Washington senior safety Ezekiel Turner met with the local media after practice Monday afternoon as the team continues to prepare for the Dec. 30 Fiesta Bowl against Penn State. Here’s what he had to say:
(on entering his final game as a Husky) “Every day, I try to soak it in. It’s about to be my last game, so I’ve definitely tried to take a step back to take it all in and enjoy it.”
(Best memories of UW career?) “Just being with my brothers, building all these relationships with the coaches, the players, the fans here at Husky Stadium, all of Seattle — just building on all of the relationships I’ve had in my time here.”
(How does team stay focused during long layoff?) “Just keeping that momentum going into the game and not letting the bowl game make us soft with all of the, ‘Oh, congratulations, you made it to this game, blah, blah.’ We just have to go down there focused on our mission and handle our business.”
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(on how playing in the College Football Playoff last year helps prep now) “The Peach Bowl last year definitely prepped us, putting on that big stage and now we get to go to another New Year’s Six game and get to go out there and show what we can do. We’re definitely excited.”
(on Penn State’s Saquon Barkley) “Seeing Myles (Gaskin), Lavon (Coleman) and Salvon (Ahmed) every day, and guys like Bryce Love in our conference definitely prepped us to see a good back like Barkley so I think we’ll be ready.”
(on Penn State) “They’re a great team. We respect them just like any opponent and we’ll come out there to play. Fear nobody, but we still respect them.”
(on Penn State’s offense) ”They do a good job with their quarterback running and Barkley running, so when the quarterback can run, that presents another threat to the defense so we definitely have to respect that.”
(on Penn State tight end Mike Gesicki) “He’s a big, long guy, kind of similar to the Stanford tight end — a lot of jump balls, so we have to be prepared for that too.”