In nature, spring is a time for life to bloom, rain to fall and let the grass grow green once again.

For the Arizona State Football team, the onset of that season is quite similar, emphasizing player growth and development. Long gone are the harsh winter rains from the trip to Corvallis or the cold nights across Phoenix. Much like spring rains wash away the hardships of winter, spring practice allows ASU to wash away the rust and monotonous routine of months away from the gridiron.

On March 28, fans and media alike poured into Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe to bask in the Sunday sunshine and observe Arizona State’s Maroon and Gold Spring Practice – a display of the squad’s fresh faces, returning talent, outlook, and overall football product after 15 practices and half an offseason full of preparation.

One of those potent newcomers is a local player, bearing a familiar name recognizable to the truest of the Sun Devil faithful. Standing at 6-foot-5 freshman offensive lineman Isaia Glass bears a Sun Devil legacy with his surname that dates back to the beginning of the millennium. His father, Paul Glass wore the maroon and gold No. 73 as a defensive tackle in 2000, former head coach Bruce Snyder’s final year with the program.

While he may bear the same number as his father, it was Isaia’s desire, commitment, and dedicated attitude that brought him to the Sun Devil program. It’s his own journey, full of challenges and adaptation, that kept the local product in the Valley of the Sun.

Glass grew up in the southeastern shadow of Phoenix in San Tan Valley, where he played numerous sports – soccer, basketball and eventually football – to which he stayed in flag football for numerous years before he was ingratiated with full contact play.

As a freshman, Glass attended local Queen Creek High School and joined the football program, dead set on keeping his family rich with football prowess and achieving an ultimate goal of playing in the National Football League.

As a young teenager, Glass played tight end and defensive end for the Bulldogs, but halfway through his sophomore season, he was called to the offensive line group to fill a spot for an injured player. The young lineman had never played as a part of the front five.

“I never thought I would end up playing O-line,” Glass chuckled. “I was a sophomore, and the (first string) tight end was a senior, so I was still getting (playing time) and I was starting on defense. One of our (starting) guards got hurt, and out of all of the lineman, coach picked me, the backup tight end.”

After the season, Glass was given the option to return to tight end, but following a solid performance in his new role, Queen Creek offensive line coach Travis Schureman knew he had a special talent that he didn’t want to squander.

“Freshman and sophomore year, we started to realize that Isaia was going to be a dude, someone who can really play,” Schureman said. “After he jumped in at guard, we told him he could return to the tight end spot if he wanted, but we needed linemen, and he really bought into that role.”

From his junior year onwards, Glass played on the offensive line almost exclusively, only filling in on defense for specific occasions or situational occurrences. The move worked in the young player’s favor, as his growth in the position drew the attention of recruiters and nearby collegiate programs.

Although Glass had fully immersed himself in pursuing the path of an offensive lineman, betting that this role would give him his best chance at success on the next level, some colleges weren’t completely sold on his offensive path. His athleticism and size enticed recruiters to potentially place him back on defense.

“He was kind of that in-between kid,” Schureman recalled. “He was athletic enough to the point where I thought a lot of schools wanted him to play defense as well. I think schools for a while weren’t sure where to put Isaia and what category or which way they were going to recruit him.”

In his junior season, Glass acquired more film lining up on the offensive line, specifically at left tackle, a place Schureman was “desperate” to get the tight-end turned lineman to play.

In 2020, the offers began to flow in. Schools throughout the southwest, including Pac-12 suitors such as Arizona, Oregon State, and Colorado chimed in with offers throughout the early months of the year. Teams from the Big 12 and Big Ten conferences, among others, followed suit as Glass and his family tentatively navigated the early portions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the pandemic became more prevalent and required to try and overcome unprecedented circumstances, so too did Glass. College football recruiting is naturally all based on discussions and displays, with the most significant of those interactions taking place in person. One of these concepts that are a highlight of the recruiting process is the official visit, where players who are hosted by the program take an extensive tour of the campus, football facilities and get to know the team while also trying on uniforms and taking advantage of as many photo opportunities as possible.

For Glass, though, the glitz and glamour of official visits were never a reality in a recruiting cycle that forced the process to be limited to platforms like FaceTime and Zoom.

“During COVID, I was taking Zoom calls, Facetime calls, phone calls basically 24/7,” Glass explained. “I had some significant offers, but I could only imagine what four and five-star (recruits) had to go through because even as a decent recruit and an offensive lineman, my plate was so full with different meetings, watching film on Zoom with different coaches, and doing virtual tours.”

Eventually, the virtual interactions added up, and despite the inability to conduct official visits, the young lineman wanted to see the schools that had pursued him. He wanted to scope out his future home, even if it meant he had to forego the chance of putting on a college uniform or touring world-class practice facilities, let alone being wined and dined.

