On an ASU staff that highly values recruiting competencies, no single coach exemplifies that approach more than tight ends coach Adam Breneman. His meteoric rise since arriving in Tempe less than a year ago as a graduate assistant and quickly being elevated to the tight ends position coach has been remarkable as much as his recruiting abilities in this 2021 class. We caught up with Breneman to discuss what made this former All- American tight end join the staff at Arizona State, how he views his recruiting abilities, and his outlook for a tight end group that is poised to have more talent than it did have in recent years becoming a unit that is ready to put it stamp on the Sun Devil offense.
DevilsDigest: 2020 has been a crazy year for many different reasons. But for you specifically, receiving the tight end coaching job after being in Tempe less than one year, does it still feel surreal?
Adam Breneman: “Yeah, it does; I'm just grateful that my first opportunity to coach came at a place like Arizona State, with someone like Coach Herm [Edwards] and [Offensive Coordinator Zak] Hill and [Defensive Coordinator] Antonio Pierce. I'm extremely grateful, it's been kind of crazy to think about and reflect on the past year, but I just tried to work hard every day, put my best foot forward and be great where my feet are. I took it one day at a time, not knowing when an opportunity was going to come, but it ended up coming quicker than I probably even realized it.”
DD: How much did your relationship with (strength coach) Joe Connolly someone who was together with you at UMass weigh into your decision to come to ASU?
AB: “Coach Connolly was my connection to Arizona State. In this business, a lot of opportunities are from who you know. When (former ASU Grad Assistant) Mike Bercovici left for the NFL gig with the Cardinals, that opened up a graduate assistant spot. Coach Connolly had recommended me and pushed pretty hard for me; then I interviewed with Coach Hill and had some people recommended me to him as well. And then he made the decision with the whole coaching room to hire me as a GA back in February of 2020.”
DD: When you researched Arizona State; obviously Joe Connolly told you quite a bit about the program, but what really stood out to you? I got to imagine that many of those things he said prove to be true?
AB: “The weather–that was a nice change [laughs]. For me, coming from Pennsylvania, I enjoy having nice weather all the time and not dealing with snow. Obviously, everyone talks about Coach Herm and the pro model. Working for Coach Herm, there's probably not a better coach in college football to work for as far as the culture we have here, the way he lets people be themselves. It's really something that's unique. It's great to be a part of the knowledge on the coaching staff; Coach Connolly is always telling me about that. Having Coaches Marvin Lewis and AP (Antonio Pierce), Coach [Shawn] Slocum, Donnie Henderson, and tons of guys from the NFL is unique to Arizona State.
“I always felt like ASU is a program that can be really successful at the highest level of college football. There's a great coaching staff, you got a great city being around Phoenix, and it's a great media market; it's a place that you can recruit to that kids. I think we're starting to see that now, with the way we've been recruiting and hopefully the way we'll play this coming season.”
DD: When you decided to join some 11 months ago, what was your realistic expectation as far as your trajectory in your coaching career at Arizona State?
AB: “I think in this business, the one thing I've learned is if you try to plan things out, it's never probably going to go the way you think it's going to. I tried to block out everything as far as trying to figure out what my next move was. I wanted to try to be really great here, and I tried to try to be the best GA I could possibly be. I tried to try to recruit as well as I possibly could and coach as hard as I possibly could. I would come in early and stay late and make an impression on the people around me, not knowing what the next thing would be.
“It was always my goal to be a position coach. This year, I didn't know where it would be, or what was going to happen, or if it would happen. But I tried to control what I could control. When Coach Hill made a decision, I had no idea what was happening, and it just proved to me that all you can really do is control things you can control, work hard, and good things will happen.”
DD: When you were looking at the initial GA job, did you see ASU as a place for assistant coaching opportunities, even for someone younger such as yourself?
AB: “For sure, I thought that was a possibility– I just didn't know when, where, or what position. The moment I got here, I knew that this was a place that I wanted to be... it would take a lot to get me to leave this place. I have every intention in the world of being here for a long, long time. I love working for Coach Herm, AP, Coach Hill, and it's a place that empowers young people.
“Coach Herm does a great job of trusting young people, giving guidance and opportunities; It was one thing for them to hire one 25-year-old coach, then it was a whole other thing for them to hire two (Chris Hawkins being the other). I don't take that opportunity lightly, the fact that they placed that trust in me. I always knew that if I worked hard and did things the right way, I'd have an opportunity, or at least someone here would help me find an opportunity. I think it all just kind of worked out. This is a place, because of those coaches and the leaders here, that I want to be at for a long time.”
DD: Some will argue that a position coach doesn't necessarily have to be somebody who actually played the position. But in your case, not only were you a tight end, but you also were a two-time All-American. It’s fair to assume that somebody like yourself, actually does put a lot of value in being a former tight end now coaching tight ends?
