In my own words: Isaia Glass
Sun Devil legacy players are somewhat rare on ASU rosters but are always a neat proverbial feather in a recruiting class cap. Queen Creek offensive lineman Isaia Glass, son of Paul Glass, an Arizona State defensive lineman from 2000-01, is one such player. The incoming freshman details his playing career and what is meant for the hometown team to pursue him.
“The first time I remember picking up a football is when I was probably in kindergarten. My dad played football, and in my household, me and my siblings were all kind of pushed to play sports. I was more drawn to football, and obviously, my parents saw that, and they pushed me back into playing it. The first positions I played were probably linebacker and running back.
“I first started out playing flag [football] for the longest time. Up until the end of fifth grade, start of sixth grade. And then I started tackle football going into sixth grade. I don’t remember my first highlight, but I actually remember there was some really big kid on the other team that was way bigger than me, and I pretty much just laid him out. I played quarterback, too, when I was younger and had a bunch of rushing touchdowns, but nothing too crazy when I was younger.
“Sticking to the offensive line didn’t come until my junior year of high school. Freshman year, I only played on the freshman [team]. I was a tight end and defensive end, and then my sophomore year, I got pulled up and started on the defensive line for the whole year and was also a backup tight end. I would say about halfway through the season, our left guard got injured, and the coach decided to put me there to start for him. Then going into my junior year, I was going to move back to tight end obviously because that was what I wanted to play, but coach just talked to me about playing left tackle for them. I did that, and after our last regular season game of my junior season, then I got an offer to Washington State, and that kind of solidified for me playing on the offensive line.
“Being able to be a scholarship player in college was always in the back of my mind as was what I was going to do, regardless of how I got there. I would say I knew that was possible in my sophomore year when I was on varsity and with my size. I started to get a decent amount of looks just from colleges here and there, a lot of (recruiting) action on Twitter, but like I said, it was kind of always in the back of my mind that I was going to do that. I just wasn’t sure how I was going to get there. At the end of my junior year, my first opportunity came (Washington State offer).
“It wasn’t too hard sticking with the offensive line position and getting adjusted to it. Throughout high school, my tight ends coach kind of joked around that I was an offensive lineman, and I shrugged it off like ‘whatever, I’m not an offensive lineman,’ but when they told me, I was kind of like, ‘ah man; my dad knows what he’s talking about.’ I fully embraced it, and I’ve been loving it ever since. It helps that I played some on the defensive line. Watching film on defensive linemen, I know a little bit of what to look for and know the different moves they have here and there. Obviously, they are trying to set up offensive linemen, so it definitely helped a little bit.
“The first time I was contacted by Arizona State…it was spread out. My sophomore year, I was invited to a junior day by them, and then my junior year, I got invited to an unofficial visit during their game against USC. They were actually my last offer. They came into it pretty late, but then they recruited me super hard when they did offer me. It wasn’t automatic right when they offered me, but obviously, I ended up going there. I definitely thought it was the right place for me.
“After junior day, I think (offensive analyst) coach (Kevin) Mawae was who invited me to that unofficial visit to the USC game. When they offered me, it was (graduate assistant) coach Adam Breneman and coach Mawae were the main coaches I talked to throughout the ASU recruiting process. Me and coach Breneman…he’s definitely my guy. I think that ASU has definitely using him to spark recruiting. He’s young. He played tight end, and he’s still fresh. He can really connect and relate to the players, and overall, Breneman is a cool dude and cool coach.
“I was never too worried about ASU not offering me earlier. I had a decent amount of scholarship offers, so it is what it is. They came into the game late, and they explained themselves. At the end of the day, it’s a business, and I understood that. They understood that I understood that, and you know I wasn’t going to hold a grudge or anything.
“My dad being a Sun Devil, wasn’t bummed they didn’t offer sooner, maybe a little surprised. At the end of the day, we weren’t worried about it too much. We were going to work with what we had. I was probably more excited about the ASU offer. My dad doesn’t show too much emotion, and he was pretty chill about it. But I was pretty excited when I got it.
“I never thought about committing to ASU right after I got that offer. When I got it, I was definitely grateful for it, but it wasn’t like an automatic ‘I’m going to go there.’ They recruited me hard, and it was still a hard decision even until my last few schools, it was pretty hard. I just kept going back and going through pros and cons, and it ended up coming down to ASU.
“Besides the obvious of staying close to home and being close to family and friends, I would say a big thing that made me commit there is the coaching staff. Obviously, everyone knows my goal is the NFL, and they have a ton of NFL caliber coaches, and that was something that was pretty important. The program was definitely really good and something that I wanted to be a part of.
“Being recruited during COVID definitely had an effect on my official visits because I wasn’t able to take any. But, I’ve already seen ASU’s facilities, and I was pretty comfortable with what they had, and I already knew it all. But, I did take a decent amount of trips on my own with my family to go visit other schools even though I couldn’t talk to coaches or see inside their facilities, but we did that just to get a good gist of what schools look like in and the college towns or whatever.
“The ASU coaches liked my athleticism and my length the most. Obviously, I was playing at a pretty light weight, so I was able to move pretty well,
I kind of fluctuate with my weight, but I’ll go in around 260. They said they want me to come in (the spring) around 260, with the goal of being 270 by the fall. I feel like that’s pretty achievable, but I’ll do whatever. If they tell me if I need to add more weight in a faster time. Watching my film, I was still pretty raw, but I was still trying to finish plays and dominate whoever I was going against. The ASU coaches definitely saw that, and I think that they feel they can fix me up and apply that when I get to ASU.
“When I watched the games this year, I would say I was probably focusing on the left tackle the most. Watching him (Kellen Diesch) and seeing what he, for example, would play like was really good, especially what to expect physically. I think in all their games, they killed it in the run game. Obviously, pass pro, I think, was pretty good. I was excited watching the games, and they were doing a lot of pulling, a lot of outside and inside zone, and it was cool to watch.
“I wasn’t really planning on graduating high school early. The ASU coaches talked to my counselor to see if it was possible, and my counselor’s put together a schedule for me to do work and do extra online work to try to graduate early. So, I was taking a few online classes and balancing that with football season and my regular classes. The only reason to not want to graduate early is because you want to finish out high school, which I guess is good and all, but I think the benefits of graduating early are you get in there (to college) and can start working out early, get bigger and get used to college.
“When I get to ASU, I will work on getting to my playing weight. I’m a little undersized, weight-wise, but I’m still looking to put on good weight, and then when I do put on good weight, get stronger and try to compete for a spot. I’m trying to make an impact there, and if things work out, hopefully, go to the league, but I have to start with earning a spot first.”
(Gabe Swartz contributed to this article)
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