Therefore, the Glass family elected to take a road trip across the country to scope out numerous campuses and surrounding college towns. They took a flight to Ames to begin their trip at Iowa State. They rented a car and proceeded to drive to the campuses of Kansas State and Indiana before they turned their sights west to Oklahoma State, Colorado, Utah and more.

Glass viewed the trip as significant due to the role this would ultimately play in his collegiate decision, preparing to engage in a one-on-one drill with his football future. However, Glass was also tasked with facing another harsh reality. While in Ames, he received a phone call he won’t soon forget.

If you look up Glass on Twitter and scroll to the top of his tweets, you will see a picture of the young lineman with clear glasses and hair up in a ponytail, displaying the tattoo on his right forearm, which bears his last name. Next to him is a young man in a black shirt with a gold chain and black backwards hat. The caption reads, “This season is dedicated to you.”

Hunter Vindiola, the young man next to Glass in the photo, was in the grade below Isaia, scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2022. Vindiola, an offensive lineman in the Bulldog program, was called up to the varsity squad as a freshman and, across the season, began to build a friendship with Glass. The pair grew closer and closer across a span of nearly two years at Queen Creek.

Despite the fact Vindiola was a year younger than Glass, he stood well above six feet tall and possessed significant size and weight. As a player, his potential grew and grew, much like his friendship with Glass, whom he clicked with on their similar personalities.

Schureman, the offensive line coach to both Vindiola who wore No. 72 and Glass, No. 73 described how tight the pair had become during their time as Bulldogs.

“Hunter and Isaia had very similar personalities,” he said. “They each had kind of a kindred spirit, always goofing around and happy and smiling.”

Vindiola also had shown great potential as an offensive lineman, with both Glass and Schureman stating that he had “Division I talent.” Schureman went on to say he was going to be a “big time offensive line recruit with serious promise.”

On Friday, July 3, Vindiola was vacationing with his family and several teammates in Eastern Arizona. Vindiola and a teammate were in an off-road side-by-side, when they crashed their vehicle and rolled over. The 16-year-old passed away from the injuries sustained in the crash.

1,212 miles northeast, Glass answered his phone and heard the news from a friend.

“It was just really hard because I was hanging out with him just a few days before,” Glass mentioned. “When I got the news, I didn’t know what to do… You hear about people losing friends like that but when it happens to you…. It was definitely hard.”

Glass returned home after that road trip and immediately contributed to fundraisers and events dedicated to his friend. The team hosted a car wash shortly afterward to raise money for the Vindiola family. The Bulldogs also went back to work very shortly after the accident, training, and conditioning in a socially distant setting to come out of the ordeal strong and with their heads held high. They made t-shirts to honor their teammate and even wore undershirts that displayed his No. 72 on the sleeve.

“It showed me that life is so fragile; it’s crazy how someone so young can lose their life so quickly,” Glass reflected. “He wasn’t just someone who played football; he was going to go somewhere with it… For him to just slip away like that, it was crazy.”

With a newfound sense of humility, Glass knew still had work to do, as his football journey was still in the process of being written and while the summer was plagued with the burden of his future college decision and the loss of Vindiola, the following months would prove to be pivotal for the lineman’s future.

A significant figure in shaping that journey was Glass’s confidant, a Sun Devil alum, and someone an incredible amount of knowledge about the collegiate football landscape, his father, Paul. When Isaia received an offer from Arizona State, one might think that he would receive extra pressure to potentially become a legacy player, but Paul was grounded in the mindset that it was truly his son’s journey, and he never wavered from that approach.

“He thought it would be cool for me to go to ASU, but he was always open to me going to Indiana, Oklahoma State, other schools if I wanted to,” Glass remarked. “My dad was all for pretty much wherever I wanted to go. My parents were there, and if I asked them questions or for their opinion, they would give it, but they made it clear it was my decision at the end of the day.”

Glass received an offer from ASU on June 22nd, and he committed to the Sun Devils literally a month later, on July 23rd.

His reasoning for that pledge wasn’t because of his father’s legacy - although he was undoubtedly excited to wear his dad’s jersey number - it was the same reason that so many other recruits have taken their talents to Tempe. With dreams of going pro, it was the head coach Herm Edwards’s NFL background and team culture that moved the needle the most.

“The pro model is really what sold me,” Glass said. “The program is run like an NFL team. Coaches say during practice that what we’re doing is like the pros. We are trying to be professionals and act like professionals.”

