Day four of practice wrapped up, with the first session of fall camp held in Mountain America Stadium. On Saturday evening, the lights shined down on the players, who practiced a little too comfortably for ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham’s comfort.
“Today was our worst practice (of fall camp). Energy was just up and down,” Dillingham expressed. “We ran to the ball when we felt like it. It’s hard to go four days in a row, but we’re pushing them to battle through that.”
The quarterbacks’ workload was the same as the previous three days, as redshirt freshman Sam Leavitt continued to receive first-team reps and impressed the coaches with pinpoint throws and smart decision-making. Senior Jeff Sims is right behind him on the second team, trying to make a push for starting duties.
“They’re taking care of the football,” Dillingham noted. “We haven’t taken many negatives, even though you can’t sack the quarterback right now. For them, it’s taking the boring play. When we watch the tape, there are a lot of boring plays out there that we could take. Instead, we’re kind of forcing ourselves to be aggressive or make the fun play. Football is boring when you play it well, and that’s what we’re preaching to those guys. It’s a simple game.”
With tonight’s practice under the bright stadium lights, the players were able to begin the process of acclimating to the game-like scenarios during practice and drills. It can be easy to lose the ball in the lights, and that was something Dillingham wanted to focus on more compared to last year.
“It was needed,” Dillingham admitted. “I felt like I did a bad job last year putting our practices at night out here. We played so many night games last year, and this field is a different grass than what we practice on. The dirt is a different soil, which impacts the player's ability to cut on the grass. I thought I did a poor job of that last year, so we made an emphasis to do it four times this fall camp, so that’ll help us.”
The defense made sharp plays on the ball during scrimmages today, intercepting a ball during 11-on-11 scrimmaging and disrupting numerous passes. Still, there were times when deflected passes had opportunities to become interceptions. For Dillingham, those are the little things that add up.
“Still too many dropped interceptions,” Dillingham voiced. “I think we’ve had four or five just off the top of my head that I can think of in camp, so far, we’re raking out the ball better, more tip balls. There’s more ball disruption, which is showing up, but we still haven’t caught the ball. Like, is it a good play versus a great play? Could be seven points, like, as simple as that. And those are how you change not just games, but seasons or the couple plays like that.”
On the other side of the ball, the tight end group is starting to come into their own. The first days of practice saw some shuffling of the players in this position group among the first, second, and third teams, but each day has also allowed the tight ends to develop chemistry with the groups they’re running with. Each tight end naturally brings his own skill set to the table, allowing for a myriad of formations to get them involved.
“I think we’re a big group,” Dillingham explained. "We’re short numbers-wise, but I think we’re big when we’re in, so it's going to be interesting how we use that group this year. We have to be strategic about how we use that group because of our depth. They are unique because of the pure size of those guys, but we have to find ways to use them as well as keep them healthy.”
Special teams were a focal point of improvement coming into this year. There were multiple games in 2023 where this unit was the reason the Devils won or lost, and the scale tipped more on the losing side. Dillingham even brought in a former General Manager of the Tennessee Titans to talk to the players about the importance of special teams and how it can affect a player’s chances of making it at the next level, a message that lit a fire under them.
“I’m way more involved in special teams this year,” Dillingham announced. “I’ve added an extra coach to special teams, Coach (Matt) Butterfield, so our guys know if you want to win football games, we have to win special teams. Now, we have three full-time guys only dedicated to special teams, so they can run position meetings. Fundamentally, I thought we were poor last year. If I look at that, I look at how I can do better and how we can do better. It’s simple: break out into individual groups. Let’s coach the fundamentals better if we want to get better at it.”
Join your fellow Sun Devil fans on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle, run by the longest-tenured Sun Devil sports beat writer, to discuss this article and other ASU football, basketball, and recruiting topics. Not a member yet? Sign up today and get your daily fix of Sun Devil news!
