As Arizona State football returned to the valley from Camp Tontozona, the sweltering temperatures naturally ramped up the intensity of practice. As the team edges closer to kicking off the 2024 season, the margin for error in the minor details is becoming more finite by the practice.
During Monday's session, the importance of improvement was not lost on the players, and when snaps went sideways on both sides of the ball, tempers flared with pushing and shoving incidents toward the tail end of contact segments.
For Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham, the added intensity and effort are positive signs. However, he wants his team to respond better to adversity, positively directing the team’s passion in a positive direction rather than lashing out.
“Good energy,” Dillingham said to lead off Monday's post-practice comments. “You’re tired it's hot, and the first thing that goes is your mind. When you get your butt beat, is your first response to fight to show how tough I am? That's not a good response.
“When we start getting chippy in fights because you get your butt kicked, you’re a coward.”
A significant reason as to why this practice intensity was high is due to the large amount of position battles all across the board. Following Saturday's scrimmage at Camp Tontozona, only a few spots are solidified for the week one contest against Wyoming, as Dillingham is still figuring out who he can rely on the most to take the field on the first-team unit.
“Those position battles you look at, are they productive?” Dillingham noted. “Do you trust that they're not going to make critical mistakes? What I can't live with is somebody playing the wrong coverage in the game online. I think that's what you really look for, what separates you is one, who are the best players, and two, who do you trust?
“Trust shows up in the classroom. It shows up in the meeting rooms. It shows up on the field. Shows up everywhere. Who do you trust with your football team?”
Dillingham understands that rotating constantly is a necessary part of the game for certain positions, and the tight end position fits that description for ASU. He has found a core group of versatile tight ends who can be mixed and matched due to their strength as blockers, as well as speed and skill, to be a valuable target.
“I've been pleasantly surprised with those three guys that we've brought in,” Dillingham said about his tight ends. “Chamon [Metayer] has been a huge get for us; Markeston [Douglas] has been a huge get for us. “Both guys are physical blockers at the point of attack, when you can block at tight end, it gives you an entirely new dynamic. You’re getting a competitive advantage because every defensive coordinator is going to say ‘My defensive end better not be blocked by your tight end,’ that gives you an advantage schematically.”
With the Sun Devil players battling hard to stamp their name on the depth chart, the quarterback position moved backward on Monday's practice. Dillingham was not pleased with the decision-making his guys made in the pocket.
“Not good,” Dillingham said about Monday's quarterback play. “Today was the worst play of quarterback play we’ve had. Missed too many throws, and held the ball in the pocket. We took sacks in a [Team tempo] series from the (ASU) logo. You can’t take sacks from the logo, if you are taking sacks we can’t be aggressive it completely changes the entire dynamic of the drive when you make it second and long. It's a learning experience and I have to coach it better because it happened with multiple guys it's a me problem.
Following a lively and entertaining scrimmage, Dillingham now feels the small details that this session and others preceding it need to be addressed.
“It was explosive,” Dillingham said. “It was back and forth. That's the best way I would describe it, is explosive plays on offense, explosive plays on defense. We got to be able to get off the field on third downs on defense. That's why we stressed second downs into third downs today in practice. Our [first team] defense rose up.
“That's a huge progress from the scrimmage because in the scrimmage they struggled with those third downs getting off the field.”
Defensively ASU’s head coach feels the depth at multiple positions will showcase a stout unit this upcoming season. Following a plethora of injuries and woes throughout the 2023 season, having depth in all the right places is a luxury Dillingham won’t take for granted. He plays his defensive backs in different coverages, lining up safety Shamari Simmons, for example, at nickel back, having various players build familiarity across the board.
“We have a really good group of six guys back there that we feel good about,” he claimed. “We're just trying to mix a match, get different people on the field, cross-trained. So, if somebody gets a bruise or somebody twists an ankle, we can put our best 11 on the field and utilize different personnel groupings on third downs and two-minute drills by cross-training guys at different positions.”
Monday's practice highlighted the importance of every player on the Sun Devil roster proving their contribution level to the team. Dillingham and his staff feel as if this team is full of starting caliber players who happen to be reserves in some cases, which is a great dilemma to try and solve in terms of number of snaps moving forward.
“I think when you're doing position battles with the third offensive tackle,” Dillingham described, “and the fourth nickel or the top 10 defensive linemen they're all starters they're all going to roll and play so that it's just who takes the field first.”
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