The prospect of staying local and playing for the hometown team was also a considerable factor in Glass’s decision. Instead of venturing a considerable number of miles to a state he’s unfamiliar with, with practically no familiar faces, Glass opted to choose a college a short drive from his home.

“ASU from my house is probably an hour away,” Glass noted, “so it’s far enough for me to do my own thing – grow and develop as a student and a man, but also see my friends and family back home.”

Glass graduated high school early, enrolling at ASU in January 2021 so he could integrate with the team ahead of spring practices and get into an academic groove as well. Fresh out of high school, the lineman recognized he had a lot of work to do, as well as growing up.

“These were grown men, playing at grown man speed,” Glass explained. “I had been going against little sophomores, juniors, and seniors in high school, but these were like 22-year-olds.”

Glass wasn’t exaggerating either. Out of the 15 defensive linemen on the ASU roster, just five of them are underclassmen. On the contrary, the offensive line group has a much younger makeup, with a third of the 21 players being freshman, including Glass.

Fresh out of high school, Glass was also slightly underweight compared to his older teammates. When he stepped on campus in January, he weighed 255 pounds. Before spring practices commenced, the scale consistently showed 260 pounds, which was the lightest weight amongst his position group teammates.

Nevertheless, the freshman embraced the hardships of facing off against his more physical and sometimes quicker counterparts. Glass prefers to bask in the challenges of contending with difficult competition rather than shying away from it.

“He’s very consistent about being a dog and just wanting to go hard,” Schureman said of Glass’s work ethic. “Every rep for him is like it’s the Super Bowl; he just wants to win and compete.”

“There is competition in high school, but college is like that multiplied. There’s a bunch of testosterone going around,” Glass said. “Just being able to be a part of that, I really enjoy.”

In an interview with Devils Digest following his commitment, Glass, who played left tackle at Queen Creek, spoke about the technique and work of ASU’s starting left tackle, Texas A&M transfer Kellen Diesch, whom he had only seen on film. Since joining the team, the freshman feels fortunate about the opportunity to study the craft in the flesh from the potential NFL prospect.

“It’s been cool to learn from (Diesch),” Glass stated. “In practice I might be struggling going against (graduate transfer defensive end) Travez Moore, but then I’ll see Kellen go out there and win a lot of reps against him. Sometimes I will just watch and see what works and what doesn’t. From a technique standpoint, I really enjoy watching Kellen just to see what he does because I believe he’s going to the league.”

Even a broken bone in the freshman’s right hand didn’t deter him from trying to prove himself in his first practices as a Sun Devil. Glass’s injury sidelined him for two sessions during the spring. When the team doctor eventually cleared him, the offensive lineman wore a cast which the training staff covered up with a massive club on his hand.

For an offensive lineman, the hands are essential, as they serve as the contact point between the blocker and the opposition. Handicapped, Glass participated in the remainder of the practices and the live reps during the spring game with essentially one hand and a club on the other.

“It sucked,” Glass chuckled. “I was around 260 (pounds) at the time, so I was already at a disadvantage physically, and now I’ve got a club, so I can’t even try to grab on to these dudes. I was just nubbing grown men.”

With Glass’s work ethic, resiliency, and acquired knowledge in the spring, the freshman soared up the depth chart, eventually earning the second-string left tackle spot for the Maroon and Gold game, directly behind Diesch. After all, the young freshman has dreams of heading to the NFL himself, so there’s no better spot for a first-year player to be than right behind one of Arizona State’s formidable professional prospects.

For Glass though, there is still a lot of maturing needing to take place, both physically and mentally. As an early enrollee, he’ll be finishing up his first semester of college in the first week of May as he moves one step closer to his primary academic goal: earning his degree. Glass is studying psychology and hopes to integrate sports into his practice.

As far as current football aspirations go, it’s all boils down to constant improvement for the freshman. Highest on his agenda is gaining weight and filling his long, tall frame. The goal is to register at 280 lbs. before fall camp rolls around. Glass wants nothing more than to expand his knowledge of the game and making the necessary physical gains while doing his best to dominate along the way.

Isaia Glass’s mindset prefers to look at a glass, no pun intended; that is half full, rather than half empty.

“I just want to get better, practice and learn the offense, I want to have a better understanding of the offense so the game will slow down for me,” Glass said. “I like to look nice and fancy on the field, but I’m no celebrity. I’m just really happy to have this opportunity to play at this level. I’m just the basic kid that just good enough at football to play at this level.”

If you ask Schureman, though, he’ll argue otherwise. His vision of Glass’s future is clear.

“I think Isaia Glass is an NFL type of player, but he’s a better young man than he is a football player,” he said. “He’s a special young man, and I think he will do the Sun Devil Nation proud. He’s someone they can trust do the right things on and off the field.”

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