Not much fires up Arizona State fans more than their disgruntlement with the top players from the Grand Canyon State not ending up in a Sun Devil uniform. You have to go back to N’Keal Harry in 2016 to find the last top in-state recruit landing in Tempe. Before Harry, the last No. 1 Arizona recruit to pick ASU was his fellow wide receiver Gerell Robinson…in 2008.

The Sun Devils are trying to change that in the upcoming 2022 class, and heavily recruiting defensive lineman Anthony Lucas, a 6-foot-5, 285-pound product of Scottsdale Chaparral High School who is not only considered one of the top prospects in the state of Arizona but also one of the most coveted recruits in this region.

During the spring of his freshman year, Arizona State invited Lucas, his Chaparral quarterback Brayton Silbor, and a few dozen more AZ prospects to Tempe. They showed off the campus and the Sun Devil football facilities. Towards the end of the visit, ASU pulled about 10 recruits to the side and offered them all.

Lucas was among that group -- and the Sun Devils haven’t stopped communicating with him since.

“They’ve been on top of it, always making sure they keep in touch,” Lucas said.

Leading the charge of Lucas’ recruitment has been ASU defensive backs coach Chris Hawkins. It’s may seem peculiar for a DBs coach to be recruiting a defensive lineman in earnest, but it undoubtedly shows the commitment of the team in their pursuit of Lucas.

“Yeah, (it’s surprising), but he’s one of the youngest coaches out there. He knows what he’s doing,” Lucas said of 25-year old Hawkins. “He can relate more to the younger generation; it’s pretty cool.

“It’s really dope (that we’re close in age), because there are a lot more things we can relate to … Like games we play, cars, music, all that stuff.”

Formidable relationships are vital for a recruit as sought after as Lucas. He currently has 18 offers from schools like Auburn, Texas, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USC, Oregon, and more. Lucas couldn’t even pin down the schools recruiting him the hardest and said he probably wouldn’t even put out a top-10 list for another month or so.

He and the rest of his 2022 prospect peers won’t even be able to go on visits to campuses for at least few more months, either. Instead, he’s been going on myriad virtual visits and having online meetings with some of the defensive line coaches, in which they’ll give Lucas a pitch on how they’d use him.

Here’s what ASU defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez told Lucas: “He said (ASU) would want to use me over the guard and maybe sometimes move outside, but mostly it would be at the three(-technique) … (Coach Rodriguez) has been pretty straightforward, letting me know how it is and being pretty honest with the recruiting.”

Lucas has mostly played defensive end at Chaparral, which seems like a perfect fit for his long 6-foot-5 frame.

“It makes able to, in the pass rush, always be able to lock up a defender and not let them get into my chest as much,” Lucas said of his physicality. “Not many people have the wingspan I do. Then being able to just power through most of the kids in my class.”

Lucas remarked that nearly every coach recruiting him had expressed their desire for the big defensive lineman to play as a freshman. ASU certainly has the track record exhibiting their willingness to start freshman if their ability merits it.

The Scottsdale Chaparral standout seems to be in that camp -- and he sees a blueprint in which he’s donning the maroon and gold. ASU fans, though, will have to wait to find out if the Sun Devils land the big-time hometown prospect. Lucas noted that he plans on making his commitment live during the 2022 All-American Bowl, the annual showcase scheduled for the first week of January, which he received an invitation to a few weeks ago.

“I would just say, (ASU is a possible landing spot because) how close it is to home,” Lucas said. “The coaching staff, how hard they’ve been recruiting me. And we’ll just see how they do this next year and how recruiting goes.

“(I’m looking for a school that’s) good in academics. Has a good environment, good coaches, good players to surround myself with.”

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