Danny Gonzales sat at the dais with a black hat and black shirt, both of which inked with ASU’s pitchfork logo -- the perfect attire for the quasi-funeral he was speaking at in the media room Tuesday afternoon. The Sun Devils’ defensive coordinator wanted to bury the notion, and the acceptance, that what the Sun Devils did in their win over Kent State was somehow exemplary.

“I refuse to justify success with mediocrity,” Gonzales said with emphatic confidence. “I won't give in. You can justify all the success you want by saying, ‘Yeah, they did pretty good.’ That's a loser's mentality.”

ASU’s defense allowed a monumental 200 total yards to Kent State. They gave up 11 first downs. They only forced two turnovers. The Golden Flashes almost converted on 30 percent of their 18 third downs. Worst of all, though -- anyone under 18 may need to cover their eyes for this -- the Sun Devil defense allowed a touchdown. That notion and all of its implications make Gonzales look nearly queasy when talking about it.

The lone score, Gonzales claims, should not have happened. Did it matter to the grand scheme of ASU’s season, or Thursday’s game for that matter? Not in the slightest. But that’s not what Gonzales is shooting for. He wants perfection. By nailing that into his players' heads like he’s Michelangelo crafting the David sculpture, he’s hoping his city-on-a-hill expectations soon reverberate to his defense and ASU’s fan base.

“I refuse to give in,” Gonzales said. “I demand that those guys practice to be perfect. I demand them to play at a high level, higher than they think they can. And when I see we give up things that I think should be defended, it drives me crazy.”

For the foreseeable future, Gonzales will be the harshest critic of his own defense -- not until they play to the expectations in his head. But his trio of defensive coaches -- defensive line coach Jamar Cain, linebackers coach Antonio Pierce and cornerbacks coach Tony White -- also know ASU’s potential wasn’t matched against Kent State. The score be damned.

Here’s what they saw Thursday and what they want to improve.

Defensive Line:

Jamar Cain is a rather even-keeled coach. He doesn’t often yell. He likes to laugh, to crack jokes. He also has dreams. His dreams though don't, at least at the moment, revolve around him lying on the beach on some tropical island.

This week, he says, he dreamt about a scenario in which nose tackles D.J. Davidson and T.J. Pesefea can become dominant and consistent enough to the point where Shannon Forman -- a junior capable of playing all three positions on the line --- can largely stay on the outside.

“When I go to bed, I pray about that every night,” Cain said with a chuckle. “When I go to bed, I pray that D.J. and T.J can play nose, Shannon can be the third guy … as needed.”

If Cain’s dreams and prayers come to fruition, his line would be able to better, and more effectively, operate using an eight-man rotation. That, in turn, would limit the number of snaps he doles out to his most-used pieces without being hesitant to play his freshest legs.

In Thursday’s Week 1 game against Kent State, sophomore Jermayne Lole played 46 snaps, Cain said. That’s too many. He believes in an odd-man front, which Gonzales 3-3-5 is, no defensive linemen should be playing more than 40 snaps.

To lessen the load on ASU’s edge rushers, namely Lole, Cain noted he plans on throwing Pesefea into the mix more against Sacramento State, which would allow Forman, who has been mainly practicing as an end during Monday and Tuesday’s practice, to garner more snaps on the outside. Cain also said freshman defensive end Stephon Wright will see his first collegiate action, bolstering ASU’s line to an ideal eight-man rotation.

As far as Thursday’s 30-7 victory is concerned, Cain was most impressed with Davidson. Coming off an ankle injury that nearly cut his redshirt-freshman season in half, Davidson was timid. His biggest obstacle in returning to form, Cain said, was his own, self-perceived fear of becoming reinjured.

“Hey, you’re healthy,” Cain would tell Davidson. “Listen to the doctors. They put titanium in there, you’re good to go. The other thing was he had gotten rolled up at Camp T and he wasn’t hurt. He was like, ‘Should I be hurt?’ and it’s like, ‘No, bro. You’re good.’”

Davidson recorded just two tackles in 2019’s debut game but clogged the middle and became the most consistent force of ASU’s front. As a whole, the Sun Devil defensive line recorded just a half sack, courtesy of Lole.

“He belly-flopped on him,” Cain joked. “My daughter is 10 and can get that .5.”

Upon a film review, Cain believes Lole should have been heading into Week 2 with a trio of sacks. Missed reads and a bit of indecisiveness kept him at only a partial tally, which, Cain explained, makes the rest of his season an uphill battle.

Cain wants his defensive line to finish the season with 25 sacks. He wants 10 of those to come from Lole.

“That’s three you should have knocked out. You should have (only) had to get seven in the next 11 games. You made this harder on yourself now,” Cain said. “He’s -3 right now because he should have had three.”

Someone needs to carry the load. If everyone merely gets a sack here and a sack there, Cain’s going to look around his defensive line room at the end of the year only to see 16 sacks. That’s not good enough. Someone has to whittle that 25 down to a manageable number for everyone else. And as of now, Cain tabbed Lole to be that guy.

“We have to have one guy that gets into double-digits. If not, we’re going to have issues,” Cain said. “It’s like the cookie sales. There’s always that one kid that sells a lot of cookies and everyone else comes along.

