How Herm Edwards, ASU coordinators will play to the team's strengths

Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards is ready for recess. But that doesn't imply his eagerness to get a break in the action, but rather his enthusiasm to return to a full football routine.

“Recess to me is the greatest thing ever invented,” Edwards said during Coaches Media Day at Sun Devil Stadium on Monday. “Greatest thing ever invented!. We get to have recess now. We're going on the grass; we're going to practice; we’re going to coach football. That's the fun of it.”

Preseason camp practices start on Wednesday. Edwards would rather talk about that than how much the transfer portal has affected his team this offseason. “I think every football coach in America is really exhausted about the state of college football,” Edwards said. The start of the season promises at least a temporary end to the bleeding, and how well the Sun Devils play will influence the direction of the program in December.

Edwards fielded questions from reporters for nearly 30 minutes, but his most important answers remain to be vetted out.

ASU needs to make a decision on who its quarterback will be. The passing game needs improvement to stay competitive against conference opponents. The number of penalties must be reduced to prevent drives from stalling and keep the defense off the field. Although Edwards believes he now has “a complete team,” sixteen new starters have to be in sync with each other by Sep. 1.

Perhaps the arrival of Florida transfer quarterback Emory Jones will clarify ASU’s primary dilemma. Edwards praised Jones’ talent and said he appreciates the redshirt junior’s ability to quickly mesh with the team. Jones will wear No. 5, the same digit as Jayden Daniels, but the uniform has not elicited any thoughts of deja vu yet.

But if the coaching staff wants to maximize Jones’ unique skillset as a rusher as they did with Daniels, the sooner they commit to him, the better. As evidenced by Daniels’ shortcomings in 2021, the offense must create a comfortable environment for the passer.

“You only have so many reps, and you have to build the offense around the quarterback,” Edwards stated. “We’ve done enough work, watched enough film, we get it. And we know when you don’t have a quarterback, the field is 150 yards long.”

It certainly felt that way when Daniels could not elevate the offense in the team’s losses last year. When Zak Hill’s scheme worked as intended (see: UCLA), Daniels zipped balls to his receivers in open space and floated deep balls with the same touch that took down a ranked Oregon team during his freshman year. When Daniels had a firm grasp of his responsibilities and opportunities on each play, the offense bloomed.

But the team’s four losses during the regular season, the offense sputtered badly and used a ton of clock to regain their rhythm. Often in those comeback scenarios, it seemed too complicated for Daniels. He lost confidence in his progression and strayed from the pocket. The trust in himself to deliver throws to his downfield playmakers evaporated.

ASU must avoid that mistake and develop the offense to reflect the roster’s talent. While the blame isn’t completely on Daniels, it’s no secret that the quarterback position can elevate the players around him. And Edwards knows the Sun Devils failed to reach their potential in the win column.

“The shame of it all, and I said this numerous times, we played four bad halves,” Edwards said on last season’s struggles. “And that was a pretty good team that we had last year. The opponents we lost to, they deserved to win.”

One of the more solid aspects of the ASU roster is the run game. Edwards anticipates ASU’s philosophy in the ground game to remain unchanged. The talent at the position has filled in nicely following Rachaad White’s departure for the league.

Xazavian Valladay brings a bruising style and two 1,000-yard seasons over from Wyoming. Daniyel Ngata, known for his pinch-hitting runs to spark the offense out of rough patches, is ready for a heavier workload. Freshman Tevin White had a strong spring. George Hart and Deonce Elliott are enticing options in the depth.

“When have we not run?” Edwards implored. “We’ll run the ball. If you can’t run the ball, you can’t win… there’s something about that when you can do that. You know, there's a toughness about that. There's a will about that.”

The other strong area is ASU’s defense. Edwards promoted interim defensive backs coach Donnie Henderson to replace defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce, and the former vowed to keep the system the same. And while Edwards joked Henderson can go off the script with his in-game adjustments, the coaching veteran has stayed true to his word.

“We're single-high, and we want to play cat coverage,” Edwards said. “If we can stop the run and play cat coverage and see what we can do, it worked out pretty good for us last year defensively.”

Edwards also gave a timetable for when he will have a solid grasp of how all the new pieces fit into their respective roles. That date happens to be after the conclusions of their non-conference schedule. That will mark the point of the season where the necessary adjustments will take place.

“We don't quite know what we are,” Edwards said. “We have an idea of what we would like to become. And I've said this earlier, by Week three, we'll have an idea. I'll have an idea of the players that have played, what their strengths are.

“And whatever we have to do offensively to play to their strengths, that's probably going to be the most important thing.”

Where does offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas fit into achieving that vision?

How the Glenn Thomas offense operates and evolves within the structure of a weekly gameplan remains largely in the dark. But as Edwards mentioned, ASU’s third play caller in four years must cater to the strengths of the roster. The play caller gave some more hints on Tuesday about what he will lean on when the team is on the field.

A summary of the scheme

“Well, I've used this answer before, and it's a little cliche. But I think you have to play to your personnel grouping.

