In the early morning hours of March 10, Cade Cote’s cell phone began to buzz. The then fifth-year senior offensive lineman rolled out of bed to answer the call. The voice on the other end of the line was ASU Associate Head Athletic Trainer Gerry Garcia. Cote listened carefully to his athletic trainer and was met with news he had waited since late November to hear: his football career for the Sun Devils was to continue; the NCAA had granted him a sixth year of eligibility.

Eight months earlier, on August 25, Cote went to practice as the Sun Devils geared up for their 2019 opener against Kent State, slated for Thursday the 29th. After long hours of tedious offseason preparation in the weight room and on the field, and four years of commitment to improving his offensive line skills, Cote had earned the starting job at center last season. It was the assignment he yearned for since committing to ASU in the summer of 2014 ahead of his senior year at local Gilbert Williams Field High School.

However, his promotion was delivered a severe setback. Halfway through that Sunday session, during inside run drills, Cote took a reach step to block nose guard T.J. Pesefea on an outside zone play. To his knowledge, Cote did everything right: he maintained his block, he wasn’t stepped on, there was no abnormal, and dreaded pop noise heard. Nonetheless, when he attempted to jog to the sideline after the play, he was unable to put any weight on his left foot.

“(When) the play was over, I stopped, and then I ran to the sideline,” Cote described. “I go to jog, and I can’t push off my left foot. It didn’t get stepped on; it just apparently gave out during the play.”

For the redshirt senior, diligently working on climbing up the ranks and improving his depth chart niche, he had reached the zenith of his football career by finally becoming a starter. In a flash, his goal of a starting job was snatched away. He sat in the training room, heartbroken, as Garcia assessed the damage.

“I was a little optimistic at first….(I thought) maybe I just sprained my foot,” Cote recalled. “They got my tape off, and Gerry messes with it a little, and he doesn’t seem very optimistic about it. They sent me off to get X-rays and MRIs.”

Shortly thereafter, Garcia and the training staff requested Cote to meet with him in-person to deliver the news.

“(When) they got the results, they didn’t tell me right away,” Cote said. “They wanted me to come in so they could tell me in person. It was at that time that all signs were pointing to bad.”

Garcia presented Cote with the upsetting news that his left foot was broken and required surgery. The fifth-year offensive lineman was then faced with two options: attempt to return by the end of the season or sit out the rest of the year. Regardless of either scenario, Cote believed the 2019 season was to be his last in maroon and gold.

“I was thinking, this is my fifth year I’ve been here,” Cote said as he contemplated his options.

“I’ve got teammates that I’ve been really good friends with for the last four or three years. I wanted to play this final season with them, so I was going to try to come back.”

As Cote rehabbed his injury and sat on the sideline watching, he had plenty of time to reflect and contemplate on his football career. Cote had grown up in the eastern shadow of metropolitan Phoenix, in Gilbert. His first experiences playing football date back to the seventh grade. Long before Cote ever dreamed of playing for coaches like Todd Graham or Herm Edwards, he was coached by his father, Mark, playing on the defensive side of the ball.

“My dad had been my coach for other sports for most of my life and he told me he wasn’t going to be my coach (for the first time),” Cote explained. “Then our team needed a defensive coordinator. I was playing defensive line at the time and my dad decided to be our coordinator and I played with him for two years.”

Cote would learn how to play on the defensive line under his father, before continuing his football career at Williams Field High School in Gilbert. As a freshman, he continued to hone his skills on that side of the ball, but as his size and talent grew, his coaches reassigned the young lineman to the other side of the line of scrimmage.

“Sophomore year I was moved to O-line, and I wasn’t happy about it,” Cote laughed. “It turned out that I was better at (offensive line) by a long shot and fell in love with the position.”

Unable to fully separate himself from the pack as a sophomore, Cote did not jot down any successes until the next season.

“Everything really clicked for me my junior year, I was the only junior on the offensive line,” Cote explained. “I felt pretty good, but I didn’t have any dreams of (playing at) the next level or getting recruited yet.”

In the spring of 2014, Cote’s junior year, the young lineman trekked down to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona’s Junior Day event. Entering the camp, Cote did not have high expectations of garnering any attention, but unbeknownst to him, several recruiters couldn’t take their eyes off the young offensive lineman prospect.

“I thought (the camp) was a whatever type of deal, just to get face from a coach, maybe they like you, maybe they don’t,” Cote described. “Then I got offered within the first five minutes I was there and that threw me and my family for a loop.”

Following the camp and the offer from Arizona, offers from ASU, Kansas State, Oregon, Oregon State, Boise State, Nevada and Colorado flooded in. Cote embarked on unofficial visits to Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and ASU, before taking his only official visit to Tempe.

With the trip from Cote’s home in Gilbert less than 30 minutes away from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, the young offensive line prospect began to acquaint himself with the school, specifically growing a liking for his potential coach, former ASU offensive line coach Chris Thomsen, along with Tempe’s proximity to home.

“I kept taking a bunch of visits to ASU and it just really felt like home,” Cote explained. “I liked the idea of being a hometown hero…I really liked the position coach they had there. Being close to home was definitely a plus, I’m really tight with my parents and all my extended family I have here. So, I think all that together made (committing to ASU) a pretty easy decision.”

Cote announced his commitment to the Sun Devils the summer before his senior season. Exiting high school, Cote was listed as the No. 73 offensive tackle recruit in the nation and No. 7 overall prospect in Arizona by Rivals.com.

He enrolled at ASU in August of 2015, attending summer preseason workouts. When acclimating to the a new college environment, the next level proved to be a reality check for the first-year player. However, under the guidance of his position coach and the man who brought him into the program, Thomsen, Cote began to build a base set of skills to cultivate.

