Last season, Arizona State was the fifth-ranked defense in the Pac-12, the team’s highest defensive ranking in eight years. After graduating future Cincinnati Bengal Renell Wren, the defensive starters remained largely intact for the first time in years.
“I think the proof is in the pudding,” Co-Defensive Coordinator Antonio Pierce said of his linebacker core.
The proof: two of his linebackers are team captains, a lineup nearly full of veterans and returning starters, and a freshman class stronger than anything Sun Devil fans have seen in years.
“When you win, that happens,” Pierce explained Tuesday. “When your freshman play, that happens.” The recruiting gets stronger every year; Rivals.com ranks ASU’s 2021 19th ranked recruiting class at third in the Pac-12, only behind Oregon and Stanford. Call it the Herm Edwards effect: in each year, Herm has been in Tempe, ASU’s recruiting classes are ranked higher and higher.
But while recruiting hypotheticals and stats from previous years are key, the most important of Pierce’s accomplishments in Tempe may be redshirt junior, Tyler Johnson.
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With 1:18 remaining on the clock on New Years’ Eve in El Paso, Florida State wide receiver Tamorrion Terry fumbled the ball, and Tyler Johnson recovered it. Two kneels later, and ASU had won its first bowl game since 2014.
Just minutes after a shower of Frosted Flakes rained on Herm Edwards, Tyler Johnson announced his decision to retire from football for medical reasons.
“Over the last two years, he was nicked up,” Pierce said. “That wore on him mentally.”
Injuries plagued Johnson’s playing career up to that point, with a torn labrum and rotator cuff, a hamstring injury and an ankle injury among the most notable. His retirement from football was unexpected but made sense at the time.
Now, he’s back.
“I knew that question was going to come,” Johnson laughed when asked about his return Tuesday. “I kept in touch with Coach Pierce throughout the time I was gone,” he added.
After the seventh practice of the spring season, Johnson said he started talking to players at the next level about their input, and after a deep conversation with Coach Herm, decided that returning to the team was the right move.
“Tyler always walks around with a smile,” Pierce told media. “I’m excited for him. He’s happy. He looks happy. He looks at peace.”
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Antonio Pierce’s outlook for this season is a positive one. With his focus on linebackers, he praised captains Kyle Soelle and Darien Butler, as well as junior Merlin Robertson.
“Merlin’s always a leader,” Pierce said. “Sometimes, you don’t need a ‘C’ on your chest to be a leader. A lot of guys do it in different ways, either vocally or by what they do on the field.”
But Pierce’s ultimate praise was for his younger linebackers, who he called, “Sponges.” Freshmen linebackers Jordan Banks and Caleb McCullough both joined enrolled early in the spring and stood out at practices.
“They listen,” Pierce said of the two. “They’re sponges. They ask a lot of questions of Merlin (Robertson), (Darien) Butler, Kyle (Soelle), and Connor (Soelle), too.”
“When they get the reps, I tell them: ‘You’re gonna screw up. You’re gonna make mistakes. Just go one-hundred miles an hour, and we’ll correct you on the sideline or in the classroom.’”
Pierce shared some insight on rookie Will Shaffer as well, who graduated from Saguaro High School in Scottsdale in the spring. “He was one of the last ones to come in, but he’s done an outstanding job of picking it up really quickly.”
The list of players who impress Antonio Pierce grows day by day, and the optimism is shared by each of his players. Junior Jermayne Lole, one of more than a handful of Sun Devils who played under Pierce at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in California, has been undertaking a leadership role as well: “I told some of the younger guys to be patient. You won’t get everything right the first time; that’s how I was when I first got here.”
This year’s defense does not look too different from the 2019 season’s depth chart. With the exceptions of Kobe Williams, George Lea, and Khaylan Kearse-Thomas, the defense is mostly intact. There’s no shortage of leaders on the defense, especially in a mature secondary.
“We’re a production-based business,” Pierce exclaimed. “Whoever’s playing well stays in the game. You aren’t playing well? Come out because we feel really good about our depth.”
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