Each morning when Renell Wren wakes up, he stands and faces the person he feels has held him back during his career at Arizona State.

Himself.

The redshirt sophomore defensive tackle first arrived on campus in Tempe as a highly-touted prospect expected to contend to make an immediate impact. Instead, he redshirted as a freshman and has posted 17 tackles in 16 games to start his career.

Wren said he expects more production out of himself, and it’s only him who has held himself back so far.

“My biggest challenge was just me,” Wren said. “It wasn’t anybody else. It was just me pushing myself. When I look in the mirror every day when I wake up, I say the only person who can stop me is myself. I really just have to work on my energy, just staying leveraged and just working on my hands and working on consistency. Once that falls into place, I’ll be the player I can be.”

The big issue, he says, is just consistent effort. For much of his career, he said, he hasn’t worked hard enough to refine his game the way he needs to. The 6-foot-5, 295-pound frame should be a perfect fit along the defensive line, especially with his ability to move laterally. It’s the ability to keep running that has been a challenge.

Wren said he dedicated himself to his conditioning this winter workout period, hoping to be able to withstand the amount of reps needed.

“It really just falls on me,” Wren said. “I need to run more, I need to condition more. I’m 295 pounds and I can hold this weight, but I think I need to condition more with all the reps we take. I think I need to condition more.”

Another detail of Wren’s game in need of refinement is pad level. Much of the knock against Wren’s large frame is whether he would be able to bend low enough to gain leverage with pad level against an offensive lineman or a double team.

New defensive line coach Michael Slater has dedicated plenty of time this spring to making sure Wren’s pad level is consistent so he is able to make plays. In order to help with this, he asked Wren to switch from a 4-point stance to a 3-point stance.

“You have to stay low either way, but I think you really have to stay low when you’re an interior defensive lineman,” Wren said. “That’ll really challenge you when you’re playing defensive tackle or nose tackle. When they double-team you, you really have to stay under their pads, because once you pop up you have no choice.”

Wren, much like others in his position group, have taken well to Slater during his first few practices at position. Slater previously worked at Kansas under the same role.

The lineman said he enjoys Slater’s intensity and ability to quickly and efficiently solve problems, comparing him to Jackie Shipp – ASU’s defensive line coach from two seasons ago. Like last season’s defensive line coach Joe Seumalo, however, Slater is able to comfort and calmly teach his players when need be, as well.

“(Slater)’s just very blunt,” Wren said. “He’s all in. He’ll tell you right then and there. He cares about you, and the end of the day he just wants you to be the best player you can be. He can see the potential in you, but he wants to get the best out of you, too. He can tell when you’re lazy right away, so he wants to get you out of that and be your best player.”

Wren also said he’s working to make sure health is on his side in 2017. He said he battled migraines during last season, dealing with it a few times in practice. The only time it truly affects him in a game was against Utah, he said, but he said he wants to be careful.

“I put that on myself,” Wren said. “That’s just dealing with a lot of hydration issues. I’m not a big drink a lot of water type of guy, I’m more of a juice type of guy. I put that on myself. That was all me. As of now, I’m trying to maintain more water, less PowerAde and all that. That’s all on me.”

The biggest thing with correcting his issues, Wren said, it to make sure there’s no reason he doesn’t succeed. He said he has high goals to produce this season, and he needs to stop getting in the way of that.

It’s the proverbial put up or shut up scenario.

“I can’t just keep saying that all the time,” Wrenn said. “I only have two more years here, but I’m trying to produce. It’s consistency. All the coaches and everyone says I have the strength and ability and height, but I have to put everything into place and just make the best of it.”