A new spring ball season brings 26 new players and numerous new faces to the coaching staff as head coach Herm Edwards, surrounded by change and an NCAA investigation, downplayed distractions and attempted to center focus to play on the field. Following the departures of five assistant coaches concerning the NCAA investigation into recruiting violations during the COVID dead period, Edwards and the Sun Devils are trudging on following an 8-5 season in 2021.

“First of all, I don’t listen to the noise. This is about spring football. It’s about the coaches that are here and the players that are here,” Edwards said, declining to comment any further on the NCAA investigation the program is still undergoing. “Any of that other stuff, I won’t comment on it. That’s just where I’m at with it and the way it is.

“These players have been resilient, and it started during COVID. They are a pretty resilient football team, and we’re focused on competing and trying to win positions, coaches coaching, and it’s fun to get back on the grass.”

Edwards, who went 54-74 during his time as a head coach in the NFL and is 25-18 in charge of the Sun Devils, said he hadn’t taken any big picture look at the program he’s built.

“I don’t self-scout myself. That’s not my job, to be quite honest,” Edwards said with a laugh. “I never did it as a head coach in pro football, and I won’t do it in college football. I know one thing. I enjoy coaching my players, and I think my players enjoy playing here.”

Much of the talk Tuesday from the now fifth-year Sun Devil head coach centered around roster construction and uncertainty across the roster and coaching staff. Changes across the coaching staff were of no surprise and a repeat of the year prior when the Sun Devils played without three position coaches -- each put on administrative leave for their roles in the recruiting investigations. Edwards said he didn’t think he would delegate work any more or less than he has in the past but said he trusts the people that he works with.

“I don’t want to micro-manage people,” Edwards said. “You hire people who you can feel like you trust… Us coming together as a staff, as you always do, you’re coming together with 20-plus new players, and there is a chemistry. I do believe just being around these guys the last two months; there’s a different chemistry. There just is. It’s a different football team, and you can feel it.”

Roster turnover with a large group of draft-eligible prospects leaving was also expected, but how the Sun Devils re-tooled the roster was indicative of the bind ASU is in and the trend of the sport in general.

“This is the sad part of it -- with the free agency in college football, I do think that you’re going to deny some high school players some scholarships,” Edwards said. “If you’re looking at certain positions and for us, it was the offensive line. It was, ‘we need some veteran guys who can play because we feel like we’ve got a pretty good team coming back,’ so, in certain positions, you dabble there.

“I still think you build the foundation of your team with high school players.”

ASU failed to crack the top 100 in the Rivals 2022 team recruiting rankings as the investigation into the program hampered high school recruiting and sent the Sun Devils into the transfer portal. Edwards told reporters ASU’s reliance on the transfer portal was out of both need and desire, citing additional scholarships still available for late spring portal signees as an asset for the Sun Devils.

“We’re still in the market here of maybe looking for another guy,” Edwards said while talking about the interior defensive line and cornerback positions. “We’re still in the market because, as you guys know, we play a lot of man-to-man. We put our corners under a lot of stress.”

Edwards and the Sun Devils enter the spring needing to find the answer at the quarterback position after three-year starter Jayden Daniels transferred to LSU just weeks before ASU began its spring practices. With former Alabama quarterback, Paul Tyson’s arrival along with redshirt junior Trenton Bourguet left as the most-established Sun Devil in the room, Edwards said he wasn’t surprised by the recent departure of Daniels.

“We thank him for all he’s done here. He helped us win a lot of football games. I wish him success,” Edwards said, continuing by reassuring that he has a plan to replace Daniels. “When you’re the coach, you have to be way ahead of this. You have to see this coming. I didn’t sit here lost. I knew it was coming. I knew free agency was coming and we were prepared to deal with it and brought in some pretty good players, in my opinion.”

Edwards said he’s taking a similar approach to the last quarterback competition he held in the Fall of 2019. Aside from Bourguet and Tyson, ASU has redshirt freshman Finn Collins, freshman Bennett Meredith and redshirt sophomore Daylin McLemore as the other scholarship quarterbacks on the roster.

“You have to see at the quarterback position who can manage the offense,” said Edwards, who stands at 25-18 during his four seasons in Tempe. “One key is to not turn the ball over, and that was a little bit of our Achilles heel last year… When Jayden first arrived with Joey (Yellen), we didn’t know it. We just threw the ball out there and said, ‘whoever plays well is going to be the starter,’ and it worked out. This year we’re throwing the ball out there. They’ll all get to work with the first group, and we’ll figure it out.”

After the departure of former offensive coordinator Zak Hill, the Sun Devils brought in Glenn Thomas to run the ASU offense. Former NFL head coach Brian Billick also joined the staff as an offensive analyst, and Edwards cited their similar beliefs as something that intrigued him about bringing Billick into the fold in Tempe.

“We sputtered in and out of the season, and I think a lot of that has to do with our running game. We have to be more consistent there to get more guys in the box, and then you’re able to hit the big explosive plays,” Edwards said. “I think a lot of the time, we were behind the chains at times, and we were playing behind.”

Billick, who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens, was brought in with an emphasis on more basic offense after Edwards said he felt too many shifts and other complexities made pre-snap penalties more likely.

“We met for numerous days together,” said Edwards. “I think he’s in the mindset that I think we both share in the fact that we want to do certain things in an offense. Not saying that the offense was bad last year. It wasn’t. We sputtered at times. But I think we want to get back to some basic football, and I think it starts with our run game.”

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