“I've been fortunate in my career to play and spread style. I've been obviously in the pro-style system; I've been in a heavy personnel grouping. So I think you can play to your personnel. I think we have a unique skill set here, from a personnel standpoint, that we can play to a little bit of both, right? Like we can play to a 22 personnel where you're getting a fullback and two tight ends. And then you can be in a 12 personnel where you're in two tight ends, or we have enough receivers and enough guys on the perimeter that we can now spread it out.

“So I think that from a defensive perspective gives you give those guys a lot of different looks, and you know, create some more advantages, hopefully on our end.”

Analysis: The best way to stop defenses from figuring out your gameplan is to be unpredictable. Thomas plans to be adaptable on a week-to-week basis and versatile in how he uses his lineup. The eagerness to build different offensive packages for specific calls in the playbook is refreshing, and it should help quell frustrations over playing time which rose to the surface last season.

How multiple tight ends impact the defense

“You start putting two tight ends in the game, not only do you create walking surfaces and more gaps that the defense has to has to account for, but now all of a sudden, they're involved in safeties. Now they're in eight-man spacing, which, you know, you play the game of safeties. Do we take a shot over the top? Do we account for safeties in the run game? It just creates that much more variety that you can do on offense?

“I think you can get creative not only in personnel groupings but also formations within that personnel grouping. that's one thing that we've really been conscious to do take a step back as we self-scouted ourselves from the spring is like, ‘hey, with these personnel groupings, how can we be creative with personnel, maybe create some one-on-ones, create some matchups in anticipation of what they're going to do to us defensively and create some positives.”

Analysis: Thomas knows what type of tight ends he has on the roster. He commended Jalin Conyers as having “the skill set of a receiver, but the mass of a tight end” and described Messiah Swinson as “a big long range target that can run.” They are the most obvious mismatches on the roster. Thomas will employ them often.

The process in choosing a quarterback

“We have to force that issue a little bit, but also give each guy the ample opportunity to show what they can do. So I think you have to be fluid with your rotation, get each guy in there with whatever the personnel grouping is, whatever the situation might be, and show what they can do. So I think we're going to be more aggressive and proactive as far as that's concerned.”

Analysis: This sounds like a decision that will come sooner rather than later. Today marks less than a month until ASU kicks off the 2022 camping facing Northern Arizona. Confirming a quarterback will be a thorough process but one that should not drag on until game week.

What spring transfer Joey Ramos offers the offensive line

“What I'm excited about probably the most of that is that position flexibility. Like you said, he could play tackle, could play guard. Joey's played tackle, and he's played center. I think there's some flexibility that way, which we're excited about.”

Analysis: Out of all the position battles, the offensive line spots are the most critical outside of selecting a quarterback. Ramos has to prove his spot in the lineup, but he’s an intriguing chess piece. ASU could decide to play him at different positions each week, kind of like Texas A&M did with 2022 first-round choice Kenyon Green.

How will Donnie Henderson keep the No. 1 Pac-12 defense on top?

Henderson was resolute to spend less time drawing up new plays and more time developing the players on the field. He said he changed one word from Pierce’s model. Henderson’s direct, no-nonsense manner suggests he wasn’t overexaggerating, either.

The dialogue may be unmodified, but that does not mean Henderson will not implement some of his own flavor as a play caller.

Bringing the heat

“If you mess up at the line of scrimmage, it's gonna be a touchdown. But but you can't handcuff yourself. You got to be aggressive. I mean, that's what this game is all about. You got to be able to match up. You got to be able to understand what your opponent is doing. And, you got to have a little bit of that behind you where you can bring it every now and then. You know, we didn't blitz a lot around here last year. You might see a little bit more from me.”

Analysis: Henderson is correct. ASU’s linebackers mostly played the hook-curl zones in coverage and focused on keeping the backfield in front of them. Henderson wants to accelerate the quarterback’s clock more. That might complement Merlin Robertson’s physical playstyle better and create more sack opportunities for the senior.

Ensuring his instruction resonates with the players

“Different guys respond different ways, obviously. For the most part, when you keep it 100, as the kids call it, they're okay. You know, just give it to me straight, try not try not to cuss me. I believe in giving directions and not corrections. What I mean by that is, when you make a mistake as an athlete, you didn't try to make that mistake. So what I don't want to do is start asking you why it happened. Because you don't know. So my point is, instead of getting into all those conversations, I'm this guy: ‘Next time, do this. Just do this next time, and you'll be fine.’”

Analysis: At age 65, Henderson has a pretty significant age gap between him and the ASU players. He understands that he might not be able to relate to the players in the same fashion that young staff members will, but he can still make his style of teaching effective by studying their learning style. It is clear Henderson has put a lot of thought into facilitating results and improvement. It bodes well for clearing up last year’s discipline issues.

On what a successful on-field product looks like

“I think it goes back to being able to line up, being confident enough that you know what to do, and you play hard. I see that in our guys. I really do. There are some times, you know, some guys might say, ‘what's the call or what am I supposed to do?’ I get that. But overall, yeah.”

Analysis: Henderson outlined the path to playing time. There’s no favoritism, which ASU might have fallen victim to under Pierce at times. Henderson wants his players to do the little things correctly and use their brains in conjunction with their body.

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