Wednesday was ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels’ birthday. For a good portion of the day, he was perched inside the Sun Devils’ student-athlete facility. For some time, he hung out with coach Herm Edwards in his office, Edwards’ daughters and wife eventually coming and hanging out with the birthday boy.

And on this day, Edwards gave his star quarterback 13 presents.

In the early period of National Signing Day, the Sun Devils signed a baker’s dozen to their 2020 class, not including a quintet of blueshirts from last year, allowing room for seven more signees in February.

So far, ASU’s class is ranked No. 40 in the country. It includes six four-star prospects, two wide receivers, two offensive linemen, a running back, three defensive linemen, two linebackers and a quartet of defensive backs.

When all is said and done, with the duo of still-unsigned commits (LB Will Shaffer and TE Ryan Morgan) alongside the number of highly-touted silent commits, many expect Edwards’ third recruiting class to be one of the better in ASU history -- especially at wide-out.

“There is still work to be done,” Edwards admitted.

Here are 10 takeaways from Wednesday:

1. WR Johnny Wilson flips from Oregon to ASU

ASU wanted to start off its morning with a bang. The program’s first announced signee was also its biggest shock. Four-star wide receiver Johnny Wilson flipped from his Oregon commitment Wednesday morning and sent his papers into Tempe.

Wilson, a 6-foot-6 target from Calabasas, Calif. is currently the Devils’ highest-rated prospect in the 2020 class. Getting him, Edwards said, was a team effort -- one most definitely aided by ASU’s new receivers coach Prentice Gill, who was previously an offensive analyst at Oregon.

And Daniels even played his part in luring Wilson.

“He was sitting in my office when all this was taking place, he had a big smile on his face,” Edwards said.

Added linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator Antonio Pierce: “I think it’s obvious when you have a quarterback like Jayden Daniels, you want to surround him with talent. You look at what we had two years ago with N’Keal (Harry), a big receiver who can go up there and catch the 50-50 balls, that’s Johnny Wilson.”

2. Chad Johnson Jr. signs -- finally

Pierce joked that four-star wide receiver Chad Johnson Jr., the son of former Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Johnson, “is probably the longest recruit ever in ASU history, as far as being committed.”

Yeah, it was that long. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound receiver initially announced his commitment to Arizona State in October -- of 2018. Since then, Johnson Jr. has been one of ASU’s most vocal voices on the recruiting trail.

More frequent and public than most recruits, Johnson Jr. would constantly text, DM, call and talk to other recruits about joining him at ASU. He started going to every ASU game. Even when the Sun Devils weren’t playing, he still made trips to Tempe from his home in LA.

“Every time I turn around, he’s on an unofficial visit here. He just shows up,” Edwards joked. “One day I walked into my office and he was sitting in my office and I was like, ‘How did you get here? And he just smiled. He just walks around the building like he’s family.”

In some ways, he is. Several staffers at Arizona State have ties with his dad, a former Pro Bowl wide-out. Edwards noted he’s a close friend of Johnson while ASU Special Advisor Marvin Lewis was his head coach in Cincinnati.

Will the younger Johnson live up to what his dad accomplished? Who knows. But, he’ll definitely be another weapon alongside Wilson for ASU’s soon-to-be sophomore quarterback.

3. Sun Devils pluck big back out of the Midwest

We have already gone in-depth on four-star running back DeaMonte Trayanum’s decision to turn down Ohio State, leave the Buckeye State and become a Sun Devil. In short, he liked the weather, the coaches and the opportunity to play in the wake of Eno Benjamin’s departure.

ASU’s staff is all about opportunity, the chance they afford young players to see the field right away. That may apply to no one in the 2020 class more than Trayanum, who will likely be asked to become ASU’s newest bruising, hard-nosed runner as a freshman.

At 5-foot-11 and almost 220 pounds, the Sun Devils coaches seem confident he’ll be able to fill Benjamin’s void.

“We wanted a big back. That’s been a feature in our program that we’ve been trying to accomplish in the last few years,” Pierce said. “We have it now in DeaMonte, he’s 230 pounds and rocked up.”

But, in the end, how did ASU land him? Edwards gave all the credit to his family.

“My daughters and my wife closed the deal,” Edwards said. “When the girls were playing Fortnite with him, they just won him over… My daughters, they would text him and it was like, ‘Ok.’ They’re asking when he’s coming.”

