Arizona State cornerbacks coach Tony White can look back to the progress his group has made since the spring and point to 100 areas of improvement in an instant. But instead, he compartmentalized it the thing that’s most evident on the practice field.

“We don’t have to answer as many questions out here,” White said. In the spring, they’re coming up and asking you everything -- ‘what about this? What about that?’ Now I’m just sitting back there saying, “Hey, good job. Hey, did you see this? Hey, did you do this?’

“The biggest thing is them taking it into scrimmage-type situations, or games, and doing it themselves.

On Saturday, ASU will take part in its first scrimmage of fall camp. Eight months after Herm Edwards was hired as head coach and former San Diego State defensive coordinator was hired to the same position in Tempe, the defense that pair works so closely with will show their progress.

Gonzales brought the 3-3-5 defensive to ASU, the scheme he ran under Rocky Long at San Diego State. It’s complicated. It takes time to learn. It requires the right pieces. The Sun Devils didn’t have the full fortune of those last two elements.

Their success of the system’s implementation has been left to the assistant coaches like White, who followed Gonzales to Tempe from SDSU.

“I’ve seen this defense installed a couple times and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it installed as quickly,” White said. “It’s all of us collectively making sure that we understand where we want the ball to go, what this guy is supposed to be looking at -- little semantics of a good defense.

“We all come together for that and then we all separate and go to our meeting rooms and teach it to our guys so they understand.”

Redshirt sophomore Chase Lucas was not one of the guys White was referring to when he said the assistant coaches answer fewer questions. Lucas, who was named to the Nagurski preseason watch list, is still seeking out either White or Edwards after most plays to gauge what he can improve upon.

“I know coach White loves me, but he hates me,” Lucas said jokingly.” I’ll be in his ear every play, no matter what. Even if I get a pass breakup, I’m always in his ear, ‘What did I do wrong? Tell me what -- do I need to line up inside, outside? What am I doing?’”

White admitted that the first few months were more of a learning period for the secondary, instilling the main philosophies of the defense and constructing the largest transition in terms of straightening out fundamentals.

Now, everyone can play free -- making plays and reads without thinking about where they need to line up.

“When we first got here, they had no idea even something as simple as hash-split rules or leverage ball, all that kind of stuff,” White said. “We’re teaching them our style, not to knock any other style, but we’re teaching them what we want to do -- and that’s always a learning curve.”

The learning curve has been lessened since then, and the coaches can better evaluate their playmakers in the secondary.

“We’ve got some athletic guys, we really do, and I think now that they’re grasping the system a little more -- and we’re finding out, too,” Edwards said. “I think for coaches what certain guys can do because as you know this is one of those defenses that, it’s kind of a little bit of a quandary of how we line up and how we do things.”

Edwards noted that the secondary may have a new wrinkle every week with certain coverages, harping upon the importance of scrimmages to determine the strengths of each guy and apply that to a game plan.

Lucas, for one, had trouble holding back his excitement. He started to grin just thinking about catching Pac-12 offenses off guard with their scheme, and that’s before they have everything in. “The craziest part is we still haven’t learned it all,” he said.

“They’ve seen a lot of zone and stuff, a lot of man, but nothing like what we’re doing, nothing like what coach Herm, coach Gonzales and coach White have brought to the field,” Lucas said of other Pac-12 offenses. “It’s going to be very detrimental to the offenses.”

Lucas said the 3-3-5 scheme has transformed ASU’s defense into less of a team and more like a family. Why? Because the system forces them to rely upon each other.

“I can’t just play a cover 2 or cover 3 and expect (senior boundary ranger) Demonte King to just be out there and running his stuff,” he said. “I’ve got to rely on him and he has to rely on me, we have to rely on our coaches to get the play calls.”

As Lucas somewhat points out, the scheme’s complexity could easily pave the way for miscommunication between the different levels of the defense. But ASU’s coaches feel confident in where its back end is to this point. Some of that is because they’ve witnessed its dominance at points during 11-on-11 and 8-on-8, but it’s also because they're relying on guys with experience.

The five members of ASU’s first-team secondary to this point include redshirt sophomore Lucas, junior cornerback Kobe Williams, sophomore boundary ranger Langston Frederick, senior King and redshirt senior TILLMAN Tyler Whiley.

Lucas and Williams started together a season ago as the others received limited playing time. None, however, are newcomers -- each has playing experience and time together.

“When you’ve got guys who have played, at least they’re adjusted to the speed of the game,” White said. “They understand the competition level, things like that. So it’s more of schematics. So just reteaching these guys fundamental wise, teaching them the scheme, you don’t have to teach the experience -- and you can’t teach that.

“Guys just have to play.”

Can't get enough ASU football and recruiting coverage? Join us on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle. Not a member yet? Sign up today here and join your fellow Sun Devil fans!