The 2020 Arizona State football team will have a huge void at the wide receiver position as two of its two leading receivers from last season, Brandon Aiyuk and Kyle Williams, have graduated. A quartet of four-star high school prospects such as LV Bunkley-Shelton and Johnny Wilson were brought in to potentially serve as replacements, creating a fierce competition with returning wideouts such as sophomore Ricky Pearsall.

Pearsall welcomes the competition and has manifested that attitude early on in preseason practices.

“You know me,” Pearsall said. “I’m a competitor, so it’s nothing new to me. I just go out there with the same mindset, and I’m going to work my butt off every single day. Obviously, credit to all the young receivers coming in. They make me work really hard, too, just seeing them. Obviously, Johnny and LV and all the new receivers that came in are looking really good, and they’re going to help our offense tremendously.”

Pearsall stated that the current battle for playing time between the wide receivers has been intense.

“It’s high energy,” Pearsall noted. “We’re all going at it in the film room, out on the field. It doesn’t really matter. Just competition. It’s nothing new for any of us.”

In addition to competing for playing time, Pearsall is tasked with learning a new offense under coordinator Zak Hill, who was hired to replace Pearsall’s freshman year offensive coordinator, Rob Likens. This could have been viewed as another burden to shoulder, yet Pearsall's excitement for an innovative scheme had made him anything but apprehensive these days.

“My favorite part is just how much we throw the ball,” Pearsall described. “I just think we’re very unpredictable in our offense. I’m just really excited to run this offense, and Hill’s really excited, and the whole staff is just really excited to run this offense and see what we can do.”

Pearsall said the new ASU offensive scheme will bewilder opposing defenses and has even frustrated that unit for the Sun Devils in practice.

“I feel like this offense confuses a lot of defenses,” Pearsall explained. “A few players actually came up to me in the locker room and was like; I hate your guys’ offense. It makes us move so much because we have so many shifts, so many different motions. We’re unpredictable in a sense.”

ASU was fortunate to have had more spring practices (seven in total) than any other Pac-12 team in 2020. In addition to a longer than expected offseason, those sessions helped Pearsall and the rest of the offensive unit hone on the schemes they will be executing this year.

“It’s really complex,” Pearsall admitted. “All those meetings and stuff helped tremendously for all of us. Having … coach Hill actually go over and explain everything was really helpful and beneficial to all of us.”

Another staff member who Pearsall credited with his comprehension of Hill’s approach is co-wide receivers’ coach Prentice Gill. Gill joined ASU’s coaching staff in December after a year at Oregon as an offensive analyst following three seasons as a graduate assistant at Southern California.

“He’s helped everybody so much so far,” Pearsall remarked. “For me, from last year, I’ve improved so much because of coach P. He’s come in. He put his foot down early and let us all know how it’s going to work, and he’s a great receiver coach. He’s really technical with everybody. I really like that. That really improved my game.

”He’s big on coverages. Reading the coverages before the pre-snap. He’s helped so many other receivers. Like Frank (Darby) has improved tremendously. Just everybody and even the new receivers that are coming in, just to have coach P as a coach as a new receiver would help so much.”

The other co-wide receivers’ coach on staff is former ASU standout, Derek Hagan. Hagan was hired as an offensive analyst in 2018 before being elevated to his current role at the end of last season.

During his time as a Sun Devil wide receiver from 2002-2005, Hagan had three straight 1,000 yard seasons and was the Pac-12’s all-time leader in receptions when he graduated. Hagan, a third-round pick of the Miami Dolphins in 2006, spent nine years in the NFL with seven teams.

Pearsall said Hagan’s professional experience is an added bonus to his coaching.

“Now that he’s more involved and stuff like that, he’s helped tremendously,” Pearsall stated. “He’s like the same as coach P, but he has experience in the NFL too, so that helps a lot too for us. He explains what it’s like to be a pro.”

Monday was the first time the Sun Devils put on shoulder pads since spring practice back in March, which, according to Pearsall, elevated the vibe of practice to a new level.

“The energy out there was just different,” Pearsall explained. “Having a helmet on, the shoulder pads … it’s definitely a big excitement for all of us. We’re just excited for our first game.”

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