When Arizona State selected its captains ahead of the 2020 season last week, it became abundantly clear that the leadership of the Sun Devil defense lies within the linebacker corps.
The position group, led by co-defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator Antonio Pierce, is the only group to have two players chosen for captaincies this fall. The first of those players, junior linebacker Darien Butler will retain his title and role as captain which he first adopted last year. The other linebacker wearing a ‘C’ on his jersey this season will be redshirt junior Kyle Soelle, who gained valuable playing time last year operating as Pierce’s ‘fourth man’ option at the position. The pair of linebackers are the only captains on the defensive side of the ball.
Senior wide receiver Frank Darby, sophomore quarterback Jayden Daniels and sophomore fullback Chase Hatch round out the list of the team captain quintet.
The Sun Devil linebackers didn’t have the most formidable campaign in 2019, not meeting the expectations which Pierce and the rest of the unit had hoped for. Former defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales’ 3-3-5 defense was notorious for tripping up linebackers, taking them away from the line of scrimmage and emphasizing their role of pass coverage.
With the new-look 2020 defense now in the hands of Pierce and his co-defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, ASU will begin with a base scheme of a 4-3-4, with the potential to shift to a flexible, evolving system of schemes that are driven by the looks of opposing personnel, something the pair of coordinators learned during their several years of coaching and playing in the NFL.
“You’ll see multiple formations, multiple personnel groups,” Pierce said in an interview on the Maroon Monson radio show last week. “You’ll see four down (lineman). You’ll see three down. You’ll see five DBs. You’ll see six. You’ll see four linebackers. We will be based off of our personnel, what’s available to help us win for that week. I think the key part about it when you come back with the résumé of myself and Marvin and Herm’s (Edwards) … in the NFL, you adapt. Each week you adapt. You just don’t stay stagnant.”
For Pierce’s linebackers, in a position room that has no seniors, captains Butler and Soelle, along with junior counterpart and 2018 Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year, Merlin Robertson, will be asked to spearhead ASU’s fresh approach on defense.
In a 2019 season where the Sun Devil linebackers struggled at times, Butler, who led the team with 90 tackles, was a notable outlier. The now-junior has started all but one game since arriving in Tempe ahead of the 2018 season and was named the first true sophomore captain in program history ahead of last year’s season opener. Now, as the only returning, Butler remains more focused and committed to his improvement than ever before.
“He’s one of the first guys in the building and last guys in the building…he’s a hard worker, blue-collar, just does things the right way,” Pierce told Devils Digest of Butler. “(His commitment and drive) reflects over the last two years on our defense how we’ve played…. since day one, he’s been the rock of what we’ve built here defensively.”
One of the few ways ASU’s 3-3-5 look from 2019 paid off was defending against the run, as the Sun Devils finished the season 21st nationally in allowing just 116.8 rushing yards per game, the best ranking of ASU’s regular-season run-stopping since 2009.
However, Butler particularly excelled when defending the middle of the field. Standing just short of 6-foot, Butler’s size is not typical of a stalwart middle linebacker. Nonetheless, he played the ‘Mike’ position well, while also contributing at outside linebacker. With the assignment of ambiguity within his position group and his lack of physical size, Butler’s tasks were at times, bursting at the seams; however, the challenge only helped Butler diversify his skills as a linebacker.
“He tremendously improved on and is still improving in his pass coverage,” Pierce explained. “The way he drops and gets in (coverage), being very physical re-routing wide receivers and tight ends, he’s just a physical presence. There are not too many guys who run across the middle on us looking for number 20 now.”
Butler, who wore the No. 37 jersey last season, will switch to wear the No. 20, previously worn by 2019 senior Khaylan Kearse-Thomas, whose absence could be felt among the Sun Devil defense this season. Kearse-Thomas, an effective pass rusher and capable player in pass coverage racked up 66 tackles and 4.5 sacks last season, good enough for fourth and second among all ASU defenders, respectively.
Filling in the void left by Kearse-Thomas will be the other linebacker selected for a captain slot, local Scottsdale Saguaro product Kyle Soelle. He provided solid performances in 2018, where he recorded 15 tackles, three tackles for loss, and two sacks. A year later, he recorded 20 tackles, two of them for losses along with a singular sack. During this two-year period, Soelle ascended Pierce’s depth chart, demonstrating his high football IQ, ability to avoid mistakes, and the utmost commitment to improving his own game.
“He just does everything right,” Pierce said of Soelle. “There are just key moments where you watch him play, and you are like, ‘Wow! Who was that? Oh, it’s Kyle Soelle.’ There’s a lot of times where you don’t know anything about him because he does his job it goes unnoticed.”
Soelle’s gradual improvement landed him a job as Pierce’s “fourth man” of the group in 2019, behind Kearse-Thomas, Butler, and Robertson. As a more technical than athletic type-player, Soelle honed his knowledge of the intricacies of ASU’s defense and capitalized on that skill to catalyze his success. In the role, Soelle fulfilled much of what he was tasked with, particularly serving as a run-stopper filling gaps on the line of scrimmage.
“He’s always been my ‘plumber,’ that’s what I call it,” Pierce described. “He always fixes things; if there’s a problem, I can throw him in there, and he fixes it real quick.”
However, Soelle’s efforts weren’t just noticed by the coaching staff. His impact on the field also carried over to his peers.
“He’s really smart,” Kearse-Thomas said of Soelle in an interview with Devils Digest last August. “He doesn’t waste any time, space. His footwork, everything is great. He’s really technical. If you do everything right, it shows -- and that’s one guy, he does everything right.”
Soelle, who this season is slated to start for the first time in his ASU career, received high praise from Pierce, who was a captain of the New York Giants during his nine-year NFL career, regarding his selection as a captain for the upcoming season.
“Kyle is what we are all about here as a program,” Pierce explained. “He earned his stripes the right way: through hard work, through dedication in the weight room, on and off the field, in the classroom. He just does everything right; you couldn’t ask for anybody better to represent what a captain should look like, especially being a hometown hero.”
Soelle, who hails from Scottsdale, won a state title in 2016 with Saguaro playing both sides of the ball; tight end on offense, a linebacker on defense. Soelle and his high school teammate, Jared Poplawski, now a junior tight end at Colorado, formed a tight end duo that catapulted Saguaro down the path to championship success. Now a redshirt junior at ASU, Soelle must operate as a part of a trio, alongside Robertson and Butler.
Robertson, who suffered a proverbial sophomore slump last year, worked diligently over the offseason, cutting weight and getting his conditioning right in an effort to bounce back to surpass the heights he achieved his freshman year.
As a unit, the trio of linebackers haven’t played together much in-game; however, their reps working together have increased over time in practice. Butler and Robertson already enjoy a close connection with one another, a connection which reaches back to their days competing against each other in high school in Southern California.
Now with Soelle added to the starting group, the trio of the Sun Devil linebackers, who are all juniors (Soelle being a redshirt junior) and have come up in the program together, must continue to mesh with one another on and off the field, if they are to excel this fall. Pierce is confident in his three starters’ abilities to significantly elevate the collective level of the unit.
“They talk my language, they see things through my eyes as well,” Pierce stated. “Very quickly, I can look at them with a hand signal or a gesture, and they know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s been good to watch the three of them grow together.”
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