Back in January of 2014 ASU lost a close recruiting battle to Stanford for the services of local offensive lineman Casey Tucker. Today though, the Sun Devils landed the former Chandler Hamilton standout who will graduate Stanford in the spring and is eager to play his final year of college football in his own backyard.
Tucker played for the Cardinal as a true freshman in 2014 and saw action in five games, and in 2015 was the team’s starting right tackle playing in all 14 games. He began the first two games in 2016 starting at left tackle before moving back to starting right tackle in the next six contests. Tucker missed the remainder of that year with an injury and redshirted in 2017.
“I really liked ASU coming out of high school,” Tucker said, “but I really wanted the opportunity to play offensive tackle and I knew I could do that at Arizona State. Coming back home was very attractive to me and deep down that’s what I always wanted to do. So, the stars aligned for that scenario and I’m very excited that they did.”
When Tucker made the decision to transfer out following his graduation from Stanford, examining Arizona State as a destination was a natural part process for him. Even though he was now dealing with a brand-new coaching staff than he did four years ago, developing a relationship with the new Sun Devil regime was a seamless process.
“I really like Coach Christensen and Coach Edwards and I’m excited to play for them,” Tucker commented. “When I visited there, I could tell it was going to be a perfect situation for me. I really like Coach Edwards as a person and he didn’t make it a hard decision for me.
“The biggest thing is that he (Edwards) wants to run the program like an NFL team and doing things that will work in college. I like what he's doing so far and I think it will work out.”
Even though the offensive lineman was last on campus as a visitor less than five years ago, a lot has changed since then especially with the facilities. Just like the new infrastructure has made an impact on young high school recruits visiting Tempe, it had the same effect on a veteran college player like Tucker.
“There is a lot of new stuff from the last time I visited,” Tucker described. “The locker room, the weight room…I was very surprised and the new facilities are definitely fantastic.
“After the first day of my visit I was thinking ‘this is better than what I expected.’ After the second day, I knew that ASU was everything I was looking for and the question after that was whether I take my other visits. The most important thing for me was to graduate and after my ASU visit I was 99.9 percent sure I was going there and after a few days, I was 100 percent sure. So, I wasn’t going to take more visits because ASU was the best situation for what I want.”
Tucker visited Texas prior to his trip to ASU and was considering Colorado and TCU as well. The lineman said that he plans to visit ASU during his spring break and observe the Sun Devils ‘spring practice. Aside from “grinding” in the classroom to earn his degree in May, Tucker has been keeping in shape in a unique way.
“I’m actually doing the women’s tennis runs,” Tucker remarked, “and those are some of the hardest things I’ve ever done. The Tennis workouts are good for the up-tempo stuff. I ran some of that (up-tempo) in high school so it isn’t really foreign to me and I like the idea of doing that at ASU.”
Tucker is expecting to arrive in Tempe in June, and he confirmed our earlier reporting that he’s slated to play at left tackle for the Sun Devils, as junior Cohl Cabral who assumed that position last year will slide to center replacing outgoing senior A.J. McCollum.
“I’m coming in to play my best ball at left tackle,” Tucker explained. “That’s what I want to put on my film, showing what I can do at that position. Not to sound cocky, but I believe in myself at this point and I know I can be dominant.”
To talk more about Tucker’s decision and all other ASU recruiting topics, join us in the Devils’ Huddle.