Told this, Trayanum loved it. He did say that it was his sister, not him, playing Fortnite with Edwards’ daughters but added in a text, “His family is very chill and down to Earth.”

4. Pierce excited he brought competition to his position group

On Wednesday, Pierce added a pair of linebackers to his position group -- four-star Jordan Banks and three-star Jordan McCullough -- both of whom hail from Southern California.

“Those guys know they are coming in to compete,” Pierce said. “The best thing about those two linebackers, Jordan and Caleb, they’ll be here in about a month.”

A sly grin came over Pierce’s face as he said that, almost like a wink to Merlin Robertson and Darien Butler that their spot is not safe. The Sun Devil coaches are adamant in that they recruit to replace. That pair -- two-years starters about to be juniors -- are no exception.

“When you’ve been successful as a freshman and you come here as a sophomore and you have the keys to the car and you keep driving, well, that’s when you might get a little relaxed,” Pierce said. “Now we’re going to be able to light a little fire underneath them and see how spring ball goes.”

Behind only Wilson, Banks is the crème de la crème of ASU’s early signing period. He’s a versatile backer with ideal height at 6-foot-1. Initially, though, he didn’t include ASU amongst his Top 4. Pierce knew that was going to change.

“I kind of laughed and told coach Edwards we’ll stay in that fight,” Pierce said. “You know how it is, you go to the school one day, get a nudge and next thing you know you’ve got one of the top linebackers in the country coming to your program.”

5. Defensive line help is on the way

Late in the season, Edwards was candid about his displeasure in the production of his defensive line and the lack of pressure they put on opposing quarterbacks. He went so far as to even say he would try and upgrade the position through “Mr. Portal.”

As of Wednesday, he hasn’t gone down that route yet -- but the Devils’ did upgrade, nabbing two four stars in Joe Moore (St. Louis) and Omar Norman-Lott (Northern California), the nephew of ASU defensive line coach Jamar Cain.

“Obviously, this year, getting to the quarterback was a problem at times for us,” Pierce said. “Omarr Lott’s a guy who can probably play all three positions. I mean, he’s got the mass to play inside as a nose tackle or a shade, 3-technique… Joe Moore, I think he’s that guy we’re looking for to come off the edge.”

Pierce is also confident in the future of ASU’s pass rush because, next season, the Sun Devils will have the services of a healthy Stephon Wright and a beefed-up Amiri Johnson, both of whom were freshmen this season.

“So we didn’t have the true Stephon Wright for the first two months, he had to get back into shape,” Pierce said. “And Amiri Johnson, since he’s been here, it’s crazy. He’s gained 25 pounds. We called him ‘Bambi’ when he first got here. He ain’t Bambi no more.”

6. Sun Devils stay away from a JuCo signee

As mentioned above, Edwards has yet to dip into “Mr. Portal” for his 2020 class -- not that he’s opposed to it. Edwards is one of the more willing coaches to speak about the transfer portal, probably because he himself was multiple-time transfer as a player.

Not to say that ASU won’t look to sign some junior college prospects in February but on Wednesday, Edwards’ tone on the subject seemed different than usual.

“There’s no quick fix to doing this,” he said. “We’re not going down that road, we’re going to build it the right way and we feel like the players that we’ve brought in thus far, and there’ll be some more to follow these guys at the end, you can evaluate it at the end when the rest of them sign, are going in the right direction.”

In the past, ASU has found success with transfers, namely taking the services of offensive linemen Casey Tucker (Stanford transfer) and Roy Hemsley (USC transfer) two years ago. This go-around, though, the Sun Devils added a pair of blockers to protect Daniels.

It seems the ASU coaches want that number to grow.

“You’ve got a local guy in Ben Bray who obviously is a hometown hero. A huge guy that projects as an offensive tackle. And Jacob Nunez, a guard, an interior guy who’s going to be a mauler. He can probably play swingman as well at the right tackle position,” Pierce said.

“And we’re just in the third quarter, we don’t want to finish talking about the O-line just yet. Just keep watching in January and February to see what happens.”

7. Sun Devils ink just one player from Arizona

Bray, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound lineman, was the Devils’ only signee from their home state.

When asked about what caused ASU to sign just one player from Arizona, Pierce gave a long, candid answer.

