For the tight end group and its position coach, Jason Mohns, attention to detail and a desire to improve stand out above everything else. He believes that the intensity and effort exhibited by his players will set them apart and make them a potent unit.

“Scheme is great, but everybody has a good scheme,” Mohns noted. “I think that what makes a good scheme great is the level of attention to detail, the level of speed and physicality that the players play it with. Doing your job as fast as you can do it, as efficiently as you can do it. So, yeah, that's a big deal for us.

“Then tight end, it's a physical position. if you approach the tight end position like you're a big receiver and all you want to do is catch balls and you don't take pride in the physicality of the position, it's going to be hard to get on the field in this offense.”

Mohns certainly understands what it takes to win. As the head coach at Scottsdale Saguaro, he reached elite levels of excellence, winning seven state championship titles in 11 seasons, including six in a row from 2013 to 2018. While at the helm, the Sabercats had an eye-popping 123-19 record and produced NFL players such as Christian Kirk, as well as several notable power conference college players throughout the years.

Mohns knows the importance of loving the sport and being dedicated to the craft while continuously improving. This is a significant ingredient in success, and it is an aspect he has seen from the tight-end group this season.

“It's like the NFL,” Mohns commented about college football.” They call it the ‘Not For Long League’ because if you don't do your job, you don't show up and do the things you're supposed to do, you don't stick around long, and you know college football is similar.

“You have to be dialed in. The commitment to the grind is just way too much. You can't be a casual Division One college football player. You have to be all in. So I think for us, there's more emphasis on taking these guys that really are starting to take on the mentality of being a professional and getting them to buy in to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

During Saturday's practice, the tight end group impressed Mohns, as the tempo and effort showed were up to the standard that he expected. Therefore, he enjoyed seeing his group go up against different defensive schemes than what they’d been practicing against for the entirety of fall camp.

“This was fun,” Mohns said, smiling. “Because it was our first game plan practice. We've been going against Arizona State (defense) for a long time, so it's good to see some Wyoming (scheme) now and start talking about planning for a specific opponent and diving in. So, this was kind of like a mock run at a typical Tuesday practice where we're diving into our game plan.

“For a day like today, we said, ‘We're going to make mistakes. We're seeing a new look for the first time.’ So as we throw everything up on the board and we start putting some stuff on film, we're not going to get hung up on the previous play. We're going to fix it, tighten the screws, and get better. The main thing that we're going to focus on is our effort, our strain, our feeling,”

One player who has proven to give the effort and set the standard during fall camp is Colorado tight end transfer Chamon Metayer. Despite the fact that Metayer only arrived post-spring practice, he is expected to be one of the premier players in the tight end group, and he hasn’t taken his starting position for granted.

“I think guys have started rallying around him,” Mohns noted. “He's got a great attitude. He brings tremendous juice to the practice. He just has a little bit of an aura about him. When your best players are your hardest workers, your most physical guys, or they're most dialed in to doing their job and putting in work behind the scenes, guys rally around that. So that's what we're asking a lot of him is not just to be great in our room.

“When Chamon came in and settled in, I think one of the things that impressed me the most about him is how quickly he picked up the scheme. He's a very sharp kid, and he's a high football IQ kid. He's a high-IQ kid in general. But once he kind of got his feet wet and started getting comfortable and had the opportunity to get out, I felt like he elevated everybody around him. His level of speed, intensity, and physicality that he was playing with and making plays on the ball. Everybody else was like, ‘Oh man, this dude's, this dude's big time. He's real.’”

The position room overall showed positive levels of togetherness before week one, something Mohns is particularly pleased about. This unit has a versatile makeup of players who will need to be utilized throughout a long season.

“Their skill sets are different,” Mohns explained. “I think they all complement each other very well, which is good for us because we are all going to play a ton. I feel like this team specifically has really bought into that, and that's what's exciting is they're all professionals. They're all about their craft and all about their business, but they're buying into the guys around them and playing for the guy next to him.”

Being bought in on this Sun Devil team carries an even more special meaning for Mohns, an Arizona State alumnus and Valley of the Sun native. His love and passion for this ASU program have existed for decades now, and he feels fortunate to have a role in coaching one of its position groups.

“When something means everything to you, it's not hard to go all in on it,” Mohns exclaimed. “My dad coached here; my mom was a cheerleader here. I graduated from here. My wife graduated from here. I grew up coming to games. So, this wasn't hard for me to buy into.

“It was a dream come true to get this opportunity not only to make the jump to the college level but more specifically to be here at Arizona State with the right people, and I think that was the biggest thing for me is the group of people that I came in with is what really made it special.”

Join your fellow Sun Devil fans on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle, run by the longest-tenured Sun Devil sports beat writer, to discuss this article and other ASU football, basketball, and recruiting topics. Not a member yet? Sign up today and get your daily fix of Sun Devil news!