“There’s that one person who sells 50 boxes of cookies and everyone else sells three. It’s a team effort. Let’s go.”

Linebackers:

During a recent Sunday morning practice a few weeks ago, 100-plus-degree heat beating down on them, the Sun Devil linebacker corps grabbed water. Some knelt, others stood. All seemed to be huffing, trying to catch a whiff of air as their position coach stood before them.

Antonio Pierce had just finished ripping into his group. His five main backers were up against the quintet of stationary sleds, hitting them before exploding off to the side. He wasn’t pleased, yelling “Go again” after each sub-par rep. He spoke of their lackadaisical effort, barked about their horrid practice.

Then he stood before them, only the sounds of water squirting out of the plastic, green Gatorade bottles interrupting Pierce’s speech. The former NFL veteran let his group know that when he won a Super Bowl with the New York Giants, the linebackers were the heart and leaders of the defense. He expected the same from the linebackers at ASU, he told them.

“Do you want the DBs to run this defense?” he asked.

They responded, putting together a solid performance in their first game. Their aspirations extend far beyond one game, however.

“They all take pride in being the unit we said we want to be. We want to be the top unit obviously on our team,” Pierce said. “We want to be the top unit in the Pac-12 and in the nation. I think we’re proving that.”

In Year 2 under Pierce, no one has jumped into the fray more than fifth-year senior Khaylan Kearse-Thomas. Still finding his place with a new staff last season, he was thrown down the depth chart, raising thoughts he may enter his name in the transfer portal. He stayed, determined to forge himself into a starting spot alongside sophomores Merlin Robertson and Darien Butler.

By the time spring ball ended, Pierce called him the ‘only penciled-in” starting linebacker. Eyebrows raised. Thursday was both validation for Pierce’s comments and Kearse-Thomas’ decision to stay. The Southern California native recorded a team-high three sacks, earning ASU’s newest “Mandrake” Award for the week’s MVP.

“He has worked his tail off since December 15 of last year the end of the bowl game, the beginning of winter conditioning,” Gonzales said. “I thought he was awesome. He took to the challenge of being a leader, of being an older guy in that group.”

Added Pierce: “I said it in the spring, he’s the best linebacker. I’m happy for him -- I told him I was proud of him. (He’s a) kid who waited his turn got beat out by freshman last year, and look what happened.”

Kearse-Thomas performance is no doubt going to overshadow everything else in the middle of ASU’s defense. Regardless, Pierce was still pleased with Butler and Robertson, as well as backups Tyler Johnson and Kyle Soelle. Because Johnson and Soelle are right there with the three starters, Pierce explained, he can freely pull the plug on his linebackers for poor play, rather than out of necessity for rest.

“If the guys are subbing, it’s probably not because he needs a break but because he messed up,” Pierce admitted. “They basically scout themselves. If someone makes a mistake, next man up.”

Secondary:

There were questions, speculation, skepticism and a whole lot of unknown when Jack Jones, the former five-star USC cornerback who had gotten himself into academic tangles and legal trouble joined Arizona State midway through fall camp.

The talent was a definite. Everything else was, well, anything but. After just one game donning the maroon and gold, Jones has slid into what the ASU coaches could have only hoped he’d become: a third starter at cornerback. Kobe Williams racked up just over 40 snaps. Chase Lucas’ count was in the high-30s. And Jones was out there for just over 30 plays.

“In an even game, that’s probably the rotation you want,” Tony White said. “It’s almost like you have three starters rotating through, which is I think perfect the way we had it.”

White rolled as many different combinations as possible between his cornerbacks. Williams and Lucas. Williams and Jones. Lucas and Jones. Throw Timarcus Davis in that mix, too, and White was thrilled with not only the production but the film that ASU’s first game produced.

White thinks ASU has the chance to play meaningful games in November and even December. Already, he’s preparing for that. Jones helps his case by taking a load off both Williams and Lucas, who hardly left the field a year ago. If Jones can take away eight-to-10 snaps a game away from Williams, White explained, that, by the end of the year, adds up to more than a full game Williams isn’t tolling his body with.

Last week, coach Herm Edwards said that 10-to-12 guys were capable of playing in the secondary. White agreed. There are five positions, a two-deep at each position and a few youngsters battling for playing time. Among them, he mentioned, are freshmen defensive backs Willie Harts and Kejuan Markham.

“You saw playmakers,” White said. “They made plays. Those guys put themselves in that position by studying in the film room, practicing hard, getting a sense of the concept of the defense and then they let their training take over.”

Expect much of the same from Week 1 to Week 2 as far as the Sun Devil secondary is concerned. The only change coming is at the Tillman safety spot, where graduate Tyler Whiley was absent from against Kent State due to a one-game suspension for violating team rules. Whiley will play against Sacramento State, continuing his competition with Fields for the starting job moving forward.

White was pleased with Fields’ showing on Thursday night. He thought he was in the right spots, which translated into six tackles (five solo, one tackle for loss). For now, the Tillman spot is the only real question mark of ASU’s secondary.

“All the other positions kind of played out the way we wanted,” White said.