Inside The Huskies

Turner, Williams Set to Engage in UW's Fiercest Starting Competition

This back-row competition among the two defenders is headed for third round.

Dan Raley

Do you know who or where your Washington Husky starting strong safety is right now?

Last season, Asa Turner broke through as the first-teamer and kept a leg up on the competition with fellow sophomore Cam Williams throughout the four-game pandemic schedule.

Williams previously had the edge on Turner at the beginning and the end of the 2019 season, when they were true freshmen. Cam started the first six outings and the Las Vegas Bowl. 

That same season, Turner pulled five consecutive starts as a true freshman, beginning at midseason.

Back and forth they go.

The career starts scorecard: Turner 9, Williams 7.

Turner has 36 career tackles and a pair of interceptions. 

Williams counts 35 career tackles and three pass thefts in his two UW seasons.

As they get ready to go at it again for a third time, the 6-foot, 190-pound Williams last month appeared to issue a challenge tweet from his sunny hometown of Bakersfield, California, or thereabouts.

Turner, from Carlsbad, California, which is some 200 miles south of the other guy's city, had no immediate social-media response.

With spring football coming soon, these two will resume the most heated position battle on Jimmy Lake's football team.

Again, these guys tend to go back and forth like a ping pong ball.

Turner has three inches and 10 pounds on his chief competitor — and a lot more hair.

Both of these guys arrived at Washington ready to play before attending their first class. 

They each exhibited decent speed and technique.

Asa Turner leaves the field after an interception against OSU.
Asa Turner intercepted an OSU pass in 2020 :: Scott Ecklund/UW Athletics

If there's still a quibble, they could be more physical, a lot more physical.

Especially Turner, with that great size of his at safety.

The Huskies need a headhunter in the back row to make the veteran 2021 defense complete, if not more more fearsome.

Former defenders from the UW's great defenses of the past have noted how opposing receivers seem just a little too comfortable coming over the middle against these guys,. So do runners breaking through the line and finding open space.

While the rules are far more restrictive now than they were for those Husky legends, the older guys want Turner, in particular, to quit taking angles on tackles and go in and blow up plays.

Cam Williams steals a pass against USC in 2019.
Cam Williams stepped in front of a USC pass in 2019 / USA TODAY Sports

On the other hand, Williams is down 10 pounds from last season, according to the latest Husky roster. He must have felt he was a little too heavy and subsequently slower in reacting to plays.

They have less than two months to get their heads straight and their bodies streamlined for spring drills.

Turner and Williams.

Williams and Turner.

Do you know where your Husky starting strong safety is today? Or who he is?

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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