DeAndre Pierce 'acclimating' into the ASU Secondary

2019 left a bad taste in DeAndre Pierce’s mouth.

A senior at Boise State, Pierce had started nine games in the last two years for the Broncos. A nightmare of injuries and inconsistencies haunted the safety in his junior and senior campaigns, something he had never expected after a promising beginning in orange and blue.

As a freshman, Pierce appeared in 12 games, starting one. He started in 11 out of 14 games his sophomore year, eventually gaining an All-Mountain West Honorable Mention.

Pierce’s struggles began in the fourth game of his junior year against Wyoming when the starting safety suffered a season-ending lacerated spleen due to a blood disorder that was amplified by high altitude.

Pierce started in Boise State’s home opener in his senior year, but a high ankle fracture kept the defensive back from seeing significant time in his fourth year in Idaho. The safety started all five games he played in his senior year.

In February, Pierce entered the transfer portal. With hopes of playing in the NFL, he wanted a year to prove himself somewhere else. He wanted one last shot.

As a safety, Pierce’s role is to analyze the offense, adjusting and adapting the defense to what he observes. At the end of his run with the Broncos, Pierce pulled away from his abilities as safety, however instead of reading an offense, he was reading his options to best position himself to launch himself into a potential pro career.

Pierce’s ultimate read was spelled A-S-U.

He elected to transfer to Arizona State after graduating from Boise State in May, joining forces with his father, co-defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce, as well as a plethora of former teammates and opponents he faced in high school playing under his dad at Long Beach Poly. Pierce’s arrival in Tempe was literally a homecoming, with coaches and players alike helping to settle in the former Bronco to life as a Sun Devil.

“Thankfully, I had the opportunity with my dad being here and making that transition easier,” Pierce said. “I knew everybody kind of since high school, either whether playing with them or against them. Even in college and I was kind of always still friends with them. Really, coming here was a smooth transition. (I just) have to get acclimated to how they do things here, a lot of things are different here.”

However, it wasn’t the role of Pierce’s father or former football acquaintances that really drew the grad transfer to Tempe. It was rater the program’s professionalism and the lure of suiting up for a Power 5 college program.

“The past two (years) (I wasn’t) really living up to my expectations or anybody’s,” Pierce admitted to the media on Wednesday. “I kind of realized I needed to change the scenery; I needed a higher challenge and (more) competition.”

Pierce had seen the development of the “pro model” at ASU. The NFL experience and pedigree in Tempe with Pierce’s Super Bowl Champion father, head coach Herm Edwards, Pierce’s father’s new co-coordinator on defense, Marvin Lewis, and the rest of the Sun Devil staff was unquestionable.

Pierce, who played exclusively in the Mountain West, also desired a higher level of competition, something he knew he would receive not only in-game time against Pac-12 opponents, but also in practice playing alongside former high school teammates such as Jack Jones, Aashari Crosswell, and twins Kejuan and Keon Markham.

Jones, who transferred to Tempe ahead of last year to join forces with Pierce’s father and has had a fascinating college football journey in his own right, played alongside the younger Pierce in the Jackrabbits uniform for multiple seasons, specifically their senior year in which they started on defense together. Five years later, the former high school teammates will don ASU’s maroon and gold together. On Wednesday, Pierce recalled the moment he told Jones of his decision to come to Tempe and the bonding that followed.

“When I told him, he was so excited. He was like ‘Don’t you be messing with me! You better be coming!’,” Pierce chuckled. “Once I told him it was official, (Jones and ASU’s DBs) really took me under their wings…Really all the familiarity, all my former teammates (players) that I knew really helped get me on the straight path. (They taught me) the right way to do (things at ASU). It took about a week or two, then I was held to the same (level of) accountability as they were.”

For Pierce, the payoffs of his decision didn’t stop there, for the biggest figure, he had to readapt to working with was his new co-defensive coordinator and father. DeAndre had been coached by his father in high school, but the pairing was separated when DeAndre went to Boise State.

For the two years following DeAndre’s departure from Long Beach Poly, Antonio, who was still the head coach at the school, would fly out to Idaho to watch his son play after long, stressful Friday nights under the lights. In the two years Antonio has spent in Tempe, the elder Pierce was handicapped by his Sun Devil coaching duties, only looking at his son’s performances before or after ASU’s games.

Now back together again, ASU's co-defensive coordinator can rest assured knowing his son will be at every practice, meeting, and lift alongside him.

“Now it’s easy, I get to just watch him at practice,” Antonio Pierce said. “There’s nothing like having your son around. Obviously, like any other athlete, I treat him just like the players, and when we get home; it’s a father and son relationship.”

The younger Pierce, keen to avoid any special treatment from his father’s role in ASU’s defense reinforced his father’s sentiments about their relationship on and off the field, referring to former Poly teammates like Jones and former ASU safety and captain Kobe Williams to reinforce his point.

“(Jones, Williams, and others) all saw firsthand how my dad is, how he (treats) everybody else (within) his position group and anybody else on the team with me,” Pierce explained, referencing his time under his father at Poly. “Obviously, (he treats everyone) all the same…. At the end of the day, he's a coach; I'm a player, I'm trying to get better, he’s trying to get me better. Off the field, we are cool, you know, father and son, but I mean, I'm here to accomplish something, and he has goals of his (to accomplish) as well.”

ASU boasts one of the most experienced secondaries in the Pac-12, anchored by a duo of redshirt senior cornerbacks in Jones and four-year starter Chase Lucas. Pierce, entering his fifth year of eligibility, Pierce brings added depth and experience to the most seasoned of position groups on the Sun Devil roster.

Despite a dodgy, unfortunate history with injuries, Pierce’s experience, football knowledge, and athleticism have allowed him to enter the fray for starting reps at one of two safety slots against another former Jackrabbit teammate in Crosswell.

Crosswell and Evan Fields are seemingly slated to be the two starting safeties in this year’s defense, after starting in ASU’s 3-3-5 system last year. However, slashing the number of safeties down from three to two in the 4-3 scheme in 2020 has opened opportunities for players like DeAndre to get in the mix.

“Individually, we always challenge ourselves,” Pierce said of the secondary’s mentality. “Chase and Jack are always pushing each other. Me, Aaashari, Evan, Kejuan are always pushing each other…. I feel like that’s what makes us so unique and so high-powered. As long as we can keep the intensity and pressure up in practice, I feel like we will always be on our ten toes and always be ready to make the play.”

Pierce, accompanied by a mix of new and old faces in Tempe, is poised to make the most of what could be his final opportunity to play in the realm of college football. Yet, for him, football success requires a team effort and the experienced safety believes ASU’s secondary well-equipped for any scenario.

“We have extremely high-quality depth at all positions, whether it’s safety, corner, nickel back, I feel like we easily have eight guys that can start with no drop-off, no slack, nothing. Everybody can step in,” Pierce explained. “At the safety spot (there’s) me, Evan and Aashari, even Kejuan Markham. All four of us offer something unique. Evan has freakish (amounts) of speed, Aashari’s a ballhawk, Kejuan’s a ballhawk, me bringing my mental side to the game. We all just bring a little piece of the puzzle, and hopefully, it all fits right, and we can go out there and just play ball.”

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