Friday marked the twelfth of fifteen spring practice sessions for Arizona State. With 80% of its spring season over and nearly 80% of its roster returning, those were the more prominent storylines in Tempe rather than a robust transfer portal in process across the college football landscape.
ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham has been pleased with the team’s growth in numerous areas, which ultimately should result in a very low traffic of players leavin and arriving the program.
“I think our guys genuinely like it here,” Dillingham said Friday on the lack of transfer portal movement. “I think we have a community and a group of guys who genuinely are building relationships forever, and I think it's just a different day and age in college football. But I think we're kind of old school, we're kind of the throwback mindset in terms of how we want to do it, and I think our guys are part of that because they're a brotherhood.”
Offensively, the program has seen growth from its new additions. With seven new wide receivers in the position group and the departure of critical seniors—running back Cam Skattebo and center Leif Fautanu—the team has relied on redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt to lead the way now more than ever. Dillingham has been impressed with how quickly Leavitt has continued to progress in his decision-making while adjusting to his new weapons.
“I know he can throw it deep, everybody saw that, it's why he's on NFL draft boards,” Dillingham remarked. “It's how you manage down and distance, how you take the easy plays, and he's done an unbelievable job, especially this last week and the last four days of practice.”
The offense's growth has been exponential over the course of spring, after some rough days in the early weeks. Friday’s scrimmage-heavy session highlighted the quality players up and down the roster. One position group, in particular, that is making dividends is the tight end room. The group, led by coach Jason Mohns, is flooded with talent—both new and returning. Redshirt seniors Chamon Metayer and Cameron Harpole lead the way for most first- and second-team activities, but Kentucky transfer junior Khamari Anderson and true freshman AJ Ia have dominated at times. For Dillingham, he gives all the credit to Mohns, who spent 11 years as the head coach at Saguaro High School in Scottsdale, boasting a 123-19 record and seven state championships.
“You've been so successful at the high school level, and you're used to running 180 guys or 160 guys and coaching everybody because you don't have too many coaches around you,” Dillingham explained. “And then you go and you're like, 'Hey, come here and here’s six or seven.’”
The small position group allows Mohns to refine the skills of his players, and they’ve responded to that. Every practice, the tight ends spend time working with the offensive line on blocking drills, and it's apparent the offensive line is more secure when the tight ends are next to them.
The battle in the trenches has led to rapid growth on both sides, with a heap of returners on the offensive and defensive lines fighting for superiority every practice. At the beginning of spring, the offense was adjusting to graduate lineman Ben Coleman at center. Certain periods saw more false starts and offside penalties than desired, but over time, familiarity and chemistry came quickly for the position group.
“Some of our guys are established, especially on the defensive front. On the offensive front, there are some battles—for backup center, for one of the guard spots,” Dillingham noted. “In the trenches, we are probably more established than I've had in the past here, or anywhere really, in terms of returning.”
Still, with all the returners already having proven their ability, Dillingham has continued to harp on the importance of staying hungry to improve. He mentioned the goal of repeating as Big 12 Champions and how difficult that would be to achieve, particularly if players don’t return in 2025 with the same determination that proved important in 2024.
“(It's important) that we don't lose our edge,” Dillingham stressed. “That it doesn't matter who I'm holding out, who's in the game, the standard is the standard. If you're a freshman who's never played a snap or never started a game, we put you in the game. We expect you, the people to your left and your right expect you to get a job accomplished. It's an expectation to play as hard as you can. It's not a hope, it's not a wish, it's non-negotiable. It's an expectation, and I hope our team continues to hold that expectation at a high rate.”
“Winning the Big 12 title this year would be more difficult than last year, even though that sounds crazy, because one team's done it—Oklahoma. They're the only team to win it back-to-back years, so we’d be like the first team in history other than them to win it in back-to-back years. So, we don’t even talk about it because the goal is almost unobtainable. It's never really been done other than one team just being better every single day.”
The final week of spring practice ends with the 2025 Fan Fest, which will be held Friday at Mountain America Stadium at 5 p.m. MST. The day will consist of drills and scrimmages, giving Sun Devil fans the opportunity to see what Dillingham and the team have been building during the five weeks of spring practice.
“It's going to be very similar to last year, probably not quite as much of the scrimmage setting, more like it—a little bit of today,” Dillingham said. “And then a little bit of drills mixed in there, so hopefully guys are going around, playing hard, and having a lot of fun.”
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