Shortened season or not, much will be expected from some returning ASU players to carry their respective units and come blazing out of the gates in 2020. Here are the handful of players that we feel will be under more scrutiny than others, and rightfully so.

QB Jayden Daniels

On the one hand, picking your returning starting quarterback for this feature is the low hanging fruit selection, so to speak. On the other hand, leaving his name off such an article would probably qualify as a head-scratcher. Either way, I do feel that they are some compelling reasons why Daniels’ performance will be heavily dissected and not just because he’s the unquestionable offensive leader.

There is a lot to look forward to when it comes to this Arizona State offense, and I believe it’s going to be a group that could increase its point (24.77) and yards (372.1) average over 2019. That being said, no one should lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of ASU’s skill players will be newcomers and/or underclassmen with very limited experience. I don’t want to imply this fact as a convenient built-in excuse for a potential poor season performance by Daniels, but it’s certainly a factor that no one should minimize.

This is why his professional development is going to be crucial this year, and he does need to avoid the dreaded ‘sophomore slump’ that many players ultimately prove not to be immune to.

Just this week, Edwards said in an interview to 98.7 FM that as much as he appreciated Daniels being cautious with the ball. Registering an unheard-of two interceptions in 338 pass attempts is remarkable for any first-year starter, let alone a freshman. Truth be told that he wasn’t the quarterback who many thought would be the classic dual-threat signal-caller who will heavily rely on his feet when executing the offense. Take away his yards lost to sacks, and a 45.5 rushing yard average is hardly an indicator of a classic run-first quarterback.

In fact, Daniels’ 245.25 passing yards average ranked him no. 32 nationally. Nonetheless, the desire for the Sun Devil offense to be more explosive will require the sophomore to take more risks, which in the process should elevate that ranking.

And ASU knows it has a good foundation in place to achieve that feat with Daniels being ranked by Pro Football Focus (PFF) as having the third-highest grade (94.3) of all returning Power 5 quarterbacks on throws 30-plus yards downfield.

Is Daniels up to the task? During that aforementioned interview, Edwards said in not so many words, that for his team to contend for the Pac-12 South division and beyond, his offense at a minimum would have to see their point average increase by at least seven to nine points.

New offensive coordinator Zak Hill is going to demand that Daniels and all of his teammates on this side of the ball, for that matter, to be much more creative with their approach. Wide receivers in 2020 won’t be locked into rigid routes and will often need to read coverages in New York minute, make a rapid adjustment that will consequently demand Daniels to think more on his feet at a considerably higher rate than 2019. And lining up under center won’t be a novelty but rather more of a scheme feature with Hill.

And yes, that will take the quarterback out of his comfort zone more than ever before.

We already saw some growing pains in spring practice, as Daniels and a wide receiver group, which he largely doesn’t have a high level of chemistry with yet struggling at times to get on the same page. It’s fair to assume that many of those kinks have been ironed out since, as much as they can be without a traditional practice structure in place yet.

ASU coaches and fans alike can only hope that having more spring practice sessions than any other Pac-12 team prior to the pandemic (seven out of the allowed 15), as well as having no limitations compared to many of their conference foes in the last couple months conducting walkthrough sessions, film studies and team meetings has only helped Daniels to grow more and more comfortable in this offense.

In many ways, Daniels set the bar very high as a freshman, and for good or for bad, he may be constantly be judged by the benchmark, abbreviated 2020 season and all. But that aside, more will be expected from him not only due to the natural maturity process that has taken place but also because he will have a more demanding offensive coordinator coaching him.

Flourishing in this new offensive system will not only benefit the Sun Devils this Fall, but naturally elevate Daniels’ NFL draft stock, and no, it’s not too early to talk about a topic that will likely become relevant in 14 months or so.

WR Frank Darby

We all know by now that the senior wide receiver would love nothing more than to extend ASU’s streak of wide receivers being selected in the first round of the NFL draft to three, following the selections of N’Keal Harry and Brandon Aiyuk in the 2019 and 2020 NFL Drafts, respectively.

Amazing piece of history-making aside, should Darby complete the trifecta this by default would mean that he lived up, some would say finally lived up to the vast potential he has.

Granted, being a second or third option in the passing tack that had Harry and Aiyuk, isn’t exactly conducive for any wide receiver to make his mark on Saturdays. What has frustrated many in years past was the fact that Darby, much like many other potent downfield threats, he would make the spectacular receptions but falter on the more routine plays.

Nonetheless, in the last half of the 2019 campaign, it wouldn’t be hyperbolic to claim that Darby indeed turned the corner. In a four-game span, albeit a stretch where ASU posted a 1-3 mark (losses to UCLA, USC, and Oregon State, alongside an upset win over no. 6 Oregon), Darby collected 16 catches for 387 yards (24.2 yards per catch) and seven touchdowns. He has shown that there was no reason to pigeonhole him as wideout who will only find pay dirt running directly north and south utilizing his blazing speed.

