Barred from hitting the physical recruiting trail this year, Arizona State has brought a new approach to the recruiting challenges of 2020. A patient and calculated process set Arizona State up with a three-phase approach. The first phase came to a close Wednesday during the December portion of national signing day.
By no means did the Sun Devils walk away with a full class but by sunset Wednesday evening Herm Edwards and do-it-all assistant coach Antonio Pierce had solidified 10 new faces for the beginning of ASU’s 2021 class.
“This has been our plan,” explained Pierce, who serves as the associate head coach, co-defensive coordinator and head recruiting coordinator for the Sun Devils. Despite joking about the coaching staff wearing out their phones, and himself going well over his Verizon phone bill, Pierce said the Sun Devils aren’t done adding to their roster. “We were not going to sign a full class in phase one. In phase two, we’ll add some more pieces, and when this is done, and we get to fall camp, we’ll be finalized.”
The patient approach being used for Arizona State’s roster construction in 2021 and beyond is necessary as programs across the country grapple with fluid NCAA legislation amending roster limits due to the coronavirus’s impact on college athletics. Wednesday’s national signing day represented the next test of the roster construction for each program. During this December’s edition of the national signing period, Arizona State made additions to a roster which, according to head coach Herm Edwards should return over 90 percent of its personnel from the 2020 season.
“When you look at the process of how this really works; you’re always looking for your DNA and what fits and what are your needs,” said Edwards, now winding down his third season as the head coach in Tempe. “For the most part, we went into this year thinking that we needed to upgrade certain parts of our team, and as you can see, length, height, width, and speed was a big factor.
“We really concentrated for us on the interior of our football team. Whether that was offensive lineman, defensive lineman.”
Edwards said given a third year of coaching and fourth year of recruiting has given he and the coaching staff a greater understanding of what their roster is like, and what its true needs are. With great self-reflection and self-evaluation, the Sun Devils have been able to prioritize the correct areas for additions.
“We understand our roster probably better now than when we first arrived here,” said Edwards. “Going forward, the players we feel that might come back because of the free year, all those things play a factor.”
After making a splash during previous signing days with highly sought after receivers and defensive backs, Edwards and Pierce made known the attention to the interior being made by the program. By casting a wide net as far as a recruiting footprint – the 10 ASU signing Wednesday came from seven different states – Pierce said the Sun Devils have had more success in finding players who fit their prototype. Six of the 10 signings Wednesday play either on the offensive or defensive line or are most prominently featured in a non-perimeter role.
“We’ve hit every area. We’ve done a good job obviously in our footprint, the state of Arizona and the state of California these last few years,” Pierce said. “Really identifying and making this team faster and bigger… Our goal was to bring in when this is all said and done 10 or 12 big bodies with height and length that can help us up front.
In three games during the 2020 season, the Sun Devils have shown signs of progress on both the offensive and defensive line. Zak Hill’s first-year offense is averaging over 200 yards rushing per game behind a more experienced offensive line, while the defensive line – led by new defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez – is leading the Pac-12 in quarterback pressure rate according to Pro Football Focus.
“In any league the men up front whether they be on defense or offense, that’s the driving force,” Edwards stated, citing the success of Pierce’s defensive line when he played for the New York Giants and his own experience when he coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “The skill guys, on the perimeter players, they’re wonderful. The quarterback, you’ve gotta have a quarterback. We get all that. But when you can get people with size, and you know you bring them into the program, and they’re young, [strength coach] Joe Connolly is going to give them some more size and strength. With that being said, you have a chance now to build a program. That’s the foundation of your program. It’s the guys’ up front.
“We say we have a pro model. We talk about the pro model. That’s the pro model, but it’s also the college model as well.”
Earlier in the fall, Arizona State decided to mutually part ways with a number of previous commits, leaving scholarships open for potential additions from the transfer market. The Sun Devils found, and Wednesday signed former LSU Tiger Travez Moore. Standing at 6-foot-4, Moore gives the Sun Devils a lengthy linebacker who was previously a four-star prospect coming out of Copiah-Lincoln Community College before joining the Tigers and being a part of their national championship-winning season last year.
