Spring practice media day takeaways

'The row of tables in between the omelette bar and grilled chicken station became the happening place for both reunions and introductions. Another Arizona State spring camp is four days away, and the main faces of the program spoke about it.

Sometimes, these media days can be cliche. Players will talk your ear off about why this is going to be the year. They’re bigger, stronger and faster, they’ll say. Coaches will harp on depth, how players will need to step up and how nothing is guaranteed.

On and on and on.

Thursday was different.

More so, it was a revolving door of fresh faces -- there are a half dozen new assistant coaches and eight early enrollees. They would sit down. Their Sun Devil equipment in pristine condition, so new it probably hadn’t been through a wash. Greetings were doled out both ways. Then, go.

Here are the most notable things discussed:

Veterans coming to the offensive line

Like every coach in the country, Dave Christensen scoured through the transfer portal -- the device and option that has become the quasi-free agency of college football. He knew ASU needed depth and experience at the offensive line.

Head coach Herm Edwards seemed to make it a point every occasion he could, openly admitting that the Sun Devils would be using “Mr. Portal” to find some guys to fill the maroon and gold trenches.

Problem was, Christensen said, “There’s a lot of guys out there, not a lot of guys can play. The transfer portal is full of guys that aren’t good enough, that’s why they’re transferring. I don’t want someone else who’s not good enough to come here.”

In that respect, Christensen feels fortunate. The Sun Devil offensive line coach plucked two graduate transfers out of ‘Mr. Portal,’ -- Kellen Diesch from Texas A&M (6-6, 300) and Henry Hattis out of Stanford (6-5, 297).

And, as is the case in a lot of these situations, there was a prior relationship that smoothed out the process. Christensen recruited Diesch to Texas A&M when he was the Aggies offensive line coach in 2015 and Hattis was friends with former ASU left tackle Casey Tucker, whom he played with in Palo Alto

“I think it played a huge role in it. Relationships are everything. I didn’t win them over with social media,” Christensen said. “They’re mature kids. It’s funny, they came on visits and didn’t want pictures taken. It was perfect for me. Let’s talk some ball, here’s how you’re going to help out football team.

“Let’s shake hands and make a business deal.”

Christensen’s acquisitions create a nice dynamic for ASU’s offensive line. For one, it has depth -- a suitable two-deep full of young linemen. On top of that, ASU’s freshmen linemen from last season -- Dohnovan West and LaDarius Henderson -- can move to the right side of the line while the seasoned vets can protect quarterback Jayden Daniels’ blind side.

As for the center position, Christensen said ASU is still awaiting approval from the NCAA on Cade Cote’s request for a sixth year of eligibility. He said the decision should come in a week or two but, until then, expect the Devils to give some early spring reps to Jarrett Bell, Cody Shear and redshirt freshman Ben Scott.

For now, it’s Frank Darby … and everyone else at wideout

There’s a logjam at the wide receiver position right now. Well, two. One with its players. One with its coaches.

In a move indicative of the talent Herm Edwards believes they bring to the room -- and, perhaps, more pressing, on the recruiting trail, the Sun Devil head coach hired two wide receivers coaches -- Prentice Gill and Derek Hagan. And less than a week away from spring ball, they don’t seem to exactly know how their roles are defined.

“You know what, that’s still in the works,” Hagan admitted. “We know we’re both preaching the same thing. We’re both talking about the same things. One day, you may see me working with the tight ends or the inside wide receivers and he’ll have the outside.

“We’re still trying to figure that out. We haven’t been on the practice field for a full hour and a half so we’ll figure that out next week.”

Then comes the personnel they’ll be working with. The glaring problem with that, at least in spring ball, is that their shiniest toys -- the quartet of four-star freshman receivers: Chad Johnson Jr., L.V. Bunkley-Shelton, Elijhah Badger and Johnny Wilson -- won’t be on campus until the fall.

So that leaves senior Frank Darby … and a bunch of young pieces that haven’t had a ton of playing time. Guys like sophomores Jordan Kerley and Ricky Pearsall. They’ve flashed their talent in spurts. But their experience is at a minimum and the incoming talent puts their place on the totem pole in flux.

“They got their feet wet. The thing for them is, in spring ball, it’s all about competition. They know all spots are wide open,” Hagan said. “It’s who is going to separate themselves from the other guys and I think they’re accepting the challenge.”

Hagan said that he thinks as many as six receivers could be in a rotation. For now, that’s up in the air. Well, except for the guy at the top.

“The elder statesman is Frank,” Hagan said.