Overall, his 19.87 yards per reception last season was 10th in the country and second among Pac-12 receivers. When targeted that season, Darby posted a 133.1 NFL quarterback rating (31 catches for 616 yards with eight touchdowns and no interceptions), good for the 21st-highest total among all wide receivers nationally and top-10 among those that return this season.

Clocked as high as 23 mph during games, along with being a weight room phenom who has squatted 500 pounds and has a body fat percentage way into the single digits, Darby has proven to be a nightmare to both the brawn and agile defenders tasked with stopping them.

But there is one glary deficiency that he will have for the first time in his career, the absence of a proven no. 1 wideout lined up beside him.

With phenoms such as Harry and Aiyuk in the lineup, coaches often did not ask him to do much other than just beat his defender in a foot race. To Darby’s credit, he was able to execute that role with some measure of success. And perhaps by and large not being the primary aerial target, each game is a role that offered the comfort level that was conducive to a state sheet that did improve each and every year.

As with Daniels, Darby is also in the learning process of a complex, yet creative passing attack system. It’s a scheme that will require him to do more thinking and adjusting on the fly than just letting loose in the open field and letting his God-given abilities take over. And going back to his NFL draft prospects, this is an offensive structure that showcases him favorably the pro scouts following him this year, and proving that he’s a multifaceted wideout who shows the requisite level of mechanics and technique, you would expect from a fifth-year senior.

Not that an individual with such a gregarious and charismatic personality such as Darby should have any problems demonstrating leadership skills, but how much more pressure of now being Daniels’ principal weapon maybe dimmish the guidance task he will ask to carry out? Is there any way to overstate the challenge of leading a wideout group with no proven stars, let alone a unit mostly comprised of four-star prospects who are now incoming freshmen that may feel their own pressure to be that immediate impact player?

It’s important, check that, it’s crucial, for Darby to take care of himself first before taking care of others. Perhaps this apparent obstacle proves to be much ado about nothing, but it’s one that will undoubtedly define the significant effect that Darby is expected to have on a revamped ASU offense.

DL Jermayne Lole

There are many reasons to get excited about the ASU defense but in all honesty the Sun Devils’ front four isn’t one of them. Don’t get me wrong, new position coach and former staff member of the Minnesota Vikings, Robert Rodriguez, was rightfully labeled “The MVP of spring practice.” He’s certainly one of the best assistant coaches’ acquisitions by this Arizona State football program in recent years. The problem is that he has quite the challenge ahead of him with a group of linemen that has mostly had an unassuming Tempe tenure or are merely having their first chance ever to play a meaningful number of snaps on Saturday.

Yet, there is one glaring exception of that bunch, and that is junior Jermayne Lole.

Here’s an inside nugget, when discussing ASU shift from a 3-3-5 to a 4-3-4 a member of last year’s staff, he told me that he had serious doubts whether this defensive line was built for a four-man front, to begin with. And he thought that Lole who was actually a productive edge lineman in the brief two-year era of the 3-3-5 may have a hard time being effective moving from a playmaker to an interior lineman a gap control assignment player. He added that this issue could be even more detrimental due to the lack of a formidable pass rushing defensive end flanking him.

Well, in 2020 Lole playing his new 3-technique role, will have an excellent opportunity to prove someone wrong.

In 2019, not only did he lead the team with five sacks and finished second on the team with 8.5 tackles for loss, but his 72 total tackles, which led all Pac-12 lineman, were the third most for a Sun Devil defensive lineman since 1990. On a national level, his 37 solo tackles in the regular season led the nation’s defensive interior linemen – two more than any other lineman in the nation.

Under the radar perhaps, there may not be a returning player on this roster who rightfully demands higher expectations based on last year’s numbers than Lole. However, now he has to operate in a new scheme, which as mentioned, will cut down on his tackle total, but maybe he could see his sack total increase, again contingent in a significant way on the pass rushing capabilities of this unit.

At 6-1 310, he’s a mere carbon copy of the best 3-technique lineman in recent memory to suit up for ASU, back-to-back Pat Tillman Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Will Sutton (same height, five pounds lighter). So, while he was plenty productive lining up outside in a three-man front, his stature is easily more suitable for a 3-technique role. On average, he will face shorter and slower linemen at the line of scrimmage.

Now it’s that same stature that may not appeal that much to NFL scouts. Yet, they will much better served looking at his film and not obsessing over measurements, combine/Pro Day numbers. Needless to say, that burden of proof still lies on Lole to prove that his impact on Saturdays won’t suffer due to a position and scheme change.

