in the NFL and wants to save his body as much as possible for the inevitable switch to LB. Of course I could be off by a mile.

Regardless, UW was the right decision for him given the circumstances.

 

[IrishLion]

This is not sour grapes:

He's set on playing safety at Washington, and he will play safety at Washington.

Except less than a year from now, he's going to learn that the "safety" they want him to play at Washington isn't on the back end... they'll have him at their 3rd or 4th safety spot in their defense, aka in the box, aka linebacker.

Did they promise him he'd stay on the back end? Or did no one get into the specifics of how Washington uses different safeties at different levels of their defense?

 

[Irishnuke]

Good luck to him at Udub.

 

[GowerND11]

This is not sour grapes:

He's set on playing safety at Washington, and he will play safety at Washington.

Except less than a year from now, he's going to learn that the "safety" they want him to play at Washington isn't on the back end... they'll have him at their 3rd or 4th safety spot in their defense, aka in the box, aka linebacker.

Did they promise him he'd stay on the back end? Or did no one get into the specifics of how Washington uses different safeties at different levels of their defense?

This is what I'm waiting for right here.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

Will he sign a contract guaranteeing safety play for life?

If not, he should. lol

 

[ThePiombino]

TBH, no sour grapes here. I'll root for Asa and to a lesser extent UW. I mean, who do we want winning the PAC12? Not Stanford and certainly not USC.

I wish Asa would've come to ND because it would've been another very athletic option but he wouldn't have been a safety for us. To all future recruits, this is how you deal with a difficult decision.

Ummmm, we DO want SC or Stanford winning the conference because it strengthens our resume to have beaten a conf champ. We can't do that if UDub wins it.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[GowerND11]

Ummmm, we DO want SC or Stanford winning the conference because it strengthens our resume to have beaten a conf champ. We can't do that if UDub wins it.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Eh... I'd be ok with them both sucking because FUSC, and it's about time Stanford drops back to the middle of the pack for a while.

 

[IrishFaninTX]

Eh... I'd be ok with them both sucking because FUSC, and it's about time Stanford drops back to the middle of the pack for a while.

I get what you're saying but had either or both of those teams lived up to preseason hype and we still kicked their butts then there never would have been a question about ND being in the CFP and we might have been #1 or #2 with that schedule

 

[Irish YJ]

Good luck kid. Punish USC and Stanford, especially if you play them right before they play ND. Hope S works out for you.

 

[ColinKSU]

Good luck to the kid. I hope he stays healthy and has a good career at linebacker when Washington converts him to the position after they get his signature.

 

[ND88]

I wish this young man nothing but the best. He has been very honest and thoughtful about this entire process, and for all the attention placed upon him, he handled it with great maturity. So many of us fans of football can't imagine the pressure that talented athletes like Asa face in this cutthroat sport. I know I can't. Good luck, man.

 

[NDdomer2]

I get what you're saying but had either or both of those teams lived up to preseason hype and we still kicked their butts then there never would have been a question about ND being in the CFP and we might have been #1 or #2 with that schedule

What difference would any of that had made? We were squarely any despite anything ESPN tried to sell you and bring ranked any higher wouldn't have made it to where Clemson wasn't the best team in CFB.

 

[OhioIrish31]

Transfer portal...1.5 years

 

[phgreek]

...read his story...as decisions go, I'd say he at least had some rationale that made sense. Good luck kid.

 

[BobbyMac]

Back up nickel, not SS or FS. Listed at 6-3/191.

 

[Irish#1]

Back up nickel, not SS or FS. Listed at 6-3/191.

He bought it hook, line and sinker.

 

[IrishLion]

Back up nickel, not SS or FS. Listed at 6-3/191.

Washington Fans: But nickel is a safety in our defense!!!!1!!one!! They didn't lie!

Washington Fans when he outgrows nickel and plays LB: It's what's best for his development, no one could have seen this coming!

Clark Lea:

 

[dublinirish]

seems to be playing alot more for UW now as a single deep safety.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

seems to be playing alot more for UW now as a single deep safety.

Yeah he got the start against Oregon. He had a couple of TD saving tackles but not many impact plays that I noticed.

On Oregon's first TD he sat back on his heels with cement feet as the TE crossed in front of him in the endzone for an easy TD.

He's a true fresh though, I'm sure he'll improve greatly. Still think he'd be a better Rover than a S.

 

[NDIrish88]

Yeah he got the start against Oregon. He had a couple of TD saving tackles but not many impact plays that I noticed.

On Oregon's first TD he sat back on his heels with cement feet as the TE crossed in front of him in the endzone for an easy TD.

He's a true fresh though, I'm sure he'll improve greatly. Still think he'd be a better Rover than a S.

Cement feet is a jimmy lake technique

 

[dublinirish]

kid does look like a skinny harrison smith back there

 

[dublinirish]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/mikevorel/status/1427713674664300547?s=20[/TWEET]

haha omg Jimmy Lake the game's gone dude

 

[dublinirish]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/ralphamsden/status/1457140622205325316?s=20[/TWEET][TWEET]https://twitter.com/BruceFeldmanCFB/status/1457780005899960322?s=20[/TWEET]

hehehehe