As they’ll do in 28 days for their season-opener against UTSA, the Sun Devils took the field under the lights Friday. For the first time this fall, Herm Edwards’ group put on their helmets in search of playing time come September.

But in the eyes of ASU’s Head Coach for Sports Performance Joe Connolly, the building blocks of depth chart surprises sprout up in the summer.

“You see the pre-and-post pictures,” he said. “You see your numbers, you see the effort you put in, you know in your heart of hearts what you actually did and how hard you actually worked as a player. That creates a lot of confidence.”

Connolly, who is in his first year at Arizona State, came into the program from the University of Massachusetts following the Herm Edwards hire. In his first summer in Tempe, Connolly is keen on bringing everything Edwards offers on the field to the weight room.

“It’s what we’re trying to build, instilling that culture with coach Edwards, his philosophy, getting the young guys up to speed, getting the old guys up to speed, and it finished well,” Connolly said. “I was really happy.”

He wasn’t quick to point out any specific players but mentioned “a lot of guys” had numbers that really impressed. Some of the more drastic transformations included Merlin Robertson gaining 21 pounds, George Lea gaining 15 pounds, Jay Jay Wilson and Tyler Whiley adding 12 pounds each and Jalen Bates putting on eight pounds to bulk up to 250.

Bates’ figure made its way across social media after the redshirt junior defensive lineman posted a before and after picture on twitter. He dropped his body fat percentage from 12.4 percent to zero, looking far more defined ahead of the season.

But for Connolly, Bates development and transformation was just one of many.

“What’s funny is his isn’t even the best one. There was a lot of body composition changes. Zach Robertson lost 35 pounds. Steven Miller lost 25,” Connolly said. “There’s a lot of really good change going on and it’s a testament to their hard work -- they did the work. Jalen works harder than a lot of guys. He’s in extra all the time, he’s very conscious about his extra.

“He’s directive with it, it’s not just frivolous extra for no reason -- he knows what he’s doing. He needed to have a good summer and he did and hopefully, he can put it all together this fall.”

Lineman can fluctuate their weight more than most, largely due to the fact they have more weight than most. But ASU’s defensive and offensive lines had plenty of room for improvement on the field before fall camp began. Connolly, though, insists the weight room transformations can make the difference there as well.

“It’s going to help them play faster, play longer, more conditioned, be a little quicker,” he said. “You know you pick up a 35-pound dumbbell and you hold it in your hand, think about taking that much weight off your body. That’s going to speed you up and some of those guys did that, and they’re still going to play physical because they’re stronger. Steve gained a lot of strength this offseason and lost 25 pounds -- that’s extremely difficult to do because you have two conflicting things happening. He's not the only one, there's a lot of them.”

Another player that Connolly was quick to validate was ASU’s defensive lineman Renell Wren. Less than a month ago, the redshirt senior was put on a 2018 college football freaks list by The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman and like Bates, had his weight room progress go semi-viral on twitter.

The video shows Wren squatting an uncomfortable amount of weight, and just because he’s a freak, metal chains are hanging from each side of the bar. Connolly doesn’t like to single out specific guys but admitted: “Renell’s one of our strongest guys.”

“Renell is extremely gifted, very talented, really, really strong,” Connolly said. “Renell actually put on 10 pounds of muscle believe it or not this summer -- just kind of freaky. In the winter time, Renell relied on his God-given talent and his ability, but this offseason Renell learned to push through things that are really, really difficult and challenging, and I think he’d be the first one to tell you and we’re really proud of him for it. I think it’s going to help him this fall.”

This is Wren’s fifth year in ASU’s weight program. From his senior year to high school to his second season in Tempe, he bulked-up from 245-pounds to 290. Aside from Wren’s absurd numbers, the point is younger guys have far more room for improvement.

Connolly mentioned that he’s never met a freshman that didn’t think they were ready. High school and collegiate weight programs hold night and day differences, and most freshman figure that out quickly.

“It's all about compliance in high school, in reality -- they might have the best weight program in the world but if they don’t go or they’re not required to go then I don’t know,” Connolly said. “So it’s really about compliance and here you do what you got to do, you have to. You can see by watching them move, you can see by watching that first warmup who needs a little bit of work and who is ready to go.

“We’re going to see how this camp goes with a few of them and they’re going to help us. The nice thing about that group is they’re really nice people, they work really hard and there’s not a lot of messing around -- they want to be good, they’re competitors. So that’s what we like. Some of those junior college guys, same deal -- junior college, sometimes you don’t know what you’re getting. We’ve got some guys that are willing to work, like to work and are really talented."

Connolly understands the summer is all about results for his players. He tells the media to talk to them about how the past few months went because “they’ll tell the truth.” Possibly. But Connolly was trying to strike a deeper cord with the weight program, its beneficiaries, and their transformations.

“I always tell people I judge myself on what the players feel about what we’re doing -- because it’s the belief. They have to believe,” he said. “And I think right now, we’re in a good space for that. They believe in what we’re doing, they believe in what we’re doing on the practice field, they believe in what we were doing in training, they believe in what we’re continuing to do in training in camp.”

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