LB Merlin Robertson

The dreaded sophomore slump impacted the linebacker, and the stats bear that out. A Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year campaign was followed by more than a drop in tackles (from 77 to 72), tackles for loss nearly cut in half (8.5 to 5), and the same can be said about his sacks (5 sacks in 2018, 2 in 2019). He did have adverse matters of the field that impacted his gridiron production. That’s an excuse but another explanation for this performance.

Even though Robertson has already demonstrated that he can be one of the top linebackers in the conference, in some ways, he has to prove himself all over again in 2020.

His position coach, Antonio Pierce, candidly said that as a freshman, his player was “…caught up into everybody patting you on your butt. And I think he did that, and he took it for granted.” Case in point, at 6-3 235 lbs. he was an agile freshman that rarely struggled in coverage and pass rush assignments. Fast forward one year later and 15 pounds heavier, and you can point again to his stats in 2019 and realize that the added weight did him no favors.

In the last five games of 2019, the proverbial light bulb came on for the linebacker. Robertson did average nearly six tackles a game during that stretch, and he recorded four of his five tackles for loss in those handful of contests. Granted, coming in now with the rest of the Pac-12 for a season kicking off two months later than usual may dull any carryover momentum even more, but that is what Robertson will have to draw on.

We did see more than just a few flashes in a shortened spring practice before adversity strike again with the sudden passing of his father that had him miss a few sessions as a result. He kept the improved shape he was in the latter half of last season, and along with his underrated football I.Q. there is no reason to believe that a change in scheme will now cause another dip in production. He may play less on the line of scrimmage with a four-man front, but this can merely materialize in him making plays in different manners than the last two years.

Robertson is one player that will have to be mentioned when discussing an ASU defensive unit that coming into this year is assuredly a top-tier group in this league. However, his maturity level this year won’t let him read his own press clippings and in that sense, the decline in performance last year may have been the best thing that has ever happened to him.

And yes, he’s one more junior on this team with NFL aspirations, and a player 2020 will mark the last season he is going suit up for the Sun Devils. As a father of two, his sense of urgency to begin a professional career sooner rather than later is evident.

“The way I recruited him was a 36-month plan anyway,” Pierce commented. “Merlin’s got that opportunity in front of him. And if he plays well, I’m going to wish him luck and let him leave.”

An early departure by Robertson would likely signify his best year as a Sun Devil, and consequently, help this ASU defense match the lofty preseason accolades it is already enjoying. 2020 has to be the year where Robertson proves that 2019 was just an aberration and he will have many watchful eyes close by and afar tracking him.

DB Jack Jones

In a pass-happy Pac-12 that can be brutal mentally and physically on cornerbacks, which often can have a revolving door effect the Sun Devil defensive backfield is the envy of many of its conference foes. ASU gest to replace one of the most dependable corners in the league in Kobe Williams, with a five-star prospect that was a standout player in USC’s lone Pac-12 championship title, in Jack Jones.

Jones could ultimately be a great comeback story. 2018 was a miserable year for him, to say the least, as he was dismissed from USC due to academic issues, and just three months later, was arrested on a misdemeanor burglary charge which later that year, he pled guilty to.

Nonetheless, ever since he arrived in Tempe last year, he has been a model citizen. His former Long Beach Poly head coach, Antonio Pierce, who is ASU’s co-defensive coordinator, was naturally the biggest reason why he joined the Sun Devils and Jones, rewarded Pierce’s trust not only with reliable performance on the field but also in the classroom where he made the Dean’s List this past spring.

Ironically both Williams and Jones were teammates and starting cornerbacks at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly, and it was Williams, who started ahead of Jones in all but one game.

Yet, that didn’t stop Jones from making his mark in his inaugural season in Tempe. He recorded 13 passes defended last season, and his 1.33 passes defended per game were 12th in the country. He’s definitely a ‘been there, done that’ type of player and is plenty savvy as a senior, which should make the transition between and Williams seamless.

Furthermore, Jones’ new position coach this year is his former USC teammate, Chris Hawkins, and the bond the two have undoubtedly hold the potential to elevate Jones’ game that much more and truly bring the best out of him. Jones could flourish in the switch from to a 4-3-4 scheme, a system that he and Hawkins, for that matter, are more comfortable with.

For Jones, there may be additional pressure in comparison to other draft prospects on the team to have his on-field performance ascend to such a level that would significantly negate the concerns NFL scouts may have in regards to the troubles he ran into at the tail end of the USC career, let alone the one year he was out of football due to legal issues.

As a second-year player now at ASU, with Hawkins’ influence the heightened sense of urgency of a senior, Jones could be poised to have his best collegiate season ever. But the pressure to back up that theory will certainly be palpable, and the manner in how Jones react to that landscape will be fascinating to follow.

Join your fellow Sun Devil fans on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle, to discuss this article and other ASU football and recruiting topics. Not a member yet? Sign up today here and get all the latest Sun Devil news!