Care & continuity: Why Rodriguez is connecting with DL on a deeper level
For six straight seasons, Arizona State entered the fall with members of its defensive line hearing instruction from a different voice. Dating back to 2015 – the final three seasons of the Todd Graham era and the first three of the Herm Edwards one – the Sun Devils employed a different defensive line coach each year. That unsettling trend will be erased on Sept. 2 as Robert Rodriguez begins his second year working on ASU’s staff.
Listening to Rodriguez’s players speak about his coaching and the impact it will have on their play is convincing. The results during the shortened 2020 season also bear witness to a promising outlook for the upcoming schedule.
“The technique that he teaches us is like NFL style,” said Travez Moore, who was a member of the 2020 national championship winning LSU team. “D-line wise, he’s the best coach that I’ve ever had.”
At LSU, Moore’s defensive line coach was Bill Johnson. The success Johnson attained during coaching stints with the Miami Hurricanes (1987 national champion), New Orleans Saints (2009 Super Bowl champion), and Los Angeles Rams (2019 Super Bowl participant) makes the praise Moore’s hailed Rodriguez with even more impressive.
Other Sun Devil defensive linemen see the same thing Moore has. During the 2020 season, Rodriguez oversaw great improvement in Tyler Johnson, who had five sacks in four games. In total, the unit had nine sacks in the four games ASU played.
“When I watched the USC game, I’m like ‘that’s a championship defense,’” Moore says.
For Moore to reach his potential, the speedy edge rusher must take full advantage of the technique Rodriguez is attempting to coach into his habits.
“Travez is such a natural athlete that I think he’s been allowed to freelance and be loose in his technique,” Rodriguez said. “You guys have been around me. That’s not the way things go with the way we do things around here, so it was a hard transition for him. You saw glimpses of it at the end of the spring.
“The growth from then until now has been exponential in understanding the angles… He has great potential, and his ability is about as high as you can ask. His athleticism gives him the opportunity to beat anybody he lines up with if he’s prepared, and he’s got the right mindset.”
More often than not, Rodriguez has pushed the right buttons with players in his position group. In 2020, Michael Matus’s play made a notable leap. He’s hoping for the same to be said about Moore in 2021.
Rodriguez has spoken with the media about the respect he has for the players he’s teaching daily. That respect is reciprocated from members of the defensive line and understood as something that pushes the group to greater heights.
“He actually cares about you,” said defensive end Michael Matus when asked what separated Rodriguez from coaches of the past. “I’ve had five defensive line coaches now, and every one of them has been different in their own way, but I can by far say that coach Rod is one of the best. I think he’s the most impactful on us.”
“He wants everyone to succeed even if you’re starting or if you’re a fourth string,” explained graduate student D.J. Davidson of Rodriguez’s impact. “He treats everybody the same. Everybody’s equal. The respect in the room that he holds to everybody, it rubs off for everybody else. His mojo, his personality, what he talks about makes sense.”
Success has followed Rodriguez from his time coaching the defensive line of the Minnesota Vikings to now the Sun Devils. Since taking the job in February of 2020, he’s had success coaching various pass-rushers.
“If you’re going to be a good football coach, you have to develop a personal relationship with them,” Rodriguez claimed. “You have to get to know what makes them tick. I try my best to develop relationships with everybody that I work with, but especially everybody that I coach.”
The various body types that have had success working with Rodriguez should provide greater promise for walk-on defensive lineman B.J. Green, who many tabbed as undersized coming out of high school.
The challenge for Rodriguez now is replacing senior defensive tackle Jermayne Lole. The Long Beach, Calif., native had surgery to repair his triceps on Aug. 16 after suffering an injury early in fall camp. Lole’s name was littered throughout preseason national watch lists, and the Sun Devils were expecting great things from him.
“Injuries are the hardest part of this business. Period,” said Rodriguez. “You get so close to your guys, and I have such a profound amount of respect for my guys, but in particular, I have such a love and respect for Jermayne. When you lose Jermayne, you lose more than just a player.”
Lole missed most of Arizona State’s spring practices after his father, brother, and girlfriend’s father passed away due to various reasons.
“It’s our obligation as a team to do everything we can to replace the production – and we’re going to do everything in our power to do that,” claimed Rodriguez, “but you can’t replace the person. He has a presence, and after what he’s been through this year, it was a personal goal of mine to help him in every way that I could to have the best season of his life. And he was on track to do that.”
In Lole’s absence, Rodriguez and the ASU staff expect redshirt freshman Omarr Norman-Lott and graduate student Shannon Forman to step up. Rodriguez said he’s proud of both the defensive linemen. When Norman-Lott has been available, Rodriguez has loved what he’s seen. Unfortunately for ASU, Norman-Lott has missed the last week of practice.
“I’m sleeping good at night. I still have a high standard for this group. We still have a standard for ourselves, we still expect to be better than we were last year, and Shannon and Omarr are both to a man better than they were last year. I expect them to play at a high level.”
Matus said he believes Rodriguez’s approach to coaching the entire position group – rather than just focusing on the veterans – will aid ASU as they move on without one of the nation’s best interior defensive linemen.
“He breaks the game down a lot easier, and it allows us to develop,” said Matus. “He cares about the young guys. He doesn’t just throw the young guys out of the room and say, ‘hey, y’all are on the scout team; only the starters are in here.’ He cares about everybody. If he’s telling D.J. Davidson something, he’s making sure that T.J. (Pesefea), B.J. (Green), and Gharin (Stansbury) hear the same exact message.
“I think that’s one of the best things a coach can do because it bridges that gap.”
Combining great talent and great depth gives Rodriguez the ingredients to believe the ASU defensive line can compete at a high level against the Pac-12 this year. In year two with the Sun Devils, Rodriguez feels comfortable with where his group sits.
“Look, I told the guys at the start of the year, ‘take an inventory of how your body feels. This is the best that you’re going to feel for the rest of the year. You’re a defensive lineman,’” Rodriguez said. “We have to play through pain. Injuries are different than pain, and we as a defensive line have to continue to get tougher and better in that regard.
“However, I feel way better about the depth than I did at this time last year. Way better… There’s a lot of guys that are working really hard that we’re going to like when they’re out there on the field.”
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