43. That is the number of new players appearing on the Sun Devils’ 2022 roster. ASU head coach Herm Edwards said in Friday’s Pac-12 Media Day that patience will need to be exercised as the process of bringing these newcomers on the same page is a process that may take place for the entire first month of the season.
“I think, like most programs now, with the new model, which is free agency, I call it, your roster will change,” Edwards explained. “I’m accustomed to that. I dealt with that in the National Football League. Right now, it seems to me from afar when I watch them gel, watched some of them in the spring, now we’ve added some more, a very tight-knit group of guys, in my opinion, what I’ve seen.
"But the point is, how will they play together, how will they collectively come together. I think you probably won’t know that until after the third week of competition of what kind of team. You have these aspirations of doing certain things, but I think after three weeks, you’re going to figure out how they play together. I’ve told the team that. Then you can determine what type of team you are. That’s the fun part about coaching.”
More than a handful of players that left Tempe through the transfer portal were slated to be starters, and several other now former members of the team were poised to be in their respective two-deep groups. Edwards didn’t deny that the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals some of those players were scheduled to receive in new their new home was a catalyst for this turnover.
“I think we’ll all be naïve if they didn’t think some of that was part of it,” Edwards said regarding the impact NIL has had on its team. “I would say more than some of it. That’s the landscape in which we are now in. I think every coach understands that. That’s a big part of it. And we know it. I think we all saw the noise of the train coming down the track, but the train is here now. How you adapt to it and how you go about coaching going forward, you have to adjust. I think we’re all able to do that. That’s where it’s at. It’s not going to change.”
Nonetheless, while no one would have blamed Arizona State’s head coach for using his platform today to criticize both the transfer portal and NIL, two elements that undoubtedly have had an adverse impact on the program, Edwards chose to look at this significant change movement which is still in its infancy in a different light and one that he can relate to on a personal level.
“The student-athlete has a voice,” Edwards explained. “So if you’re in this new era, this is what it is. Well, it’s changing. I say this, and I say this in a humbled way. Change is about growth sometimes and opportunity. According to what and how you believe it and how you sit, it affects people different. I look at myself. Without change, I’m not sitting here. I don’t sit in this seat. So I don’t look at it like, ‘Well, this is going to mess up college football.’ It’s going to change college football, no doubt about that.
"The funny part is this. Everyone is trying to figure out what is it going to look like. We don’t know. It might change again next week. No one knows. But eventually, it will change. Someone else will be sitting at this table. There will be new guys writing stories. They’ll be talking about, ‘Hey, you remember what happened back in 2022?’ You got to adjust. Some will like it; some will not. That’s just how it works now.
“Eventually, there’s people with sound minds that are looking to do what’s right for college football. That’s the bottom line. I think the most visible thing that we all understand now, and maybe we kind of struggle with it is the student-athlete has a voice. Some people don’t like that.”
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The departure of three-year starter quarterback Jayden Daniels, who transferred to LSU just a few weeks before spring practice, naturally forced ASU to scramble for solutions. Presumed starter and Florida transfer Emory Jones arrived only after the Sun Devils concluded their 15 spring sessions. Still, even during his fairly recent arrival in Tempe, Edwards has been pleased with what the signal-caller has displayed thus far.
“Great, great work ethic,” Edwards described. “Has some leadership qualities that you like. He has experience. That helps you. It will be interesting at that position how that boils out. There will be some competition, as you know. But with that being said, you got to make a decision sooner than later at that position because it’s probably the most important position on any football team at any level. You got to get that one right. You got to get him in place so he can play with the players he’s going to play with on offense.”
And one notable offensive mind on the staff this year that will help integrate the new faces and a new offensive scheme under first-year offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas is Super Bowl-winning head coach Brian Billick who will serve as an analyst this season who will offer his perspective on the new scheme in Tempe.
“It’s another set of eyes,” Edwards commented. “Our offense has changed somewhat from last year a little bit. It will be interesting to see how that kind of looks for us. But it’s good to have him in the building. It’s just another set of eyes, more information. He’s excited. He’s been in and out of the building. He’s not there every day like Marvin (Lewis), but he’ll be here for camp. We obviously show him the video all the time. He’s well aware of what we’re trying to do.”
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Needless to say, that many of the conversation topics during Media Day were surrounding the decision of both UCLA and USC to leave the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten in 2024. Edwards didn’t believe that this move would impact ASU specifically but did acknowledge the ramifications on a larger scale and the role the media contracts play.
“I think what’s impacted is more than just the realignment of teams going to different conferences,” Edwards explained. “It’s how do you go about recruiting now, and what mechanism do you have in your conference to generate TV revenue? It’s TV. It’s driven by TV. Everyone in this audience knows that. How can you generate dollars for your programs? That’s what everyone is faced with right now. That is how it works. That’s a new model, by the way. Everyone’s trying to figure out what does that look like.
“I’m just sitting here just watching it. I don’t know what it’s going to look like five years from now and what recruiting is going to look like. I do know this: the player you have this season; you better re-recruit him when the season is over with because, if not, he might be playing somewhere else. That’s how it works. You can’t get mad ’cause that’s just how it works now.”
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A running theme among ASU players interviewed in recent months was the higher level of team camaraderie driven by the criticism, let alone the low expectations of many in the media (ASU was picked 10th in the preseason poll) and its fans. Edwards isn’t surprised by that narrative as he believes that his team has the makeup to be fueled positively by loud voices who have been doubting the prospects of the 2022 campaign.
“Our culture that has been probably in place for five years is that we have a toughness about ourselves,” Edwards remarked. “That’s not going to change because it’s coach fed, but it’s player-led. The players, those two gentlemen back there, are part of that. Our identity always has been toughness and compete. If you watch this team play over the last four seasons, that’s kind of been who we’ve been. We haven’t won every game. We lost some games. The sad part for us last year was the fact that some of it was due to our own error, right? We got to fix that, for sure. But it’s always been toughness. It’s always been compete, just compete, as hard as you can compete, then you can live with the result.”
When it comes to the ongoing NCAA investigation regarding ASU’s alleged recruiting rules violations, Edwards said that the aforementioned toughness, albeit now on a mental level, has allowed the Sun Devils to handle that adversity aspect successfully. He added that this is merely just one more reason for the increased cohesiveness among the players.
“When you go through things like that, it brings you together,” Edwards said. “Every season is a different journey. If you lose some players and you gain some players, you’re just trying to find out their identity. It’s a pretty tight football team right now, what I’ve learned. You’re talking about 43 new players that chose to come here. I think we all get worried about the players that leave. I don’t worry about guys leaving. Who are we getting, right? Who wants to come here?
“We’re getting ready to kick the season off. We start practicing next Tuesday, which is going to be exciting for us. The players can’t wait to get on the grass. Neither can the coaches.”
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