“I think that’s a choice. You have to want to be here,” Pierce said. “And there’s not been a lack of effort of trying to keep, especially this 2020 class, here in-state, especially the top 10 or 15 players. We’ve exhausted every possibility to do everything we could to show them love, commitment, why this is the place for you to be. If they make a choice to leave, that’s their choice, and it’s OK. That’s when we need to go elsewhere.

“Like we always say, we’ll shake your hands and wish you the best of luck, and when we play you, it’s on. That’s just how it is. That’s just the nature of the business. And maybe when we start winning and get to the Rose Bowl and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon then, guess what? We’re going to get the really, really, really, really good players out of Southern California. So you better jump on now, because we’re watching and we’re recruiting.”

8. ASU signed kids from every time zone. No matter, California is still its recruiting base.

Let’s take a look at states represented in ASU’s early-period class: Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Missouri… and, of course, California.

Of the 13 signees, eight were from The Golden State. That’s not by accident. California, and it particular Southern California is the Sun Devils’ recruiting focus. Need proof? At one of California’s state title games, ASU brought nearly its entire coaching staff, including Edwards.

“Guess who was the only university there? ASU,” Pierce said. “Our home base is Southern California. No hidden agenda about it. It’s where the most talent comes from… The NFL says that. When this program is winning, it says that. When you look at our roster out there — heck, in about two weeks this says that.

“There are a couple of programs in that area (USC and UCLA) that are not doing well and it's our opportunity to jump on them and take advantage of them.”

That’s all fine and well, but why is ASU putting resources in Florida or Ohio or Missouri if it’s so focused on California? The ASU recruiting brass claims that, in each of those cases, there was a prior relationship between someone at ASU and someone who knew the kid.

“I’ll give an example,” director of player personnel Al Luginbill said. “The young man that’s coming from Tampa (three-star cornerback DeAngelo Taylor), his coach there, played for (Herm). It doesn’t get any better than that. Those are the types of things that we talk about. That’s this whole business. It’s everything.”

9. What is ASU using to lure kids in recruiting?

Take away the obvious -- i.e. weather, opportunity to play as a freshman, coaching staff, past alumni, etc.… The way most inside of ASU’s football facility see it, the Sun Devils have two selling points that drastically outweigh the rest.

1.) Jayden Daniels

“He sold it on his own by his ability to play,” Edwards said. “If you’re a guy on offense, you look at that offense and you go, ‘I want to play with that guy. He’s pretty good,’… He has that ability to bring guys to the table that maybe had other aspirations of playing somewhere else.”

Added Pierce: I think when you watched Jayden in high school, he had that ‘it’ factor and that carried over to here… He has a different makeup, a different DNA that a lot of guys don’t have at that position.”

2.) Herm Edwards

“It’s Herm Edwards,” Pierce emphatically stated when asked who the ambassador of the program is. “Do you not realize the ambassador, the GM, the owner. What are you talking about? It starts here, stops here.

“Everybody else, we’re tentacles of coach Edwards. Our players, our staff. The guys that work in the cafeteria. You guys. This program is going in the direction it’s going because of coach Edwards. Don’t ever forget that.”

10. What are ASU’s goals for the February signing period?

After signing 13 players on Wednesday, and including the five blueshirts ASU took on last year, the Sun Devils have room to add seven more prospects in the final signing period.

When asked what he hoped to accomplish before then, Edwards stayed away from specifics, aside from mentioning that he wants to bolster the offensive line depth. But what school doesn’t?

“I will tell you this,” Edwards said, “we’re not done.” Give us a couple of weeks here and some other things will unfold and you’ll see where we’re headed. But we know what we need. There’s a plan in place, and you just have to be patient sometimes.”

Edwards understands that some schools will fill up on signees in December. In turn, prospects hoping to play at those schools will be out of luck and have to frantically search for another school that will take them.

That’s where he thinks ASU can capitalize.

“I think you have to leave yourself some wiggle room here,” Edwards argued. “Like, you got all these scholarships and you got all these guys signing, and all of a sudden at the end, you’re sitting there and going, ‘Man, if I had two more. This guy all of a sudden became available, I thought he was going there.’ Right?

“And kids are calling you. Because all of a sudden, they’re left holding the bag like, ‘Guess what? They filled up coach. I got nowhere to go. So I think we’ll be OK. I’ll just leave it like that. We’ll be ok.”

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