It’s safe to say the 2022 off-season has been abnormal and, at times, seemed like it would never end. Between an NCAA investigation, an unprecedented shift in Power Five conferences, and the transfer portal transactions, the start of preseason camp literally feels like a breath of fresh air.
“You know what I learned when I was like in kindergarten? The worst thing the teacher could do to me – they figured me out after about a week – I was always talking in class. Put your nose on the window and watch the other kids go have recess, see how that feels,” ASU’s head coach Herm Edwards said on Monday. “Cause recess to me, [is the] greatest thing ever invented. Greatest thing ever invented. We get to have recess now. We’re going on the grass. We’re gonna practice. We’re gonna coach football. That’s the fun of it.”
On Wednesday, Edwards finally got to have recess and had some new ideas up his sleeve. To start, Edwards implemented a fire truck siren that goes off to signify the current period is nearing the end of its allotted time, which he believes will help with football’s unpredictable play.
“But you always want to put anxiety on and put a strain on that it happens fast because that’s the game of football,” Edwards said. “I came up with this, and [the media has] probably heard it and was probably like ‘what is that?” It’s the fire engine because the whistle blows, and the horn blows, and [the coaches and players] go, ‘oh, I [got to] go to period six.’ So now what I’m doing is giving them a one-minute warning. So, when you hear the fire engine, you know, I got to end the period because coaches get lost, they lose sight of the time and the period. And so now, the fire engine goes off [and the coaches and players say] ‘oh, I got a minute to get to the next place.’ I don’t want them meandering around. I just want them to always know we got to get to the next period because that’s football. It changes within four to six seconds. A snap can change the whole structure [of the game].”
That unpredictability happened in Wednesday’s practice when redshirt junior quarterback Paul Tyson threw the only interception of the day. Tyson’s ball was picked off at the line of scrimmage by freshman defensive linemen Blazen Lono-Wong. Additionally, it also happened twice with the snaps. Redshirt sophomore offensive linemen Ben Bray’s snap was too low, forcing redshirt junior quarterback Trenton Bourguet to scramble for the ball. Tyson also fumbled redshirt junior Ben Scott’s snap; however, Tyson was under center, and it appeared he dropped it when the ball was in his possession. Overall, during Wednesday’s practice, it appeared that the defense had a better day than the offense, which Edwards argues could have been expected.
“Obviously, the first day of practice, [the] number one concern is no injuries, and we got through it pretty good,” Edwards said. “I thought it was a spirited practice for the most part. But there’s a long way to go just from afar looking at our football team…[the] offense has always struggled versus defenses first couple of practices because they’re behind. And obviously, ours is a little bit behind in the fact that it’s a new system with some new players implemented in that system and that we’re not here in the spring. So you can anticipate that a little bit.”
When ASU acquired newcomers via the transfer portal, they knew there would be competition at almost every position, which can work wonders for a program. However, sometimes a coach needs to decide sooner rather than later to move the team forward, especially amid a quarterback battle.
“I want competition, but some decisions are gonna have to be made because you can’t keep rotating quarterbacks. You got to figure out who’s the guy, and then what are the guys around him,” Edwards said. “The thing we’ve always preached here is about competition. There’s competition at the position, but eventually, we’ll have to make a decision. And when that happens, then we can say, ‘okay, this is the guy.’ This is what it’s gonna look like for him playing quarterback, and the number two guy might be a different offense.”
Despite all of the new personnel at the hands of Edwards and his staff, it’s business as usual for the Sun Devils.
“I think it’s no different than when we first got here. And we said, ‘hey, there’s this guy named [former Arizona State linebacker Darian Butler] and [ASU fifth-year linebacker] Merlin [Robertson], and they’re freshmen, and we’re gonna start them. And everybody looked at us and said, ‘you going to start a freshman?’ So, I don’t worry about that. You play your best players. You can’t say, ‘Well, I gotta wait.’ I learned that a long time ago, the only way you get experience is to play. And there’s gonna be some oh moments. Oh, no moments. Yeah, but hopefully, there’s got it. So that’s just the nature of coaching.”
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