Stripped of the ability to hold official on-campus visits and be given a chance to meet face-to-face with potential recruits and their families due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some prospects were forced to make commitments based on FaceTime conversations and virtual tours. Couple that unusual decision-making process with the anticipated amendments to allow a one-time transfer exception and the college football landscape could be headed for a college free agency like environment which could bring comfort to an ASU staff well-versed in the experience of NFL-like player movement.
Moore’s addition through the transfer portal represents the second consecutive year in which Edwards’ staff has dipped its toes in the SEC transfer waters, after bringing in Kellen Diesch from Texas A&M to bolster the Sun Devil offensive line with an experienced body.
“You have to be wise to [recruit the transfer portal],” Edwards commented, after adding two offensive linemen via the portal last year in the aforementioned Diesch as well as Henry Hattis. “We set ourselves up to be able to dabble in that if necessary. If not, there will also be some kids that we’re still looking at that didn’t want to sign early that we can sign later.”
“It’s not about proven products, it’s about what fits us best,” said Pierce of the program’s recruiting mentality when it comes to the transfer portal. “What we’re looking for that helps our program win, ultimately. A lot of the players in that portal we recruited in ’18, ’19, and the ’20 class. So, there’s some familiarity there for us, and that helps out.”
Much has been said and written about Arizona State’s willingness to recruit locally, and the challenge with which ASU has faced in trying to keep talent from the Valley from escaping, but the Sun Devils added just one local product in its latest signing class. Isaia Glass, an offensive lineman from Queen Creek, Arizona was the lone Sun Devil signing from the surrounding area.
To this point, Glass represents the only in-state signing for the Sun Devils in the 2021 class. The 6-foot-6, 260-pound product – who was also named first-team All-State on Wednesday – is also an Arizona State legacy, after his dad Paul Glass spent one season as a defensive lineman wearing the maroon and gold in 2000.
“Glass is a hometown hero, whose father played here,” Pierce said. “That’s good to have as well.”
Jaydon Williams, a 6-foot-2 linebacker out of Dallas, Texas, drew rave reviews from Edwards when the coaches recapped the days’ acquisitions for the program.
“The guy that will really grab your attention, and I’m putting a lot of pressure on him right now, I know. He plays for AP. Wait until you watch Williams play,” Edwards said with a clear admiration for the physical tools he’d seen on tape. “Hopefully, when you guys can come to practice, just watch him run. Watch his intensity of how he plays football. It is very obvious when you turn the screen on; he is the fastest guy on the tape. It’s not even close.”
Late in the afternoon Wednesday, Arizona State’s highest-rated verbal commit announced via Twitter that he would delay the signing of his national letter of intent until the February signing period. The announcement from Isaiah Johnson, a four-star defensive back from Playa del Ray, Calif., left the Sun Devils with just one official signing of a four-star prospect after Wednesday’s period: wide receiver Lonyatta Alexander, the 59th-ranked receiver in the class nationally. Pierce said Alexander will be a fan favorite for Sun Devil faithful due to his great personality.
In July when Alexander pledged his commitment to the Sun Devils, he spoke of the importance that Arizona State’s predominantly Black coaching staff and athletic department had on his decision-making. Pierce and Edwards were excited to add Alexander to a wide receiver room which boasts plenty of young talent which has already made an impact during the Sun Devils three games in 2020.
Arizona State was recently rumored to be in the mix for Corona, Calif., defensive end Korey Foreman, the third-ranked player in the nation according to the Rivals.com database. Foreman told recruiting analysts that he would sign during Wednesday’s signing period, but wait to announce his decision until Jan. 2, when he will participate in NBC’s All-American Bowl ceremony. ASU was listed in his final five schools, along with USC, Clemson, Georgia, and LSU. At press time, there have been no indications as to where Foreman may be leaning towards.
Phase two and three for the Sun Devils are still to come. The February signing period and additions through the transfer portal should shore up whatever holes Edwards, Pierce, and Co. see fit.
“We have I would say seven more chips that we can actually use in free agency,” Edwards said, “so it’s by no stretch of the imagination over.”
“It’s just phase one of the process for this 2021 class,” Pierce said.
For a full list of Arizona State’s signed and verbal commits for the Class of 2021 check here.
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