AB: “For sure, I think you're right, though, just because you played the position doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be good at coaching. I think those are two different things. But, if you can put the two together, you have a chance to be a pretty good coach. Just having played the position and having played at a high level gives you validity when you talk to recruits. When you talk to your current roster and teach them, it's much easier because I can show them how to do it; I can go out there and do the drills with them, I can show them how I did it and give them advice from my standpoint.
“Then again having that knowledge is great, but if you don't know how to teach it, you don't know how to relate to kids, you don't know how to get them to believe in you, then there's no point in you having the knowledge. There are two different skill sets there: one is knowing it, the other is being able to teach it. Hopefully, I think I proved that I had both, and that's what got me this job. I think there's definitely value in having played the position and understanding that this block we're asking him to do is a really hard block because I had to do it. This route really can't be run this way because of this reason. And I know because I tried it. I think it's valuable from that standpoint.”
DD: What were your duties as a graduate assistant, in comparison to now being the tight ends coach?
AB: “It's definitely different. Obviously, as a graduate assistant, you're dealing with a lot of process type things, a lot of the work that goes on behind the scenes. I was pretty active with coaching tight ends along with Coach (Derek) Hagan. I think my role is definitely much different. Recruiting-wise, it's a little bit of the same, just probably having more responsibility now. But it definitely has changed. It's more time spent now with player development and to deal with our current players and recruiting. Those are the two main areas, there's not much time spent doing the tedious work a GA does. As a coach, your time goes to managing your current roster and recruiting.”
DD: I know there's no such thing as an offseason in college football, but fans always ask me, what do coaches do in the offseason? These days, is it more dissecting the previous season? Or do you turn the page pretty quickly to 2021, starting with spring practice and getting ready for that? I’m sure a lot of your time is dedicated to recruiting too…
AB: “There's a lot of recruiting, we spend a lot of our day on evaluation, recruiting, and figuring out the 2022, '23, and '24 classes. There's a lot of time spent talking to recruits, and then a lot we spend time doing what we call 'self-scouting' our most recent season. We scout what plays are run, what worked, what didn't, and then also looking ahead to what we want to do in spring practice. There's some professional development stuff, maybe watching some NFL film on the best offenses in the NFL. It's a balance, but definitely heavy recruiting right now. This is the time normally that coaches would be on the road, so we're spending a lot of time recruiting this time of year. In February, we'll be recruiting and doing more getting ready for spring ball. Then we start spring practice sometime in March.”
DD: Many recruits have sung your praises in terms of how quickly you're able to develop a relationship with them. What do you think makes you an effective recruiter that elicits so many positive comments from so many different prospects that you've been involved in?
AB: “I really don't look at it as recruiting; I look at it as relationship building. It's cool for me because you get to build a really good relationship with these kids; they start to trust you, and you start to trust them, and you get a pretty good connection. I'm able to look at a lot of the guys, and as we get through the process of recruiting, they kind of view me as a big brother and someone that they can trust and relate to. That helps a lot, and I think it all comes down to relationships. If a kid doesn't trust you, he isn't coming to your school. That's just the bottom line.
“Having played the game and being young helps, but I'm not going to be the young coach forever. Being able to build relationships and connect and understand what kids want – I think that's the other part of having gone through the process myself at a really high level. I had offers from almost all power fives coming out of high school and got recruited by some of the best recruiters in the country, like (Alabama head coach) Nick Saban and (Notre Dame head coach) Brian Kelly. I got to see what recruiting was like, and what worked for me and what didn't, and I use that during my recruiting process now. It's worked out some, and hopefully, it works out in the 2022 class.”
DD: What are some of the challenges of recruiting still taking place virtually? Naturally, ASU being your first coaching job in college, you don't know anything else, but it probably feels different than what you expect it to be…
AB: “I don't think it's been that much different from a relationship standpoint because you just do it on Zoom and FaceTime. That generation is used to doing that anyhow. But it is hard on the kids; I think it's hard to make decisions when you can't really see a school or see coaches in person. I can't imagine going through my recruiting process without taking all the visits I did; I took tons of visits. I think it's interesting that we had a bunch of early enrollee freshmen show up on campus just a couple of weeks ago; it's crazy that we were seeing them for the first time here. We've never seen some of these kids in-person before, and we signed them.
“They're coming here and some of them have never been to the campus. We've never seen them how big they are in person. It's been exciting for us to get the guys here and see him in person because we'd been recruiting for so long and never actually met them. It's been interesting and unique. Hopefully, the NCAA allows kids to come on campus, which would be big and help with the whole process. We'll see what happens from that standpoint, but it's definitely been an interesting year for recruiting, doing everything virtually.”