Last season, Darby was Daniels’ favorite deep-ball target. He hauled in 31 passes for 616 yards and eight touchdowns -- all career highs by a mile. What wasn’t a career-high was his 20-yard average per catch. Yes, 19.9 yards per catch is the lowest Darby has recorded in his ASU career.

And, that trend is probably a positive -- a stat indicative of Darby’s role veering away from being only a deep threat.

“He’s a big-play threat. He’s capable of catching the deep ball at any given moment,” Hagan said. “Now, I would say, he has to turn into a complete wide receiver -- being able to run every route in the route tree and not just relying on the deep ball.”

Chase Lucas has mature mindset going into final year

After playing one season of college football, a website called Walterfootball.com projected Chase Lucas would be a Top-15 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. That was in 2018. He had a solid freshman year. Nothing that screamed Top-15 pick, but Lucas had great measurements and was named a freshman All-American.

From that point on, the expectation was set. Chase Lucas should be a first-round pick.

In between then and now, Lucas has played two seasons. He struggled. He battled. He started trash talking. Then he stopped. He became Herm Edwards favorite guy. He got burned by Laviska Shenault. Then he said that made him better. And, toward the end of last year, Lucas played really, really well at cornerback.

The first-round grade didn’t seem so crazy anymore. But, regardless, it followed him. And, realistically, he wasn’t going to be a first-rounder in the 2020 draft. So, as expected, he came back to school. But because some website said he would be the No. 12 pick in the 2020 draft two years ago, he had to tell people he was coming back.

Lucas said people will come up to him and tell him, ‘You’re great.’ Instead of thanking them, he’ll ask, ‘How am I great?’ Rarely do they come back with an answer.

“That’s how I figure that I have things to work on,” he said. “That expectation is still there … When people hear that you were going to be a first-round draft pick at one point, that’s the expectation they hold you.”

It seems every season, there’s something new with Lucas’ mentality. Some of that is because he talks about it often -- at least, more than most. At one point, he said that he didn’t think he was talking enough -- That he needed to show his extroverted personality more. Then, he felt that he was talking too much -- that it distracted him.

Take this as an example. Last year at this spring ball media day, Lucas spent most of his session openly blasting former head coach Todd Graham for the way he ran the ASU program, even admitting that he planned on transferring if Graham stayed.

It was a show -- and Lucas had the spotlight.

On Thursday, he was quiet. He walked over to a booth in the corner answered questions for less than 10 minutes, then left. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it’s another over-analyzation of how he conducts himself. But, it really felt like a different Lucas, one who knows this is his last go around.

For real this time

“I’ve been here four years, I know what I need to do,” Lucas said.

OTHER QUOTES

Special Teams Coordinator Shawn Slocum:

“Geordon Porter will probably be the first guy up on kickoff returns. And then punt returns, Jack Jones had a good, solid month of practice getting ready for the bowl game, he’s got some ability. Then we got a number of the young guys coming in, with Daniyel Ngata…we got a couple more guys with the ability to catch them. So, we’ll work through those things. That probably won’t be clear until we get through training camp in August.”

Offensive coordinator Zak Hill:

“Jayden’s hungry for knowledge, he’s the type of guy that wants to talk football and offense and have the ability to dive into some of that stuff…being a quarterback guy and working with Jayden, that’s a huge part of this and a big reason why I took this job because you’ve got an elite quarterback.”

Offensive lineman Dohnovan West:

“Coming in here, I knew I was going to have to play at a pretty young age. I didn’t know it’d be exactly last year. I mean, being a leader takes a lot of responsibility with that, so I would say it’s definitely going to be something different. Like I’ve been a leader to younger kids, but now it’s people that are like the same age as you and stuff, so you got to be able to relate to them, because at the end of the day, you’re in the same shoes that they’re in.”

Offensive lineman LaDarius Henderson:

“Honestly, freshman season I personally don’t think that I did that great. What was notable was that I played a lot as a freshman, as a 17-year-old. But I don’t think I did that much. I mean I got to do a lot better, I’m trying to prove some things this year.

“I think it’ll be fine, honestly, because we don’t really have a lot of egos on the O-line. If I tell someone this is what we’re doing, this is what we need to do, they’re not like ‘Who are you to say that?’ They’re like, ‘Alright, let’s do it.’ If they have good input telling me to do something, even though I have the experience and stuff like that, if it’s a good idea, that’s what I’m doing.”

Fullback Case Hatch:

“I hope they keep me on all the special teams I’ve been on. Honestly, that is the best. I love just being on the field, any opportunity to make a play. I see (coach Slocum) at our competition day on Tuesday, and I’m always telling him, ‘Hey, keep my spot out there. I want to stay on all things.’”

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