“The first lesson I learned was that I wasn’t as good as I thought I was,” Cote chuckled. “I loved Thomsen; he was a great coach. He taught me a lot of lessons, really broke down technique with me, kind of laid the foundation for the player I am now.”

Cote redshirted his freshman campaign and saw limited action during the season opener against Northern Arizona his sophomore year. Towards the end of the season, Cote tore his left labrum in his shoulder, but due to widespread injury across the offensive line, he had to stick around as a last-resort backup in case of further injuries to the position group.

“I wasn’t in the rotation yet, but we had a lot of injuries around (the time I injured my shoulder), so there was some pressure to hold me off (from receiving surgery),” Cote said. “I had to wait a month after I injured my shoulder to get surgery because we had lost so many other o-linemen. They kept me around…I was like the emergency center at the time, but they ended up not needing me to play, so I got the surgery.”

As Cote entered his third year, he would encounter his first of two coaching staff changes. Cote’s beloved first coach, Thomsen, departed for the offensive line job at TCU after the 2016 season and was replaced by Rob Sale for the 2017 season.

Plagued by the effects of his shoulder injury, Cote had a difficult time integrating into the new system under Sale and new offensive coordinator Billy Napier. Cote would eventually see action in one contest in his third year.

Entering his redshirt junior year, Cote was tasked with adapting to another new system and coaching staff. Herm Edwards took the job as the next head coach of the Sun Devils ahead of the 2018 season. Edwards brought in Rob Likens to be his offensive coordinator and called up Dave Christensen from his analyst role in 2017 to be the offensive line coach for 2018.

Cote was healthier and stronger than ever. The redshirt junior spat out the bad taste 2017 had left in his mouth and began to receive more playing time than ever before.

“Going into my fourth year, I felt great,” Cote said. “There were no injuries I was battling at the time. That was the first year I was competing for some spots. I got a good amount of playing time; I felt good. Everything came together for a little bit.”

Cote would ultimately see action in six games that season, climbing up the depth chart that was filled to the brim with talent.

“We were just deep at O-line,” Cote commented. “We played around nine o-linemen that year, there was a lot of talent.”

The Sun Devils went 7-6 in the first year under the leadership of Edwards, and for Cote, it was the most memorable season to date. Among the memories, Cote cites the walk-off field goal upset against No. 13 Michigan State in Tempe as his favorite.

After four seasons of trials and tribulations, which felt like an odyssey to Cote, he was finally gifted with a starting job, but due to his broken foot four days ahead of the 2019 season opener, he was relegated back to the sideline.

Cote rehabbed his foot injury profusely over the first half of the season, and in a road game at Utah, the fifth-year senior played his first snaps of 2020. Much to Cote’s disappointment, the condition of his foot prevented him from excelling the rest of that 2019 season.

“As the season came to an end, I realized I was not very happy with how the year had gone,” Cote admitted. “I was trying to come back and wasn’t ready to play even after the seven weeks I had to sit out.”

Towards the end of the 2019 season, Cote thought to himself, “I want another year. I need another year to end on a good note.”

After the final game of the season, Cote had a discussion with Garcia about the potential of applying for a sixth year of eligibility. Garcia agreed and explained to Cote that due to his injury history and in conjunction with the time Cote missed, there was a chance of approval.

Cote’s battle for that year of eligibility began in early December, when the appeal and a report regarding Cote’s injury history were first sent to a Pac-12 committee. Cote and Garcia were unsurprised when the request was subsequently denied. Next, the pair forewent the conference’s decision, sending the request to the NCAA, who responded several months later with another denial.

While fighting for that sixth year, Cote was forced to watch his teammates go to spring practice in last February. Any glimmer or spark of hope for his return to college football looked as if it had been snuffed out.

“At that point, I was fairly certain I wasn’t getting (a sixth year),” Cote said. “The thought I had played my last game as a Sun Devil (was difficult). I was looking at the situation as pretty bleak.”

Finally, a third-party council partnered with the NCAA approved Cote’s request for a sixth year over spring break. When Garcia informed the now sixth-year graduate student, jubilation and relief filled Cote’s body. His dream was still alive. He had received a second chance, a new lease on life.

“I thought for sure (my football career) was over, I had never heard of appeals going for that long,” Cote explained. “It was like a big weight was lifted off me when I got that phone call.”

It’s been just over six months since Cote received word of his second chance at a final year in maroon and gold. During that time, the most veteran of the ASU offensive linemen set his focus on preparing for a potential 2020 season and bettering those around him.

“I think with all the uncertainty of the past few months, the thought process has been control what you can control,” Cote remarked. “Everyone’s been working out really hard; we’ve gone over our install inside and out over the past few months. We are all staying ready, especially the O-line. Coach Christensen is making sure we keep up on all of our protections, all of our run game installs, making sure we can play as soon as possible.”

With the 2020 season waiting in the wings, Cote hopes to finish off his football career in Tempe competing for a starting spot or place within the offensive line rotation and finally, translate the skills he’s honed at ASU for over half a decade into impactful performance on Saturdays. However, with the vast experience accumulated across his tenure in Tempe, and a dozen underclassmen in this unit, Cote also hopes to provide leadership and guidance to the younger members of the Sun Devil offensive line.

“I think it’s important to take time to help the people who need help in the (o-line) room,” Cote said. “The offensive line room is the tightest room on any team…(It’s) important to lead by example, to do the right thing and make sure it’s a tight group. Everyone’s got each other’s back and is looking out for each other.”

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