DD: Offensive Coordinator Zak Hill said from day one when he got the job at Arizona State that he wants to incorporate the tight ends more in the offense. As someone that's been involved in coaching the tight ends all these months–and now at a much deeper level from here on out–do you see Hill's scheme taking that theory from the drawing board to the playing field on Saturdays?
AB: “Yes, it's definitely a tight-end oriented offense; I think we were in 12 personnel–two tight ends on the field–at 57% of the time this past season, which is probably one of the highest in college football. We ran the ball a lot this past year; we only played four games; one was in the rain. One (against Arizona), we were up by 21 points in the first two minutes. How much we threw the ball this year isn't really reflective of what the offense is and what it'll be. But, we were able to get Curtis [Hodges] some touches this year, which was good. I think that the tight ends in the passing game will continue to be more and more of a factor. Coach Hill has obviously use tight ends at a high level at Boise State, and I think it's a great offense to be in for a tight end. It's probably one of the best in the country.”
DD: ASU ran the ball very effectively this past season, perhaps a surprise to some. When you look at the tight end group and what they did in terms of run-blocking assignments, how proud are you of that group executing that aspect every Saturday?
AB: “They did a really good job. Curtis (Hodges) grew a lot in that area, and the other guys did as well. Everyone judges tight end productivity off of receptions, but it's really a multi-dimensional position. It's a hybrid position; it's versatile, you gotta be able to a lot of things really well. A big part of that is blocking in the run game and in the pass protection game. I think Curtis came a long way along with guys like John Stivers, who's coming back; Case Hatch has been really good for us as an off the ball fullback type guy. Hopefully, we see the younger guys develop in that area a little bit, but I'm excited to see it in person this spring. They've all gotten a lot better in the blocking game, and a lot of that comes down to technique and mindset, being tough, and wanting to do it. I think they all have that mentality.”
DD: Do you feel that the passing game struggles from this year affected the tight ends? Did that create a perception that was unfair or unjust as to how effective this group can be truly in the passing game?
AB: “I think it will be a lot better in the passing game. The circumstances of the season and only playing four games: one was in the rain (Oregon State), one we're up by a lot of points. The UCLA game, we were coming off of a three-week hiatus, and then the USC game was the first game of the year... And Jay[den Daniels], obviously, is growing a ton and is a really talented guy. Our receiver room is getting better, and the tight end room is much improved. Bringing in (Oklahoma transfer) Jalin Conyers will be good for us, and with Curtis coming back, it'll be a pretty dynamic offense come this fall.”
DD: Do you feel that the chemistry between the tight ends and the quarterbacks is something that can be on a much higher level compared to last season in general?
AB: “100 percent. I'll be shocked if not. There's a lot of work that goes into the offseason; there are guys out there now, throwing a lot, getting the timing down, and everything. Having a full offseason in this offense, with Jayden and the new guys going through spring ball and fall camp then having a real season: you'll see everything click.”
DD: What are your thoughts on Curtis Hodges’ development? I know you didn’t coach him as a junior, but how was he able to turn the page from 2019?
AB: “I think it was really an attitude change for him; he's been great since I've been here. As far as handling himself, he's older now and coming back for his final year. I challenge him with that every day, being a professional. He's done a great job of perfecting his craft, being a leader, being on time for things and everything from that nature.
“Curtis is a special player, he and I have a good relationship, and I love the fact that he's coming back for his final year. He's got a chance to be a really, really good player. He's one of the most athletic talents I've been around since I've been in football. If he can put it all together, which he's starting to do, I think he's got a chance to have a great year for us. I think he's got a chance to play in the National Football League if he can put it all together. It's on him now.”
DD: In terms of his physicality, what kind of numbers do you want to see from him?
AB: “I think he's always a guy who needs to gain weight. He has a narrow frame; he's a legit 6' 7.5". He's probably right around 240lbs. right now, so he can gain a few more pounds. But he played really well in line last year; he blocked really well, he's got good technique. Curtis is no longer a receiving tight end; he's a real tight end. He can do both. I think that's been a good thing to see.
“He has that mindset, that mentality of being tough and physical in the line of scrimmage, and he's a guy that you can do anything with. He can play wide receiver; he can play in-line. That's what we want in a tight end. We're hoping that Jalin can do the same thing for us. He's got things that you can't teach. You can't teach a length. From a life perspective, he's elite. He's as good as it gets at tight end. From an athleticism perspective, he's about as good as it gets. If he can put everything else together, he's got a chance to be really good.”
DD: Jalin Conyers told me that you pounced on him pretty quickly after he entered the transfer portal. What made take that approach, and ow that he’s already here what do you expect from him starting in the first session of spring practice?
