With ASU’s 30-7 victory over Kent State now four days in the rearview mirror, the Sun Devil coaching staff has had ample time to evaluate film and digest everything that went on in the season-opening victory. By game time, few people knew what to expect due to some last-minute personnel issues that caused the team to make roster decisions on the fly in the days and even hours leading up to Thursday night’s game.

All things considered; it was a strong result for the Sun Devils even if the score could’ve been much closer. Head coach Herm Edwards and offensive coordinator Rob Likens delved into what they felt went well and what needs work, amongst other topics, during Monday afternoon’s press conferences.

Likens and Edwards satisfied with debuts of quarterback Jayden Daniels, center Dohnovan West

The question of if Daniels and West are the first true freshman quarterback-center duo to start opening week for a team remains unanswered. But then again, nobody has found a previous example of such instance, so that means they probably are, right?

Whether or not the two rewrote college football history in their debuts, Edwards and Likens both stated their satisfaction with how the team’s only two true freshmen to start week one played. West in particular, given that he didn’t know he would see the field until days before the game, let alone start.

“During the game, I had thought that (West) was getting beat in certain things and he wasn’t,” Likens commented. “I watched the film and I thought for a freshman, for his situation and what he did, we couldn’t have asked for anything better than what he did, that was absolutely amazing. I now have so much faith in that kid, I don’t look at him as a liability or anything like that at all. I look at him as a plus and I look at him as a future all-conference center, I really do, that was amazing.

“His understanding of leverage, his understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish on that play and his body position shows you how smart the kid is, so he’s going to be a tremendous player and he’s doing a great job right now, so we’re very very excited.”

Edwards echoed a similar sentiment regarding the former three-star recruit out of Bishop Alemany high school in Mission Hills, California.

“He did a really good job as far as protection goes, as far as moving people, he’s very competitive. Guys, think about this, you got a freshman quarterback- knock on wood now,” Edwards said as he proceeded to knock on the table, “and a freshman center, there wasn’t any bad handoffs. There was no bad snaps…that’s the first thing you worry about. He was very comfortable.”

Upon the news of starting senior center Cade Cote breaking his foot, there were thoughts of possibly moving senior Cohl Cabral back from left tackle to center, the position he played all of last season. But apparently, the thought was very fleeting.

“No thoughts at all about moving him,” Edwards said. “There was a conversation, but then we’d go ‘well now he’s practiced there all season, and now we’re going to move him back.’ We just said ‘the guy of the future is (West), so let’s let him play…’ we saw that (he was comfortable) in practice…I got to the point I said ‘just start him, don’t mess around just start the kid and let him play,’ and he did a really good job.”

As for the guy he was snapping to, Edwards also felt good about what Daniels showed in his debut, although noted areas that he hopes to see improvement going into Friday night’s week two game.

“He did ok,” Edwards said of the freshman signal-caller. “There’s probably a couple throws he wishes he could take back, maybe look down the field a little bit more. But the thing I like about Jayden is he’s willing to take a profit, he’s going to take a profit, he’s going to get the ball out of his hand and keep the chains moving, it’s hard to teach quarterbacks that. That’s a little bit of his DNA like if it’s not there I’m going to take what they give me, he’s patient that way. He made a really nice throw to Frank down the boundary there.”

Expanding on his answer, Edwards noted the importance of being able to stretch the field so that other teams won’t stack the box to stop the run.

“There’s some more plays we need to make, obviously down the field because I feel like we’ve got some receivers with some speed,” Edwards said, “to get the defense- push them back some because they’re crowding the line of scrimmage right now, they want to stop the run which we said they were going to do and they did a good job in the first half, and then obviously in the second half we made some adjustments and ran the ball a little bit better.”

Coaches impressed by numerous other freshmen who will aid to rotate players

In total, ASU ended up playing 15 true freshmen and 10 redshirt freshmen in their season-opener between offense, defense, and special teams.

Anyone who’s heard Edwards speak on the subject before would not be surprised by that stat, as one of his go-to phrases is “the best players play.” Still, it’s nothing short of a refreshing change in philosophy for those who were following ASU as recently as two years ago, when previous head coach Todd Graham was known for keeping in the same 11 players on defense for the majority of games with few substitutions, especially considering its effectiveness in week one.

