Arizona State football began its slate of Spring practices Tuesday, and head coach Herm Edwards already sees significant improvement from his first season at the helm.
“When I compare practices from last year to this year, it’s like night and day,” Edwards said. “It was something that you anticipate and you’re hoping is going to take place and it did.”
Edwards added that he was impressed with the showing from the new quarterbacks, who he says have been in the building every day since they got here.
Of course, this year’s new Spring practice format has all 15 practices, including the Spring game, happening in February.
Although unconventional, Edwards sees the approach as one the team can take advantage of due to the friendly winter climate, and one that will benefit the young team long-term.
“Going early like this helps us in a lot of ways,” Edwards said. “A couple of (other head coaches) said ‘I wish we could do it but the conditions won’t allow us because of where we live.’”
“The 15 practices are important but I think when those are done, the weight room and the time we’ll get to spend in the classroom is even more important, and to have a block of two months to be able to do that just flows.”
“We got to get stronger as a football team and I think that will help us. And if an injury should happen you could recover. So, I like going early, I think the players like going early, they were excited, so we’ll see what happens.”
Quarterback Competition
Although much of the excitement surrounding ASU’s depth chart battle at QB stems from the three new recruits, redshirt sophomore Dillon Sterling-Cole shouldn’t be left out of the conversation for the starting duties.
In fact, he’s shown up to Spring camp in better shape and has embraced the competition as much as the newcomers.
“The guy’s lost twenty-something pounds, he looks like a different player,” Edwards said. “He knows that he’s got competition…Dillon understood that we’re bringing some guys in, it’s an open competition and we’ll see where it falls.”
Edwards confirmed that it will continue to be two of the four quarterbacks getting reps in scrimmages during a given practice, and the pairs will alternate each practice barring a slump from any particular player.
He says that he sat in the QB meeting Tuesday, something he will do on a regular basis, and any changes to the regiment of reps will be a decision agreed upon with offensive coordinator Rob Likens.
Edwards lauded everyone’s willingness to compete and emphasized the importance of all four QB’s continuing to get lots of reps throughout the Spring due to everyone’s lack of significant playing experience at the college level.
However, when asked about freshman QB Ethan Long, Edwards spoke a heavy amount of praise.
“I love that kid, he makes your football team better,” Edwards said. “His persona, his energy, his enthusiasm, he’s a wonderful kid. I want him on my football team, that’s it. You want guys in the locker room like that.”
Edwards also added a story from Long’s recruitment that conveys the QB’s humility.
“Coach Likens called and said ‘we got to get up (to Oregon) to see you,’ and (Long) says ‘Coach you guys are busy, I’m coming don’t worry.’ I was like really!? He’s that kind of kid. He says ‘Coach don’t worry about it, I’ll be down there I’m coming.’”
A more experienced offensive line
While the quarterback position is one of the, if not the youngest, least experienced position group on this Sun Devil offense, the offensive line is the opposite. Edwards seems very comfortable with the group even this early in the 2019 campaign.
“Last year at this time, we were a little bit nervous about our offensive line,” Edwards said. “Now, I look at it and that’s kind of one of our strengths. We got a lot of guys over there that’ve played a lot of football and played different positions, you know which is good.”
The unit consists of senior Cohl Cabral, likely returning as starting Center, along with fellow seniors Steve Miller, Alex Losoya, Zach Robertson, and Cade Cote- with all except Cote getting significant time as a starter last season.
Edwards mentioned senior Roy Hemsley as an example of someone who is versatile along that line, as he suited up at RT for the opening practice Tuesday.
Players lost to transfer
This past weekend, three redshirt juniors from the 2018 team announced they would transfer elsewhere to play their final year of eligibility.
The trio consisted of WR Terrell Chatman and defensive linemen Jalen Bates and Darius Slade.
Coach Edwards addressed the team Monday and shared his message to them regarding the situation.
“I said ‘Look I’m going to tell you guys right up front that I’m not naïve, this happens in college football.’ I’m thankful for the contribution of (those guys), and that’s ok. We’re going to bring more guys in here and give them opportunities.”
“We’re thin right now, but helps on the way. I told the d-lineman ‘helps on the way,’ and wait until you see the help that’s coming.”
In all likelihood, this is a reference to incoming four-star DE Stephon Wright more than anyone else. The prospect out of Cathedral high school in Los Angeles, California, had offers from four other power-five schools including Alabama.
Edwards himself was a three-time transfer at the collegiate level, transferring from Cal to Monterey Peninsula junior college, back to Cal and finally to SDSU for his final season in college. So, safe to say the NCAA’s new transfer portal can only throw him so many curveballs.
In fact, Edwards acknowledged that using the portal to bring on some late recruits themselves is all part of the plan.
“When Spring ball’s over a lot of guys are just starting, and we know in March when a lot of the colleges start Spring ball guess what’s going to happen,” Edwards said. “April shows up and there’ll be some grad transfers and we’ll have the opportunity to pluck one or two. That’s part of the DNA of how we recruit as well.”
Continuing to Establish a new culture
One thing that Edwards consistently talked about was continuing to engrain the culture of competition within the program.
As simple as it sounds, that attitude gave way to a defense of largely underclassmen in 2018 that significantly outperformed a defense of mainly upperclassmen in 2017- the final season of Todd Graham’s tenure. Edwards noted that he wouldn’t be surprised to see something similar go down in 2019.
“Some guys came in here in the summer- young freshman guys that ended up playing a lot, some of them ended up starting. I anticipate that’s probably going to happen again to be quite honest, but we’ll wait and see,” Edwards said.
“But I think the players realize that the environment is competitive, and they understand the culture now- they’ve been in it one year. They’re accepting it because they know that’s what it’s about. It’s never personal, it’s just about competing and getting better as a football team.”
This attitude stems from a second consecutive year in which Edwards has brought in a recruiting class with high potential. The mantra of the ‘best players playing’ manifested itself on a 2018 team that exceeded the preseason expectations of most.
“The guys we brought in here, they’re pretty good. I think guys we’re bringing in here- I’ll say it again- they’re pretty good. And if you don’t understand that, you’re going to be standing on the sideline watching,” Edwards said.
“Down the stretch, we had an opportunity and we didn’t get it done. We want to be in that situation every year, and the more the guys understand that it becomes the culture, it becomes the players running the locker room and that’s what you want.”
Edwards is referencing the team taking its hopes to win the Pac-12 South- and ultimately the conference- all the way to its penultimate game, a narrow two-point loss to Oregon that ultimately separated ASU from Utah as division champions.
A long-established connection with new Running backs coach Shaun Aguano
As you may have heard by now, ASU replaced the departed John Simon with highly-revered Chandler high school coach Shaun Aguano to coach the running backs.
Aguano has had success as the head man at Aguano’s Chandler Wolves defeated Perry by 37 points to win last season’s state title, unknowingly finishing his coaching career there on a 13-game win streak. He coached a 2,000-yard rusher in each of his final three seasons.
Chandler, and coached names such as Chase Lucas and N’Keal Harry- both part of his 2014 State Championship team.
But his connection to Edwards is one with some history, stemming from Edwards’ experience coaching the Under-Armour high school all-star game almost every year during his tenure as an analyst for ESPN.
“I know Shaun,” Edwards said. “He was actually on my staff a couple times. You connect with certain guys and when we lost our running backs coach…that was the first call.”
“I’ve gone to his high school a couple times, he’s a good match for our staff. Great football coach, he’s a wonderful football coach and he’s a great father, he’s got a great family. So, all those things are important to me, it’s more than just when you get good people in the building- good men- it helps you, it helps you a lot.”
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