AB: “It was it was an interesting process. He entered the transfer portal, and we have guys on our staff who monitor the transfer portal almost all day, every day. The process moves so fast. We did not know that he was going to enter the portal–a lot of times, you hear from different sources about players, but we had no clue he was getting in [the transfer portal] until the moment it hit the web. I think I hit him up about 30 seconds after it got on Twitter [laughs]. I had him call me, we had a long conversation the first time we talked, and I had watched some of his film. Our whole staff ended up watching this film as soon as he got in the portal, and we quickly identified him as a guy who we wanted to be a top priority in the transfer portal.
“I recruited the heck out of him for a couple of days and got to know his parents. Coach Herm was helpful, Coach Hill was helpful, too. He was part of the process; we all made a joint effort. Jalin and I connected pretty early on, and I was able to show him the opportunity and the way I'd coach him. I think felt comfortable with us, and as parents felt comfortable, so, at the end of the day, he committed to us probably within 48 to 72 hours after entering the portal. It wasn't a long process... we're super excited to have him; he's got all the physical tools, he's a true 6'4" and [weighs] 245 to 250lbs. He's long, athletic; he can run a little bit; he can bend, he's got good body control. Now again, like we just talked about, it's about building that tight end mentality. That took Curtis time, but Curtis now has it, and hopefully, Jalin learns and can become that true tight end. He's big enough to be a guy who can do everything like Curtis can.”
DD: Through this "virtual recruiting," you can tell recruits and transfers that ASU is this and that, and they can only see it through a computer screen or phone screen. When they arrived here, do you and the coaches get the vibe from these newcomers that the hype was justified?
AB: “They're all excited to be here. They enjoyed their first couple of days here, now they are working, and they're down there lifting right now. All the freshmen that came in want to earn a role. You talk about guys like (offensive lineman) Isaia Glass. He looks the part; he's going to be a really good player. (offensive lineman) Armon Bethea has looked really good; he's a big 6'5.5. Triston Miller's here, the transfer from UNC, who we recruited the heck out of, and that was a quick process as well. I'm excited about him. He's down there working hard, and it's an exciting group. For me, being a first-time coach, this is the first time I've recruited guys that now I get to have them here. It's exciting for me to be down there watching a workout and see the guys that we brought in.”
DD: When you look at the 2022 recruiting class; what is the ideal tight end you're seeking out to add to that newcomer group? How many players in that position are you expecting to add?
AB: “A lot of it changes based on what you're getting athletically, but we want guys who are over 6' 4", can run, are athletic, and have really good body control. I feel like I can teach them a lot of how to try to play real tight end. Guys who are mostly receivers in high school is kind of the mold that you look at, bigger guys that can run. As far as numbers, it's kind of fluid as far as how many we'll take. We'll definitely take at least one, maybe two tight ends. It all depends on how the numbers play out for us. I'm excited for this '22 recruiting class, we got a couple of guys who we're really high on, and it's been fun for me to evaluate. Hopefully, we add another elite tight end to the group for 2022.”
DD: I know fans really feel the buzz when you talk about how great this staff can be from recruiting standpoint. As a member of the staff, do you also feel that you're a part of a coaches group that can truly make a statement with this 2022 class?
AB: “I think so. It's a fun setting to be in. We spend a lot of effort in recruiting... but we're not just great recruiters; we're great football coaches as well. That's a big part of it; we don't have anyone on the staff who's just a recruiter or just a football coach; everyone's really good at both. I'm excited to get (offensive line coach) Mike Cavanaugh here, work with him, and learn from him from both a coaching standpoint and a life standpoint. I'm excited by this. It's a great staff to be a part of, and it's a great staff from a recruiting standpoint. With Prentice Gill and me working together along with AP overseeing our recruiting operations on both sides of the ball, we have a good process now. I think everything's falling into place.”
DD: You probably have a long to-do list in terms of what you want to accomplish with these tight ends starting at spring practice. What are some of the more critical items you feel have to be addressed with this unit?
AB: “It's just learning how to play the position. Some of the young guys haven't played tight end Jalin Conyers has not played tight end; he's been a receiver. The young guys like Ryan Morgan and Jake Ray, they got to learn how to play tight end–whether it's the tight end or the H-back. They'll learn what it means to be alive, to play in the box, footwork, technique, and developing a mentality of being tough physical.
“When the game's on the line, wanting the ball in our hands and being able to make big plays. There are a lot of things, and there's not one glaring one that the group has; I just think the reps will be really good for them. Hopefully, I'll be able to teach them to understand the offense, and I think it'll be a big spring practice for us from a development standpoint.”
(Zach Keenan contributed to this article)
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