“We need a rotation,” Edwards said, specifically when asked about the secondary. “We play five guys as starters, so we’re going to play 10-12 guys back there. Now they got to play on special teams too, but we’d like to get a rotation going with the corners and the safeties, and in today’s world because of these speed-up offenses, and everybody wants to go fast, the more athletes you have back there, and you don’t go from one level of athleticism to dropping- now some of them don’t have experience, but as they grow- and I keep saying this, we’re trying to build a team, so you got to let them play, and all I know is this: a year from now, we’re going to be a lot better because these guys are playing.”

Edwards believes there’s a reason this trend of true freshmen playing has not only been evident at ASU, but at college programs across the country.

“I think most young guys now are used to the pressure of playing in big moments,” Edwards said. “High school games now are all on television, some of these guys come out of really good programs, quarterbacks especially, they throw the ball so much now it’s just human nature, and a lot of the offenses kind of fit what they did in high school. Now the speed of the game changes on them, but athletic ability, they have that, and I think more coaches now are going ‘look if he’s the best player, then you need to play the guy,’ and you live with the inexperience of it.

“Going forward, if that is your future, the quicker you can play that guy- you see it in the NFL. It used to be, back in the day, you didn’t think about starting a rookie quarterback, they sat on the bench for two or three years. Well now, they come in and the offenses really are tailored to a lot of these guys strengths…you put them in a comfortable situation, where you’re not asking them to do a lot, and they flourish. As you continue to play, they grow, can you imagine where they’ll be in their second year?”

Similarly, Likens was content with the play of West, Daniels and true freshman Ethan Long, who he noted, out of the three of them, two would be the first ones to touch the ball on each offensive snap.

He also liked what he saw from the three other true freshmen on offense that played snaps, seeing action on special teams as well.

“I thought (receiver) Ricky Pearsall exceeded my expectations, he was very physical, he threw his body around, he was blocking, he’s just a tough kid,” Likens said. “Some guys respond in games a little bit different than others. I saw (receiver) Jordan Kerley’s speed out there- I don’t know about you guys but it was obvious that he’s one of the fastest guys we have. So, I saw that he made a few freshmen, first game mistakes, which happens to all of them, you expect that. That’s why I said Jordan kind of exceeded my expectations because I didn’t see that, he didn’t play like it was his first game, he played like kind of a vet, so I was proud of that.

“(Tight end) Nolan (Matthews) I thought- one thing that we thought about Nolan when he got here was he was a tremendous athlete, he was really going to help us in the pass game, but would he be that physical presence that we need at that position at times? And you saw him, as the game went on, get more and more confident. The touchdown drive right after the start of the third quarter, if you go back and watch the play right before the touchdown, him and Dohnovan drove their guys about five or six yards back into the end zone and knocked them on the ground, and then he kind of got up and you could see ok, yeah he was feeling himself a little bit there, and that’s what we’re looking for, so we’re looking for him to build on that this week.”

Room for improvement on the offensive line, special teams

Although the true freshman that played impressed for the most part, the coaches aren’t fooling themselves in the fact that they need to make improvements on the offensive line and special teams ahead of Friday night’s matchup against Sacramento State.

“We’re still trying to improve,” Edwards said of the offensive line. “When you got that many moving pieces, you lose your center two days before and now the rookie center has to play, the freshman…you’re trying to get the guard situation established and you got to move somebody that was playing center, now you got to move him to guard, so all of that’s part of it.

“I think the more we see of things and the more we can play together we do know this, the center’s the center now, unless he gets hurt he’s the center, he’s going to be the guy playing, and so I think all the positions are set for the most part, and now we got to continue to build on that.”

As far as special teams, Edwards was pleased with how sophomore kicker Cristian Zendejas responded to being thrown into the game only hours before, and was even more satisfied with the play of sophomore punter Michael Turk.

“Zendejas, he doesn’t know until we go to warm-ups,” Edwards noted. “The other kid, (freshman Josh) Plaster, I said ‘you’re kicking off,’ and that’s how it went, and they went in there and kicked the ball and did a great job.

“(Turk), you saw it in practice, I just wanted to see if he was going to do it in a game and low and behold he did it in the game, it was fun to watch. That changes the field, there’s no doubt when you get into a defensive game, which is kind of was in the first half- it was only 10-0- you need to trade field position when you’re stuck, we were stuck a couple of times, he got it back inside their 20…that changes field position, that’s invaluable in a football game.”

However, he said the coverage units weren’t perfect, which is something he attributes to youth.

“A lot of it was youth, the coverage team was the one,” Edwards said when asked about what needed to improve there. “The punt return situation was pretty good, and then toward the end there we needed to field a punt rather than let it hit the ground, they downed the ball in deep territory…it’s just the mechanics of the first game.”