Sione Asi Is Out to Prove a Lot This Season
STILLWATER – Depth of the defensive front seven seems about as good as it has been in a few seasons. Both the defensive line and linebackers are playing some of the best football of any of the other position groups in the conference, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Someone Joe Bob Clements and Greg Richmond brought in prior to the 2019 season to help with that is defensive tackle Sione Asi. Asi is 6-1, 310-pounds and hails from Reno, NV. Something that’s a little different about Asi is he’s one of the older players on the team and didn’t start playing college ball until two years after high school.
"So, I went to JUCO right after I'd come back from serving my two year [Mormon] mission,” Asi said. “Went to Snow College in Utah and then after the two years I was kind of in that position where it was either ‘I'm going to keep playing or just hang it up and help my parents back home.’ But Joe Bob [Clements] and Beni Tonga (player development specialist) got a hold of me and my mindset was whoever offered me first, I was just ready to commit. I really enjoyed being connected with those two and like a year after Snow now I'm here."
Asi played in two games during his first season in Stillwater but was sidelined the remainder of the year with a torn MCL. He’s had an OK start to the 2020 season as he’s recorded three total tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and one sack, but he feels there’s more to improve upon.
"Last year I had gotten hurt (torn MCL), and I'd only played the first couple games,” said Asi. “So I had gotten hurt and I was out for six weeks. This year, I'm not where I'm wanting to be, but there's definitely — I've been exposed to a lot of things, especially with my teammates being able to learn from them. It's been a lot different. For the early games, I definitely can improve on a lot of things. Basically it's been a lot of fun getting out there and getting my feet wet. So I'm grateful for this bye week to work on a lot of things, especially the little things. It's good that it's early, so I can fix the things now to improve for the future."
Offensive lineman, and quickly developing offensive leader, Josh Sills had some high praise for Asi when we spoke to them both on Wednesday via Zoom.
"I describe him as a bowling ball,” Josh Sills said of Asi. “He's hard to move. He's one of the stronger guys on our team, and obviously nothing against him, but he's not the tallest, so he automatically has an advantage with leverage against you. He's going to be a really good player. He's got great leverage, good hands and it's already hard enough to move him off the ball. So, he's only going to continue to get better and stronger and bigger and improve his play."
Asi and the Cowboys are entering an open week, but it’s nothing like when guys had open weeks in high school or JUCO. The team will take a few more days off during than the than usual, but they’re using the rest to get better and improve upon the weak spots.
"I've learned something at a Division I program, I've come from a JUCO — bye week, coach [Mike] Gundy and all our coaches they take it real seriously," Asi said. "When you hear bye week people just think it's the week off, but we're putting in a lot of work. We're just working on a lot of little things like just technique wise. You know we're not perfect in everything, but we're just trying to tighten down those screws just to work at it. We definitely have been putting in a lot of work the past couple days. It hasn't been the little vacation."
The Cowboys will face Baylor next week on the road in Waco, TX. It was announced as a night game, so kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT and will be televised on ABC.
