Devils in Detail
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ASU football: JoJo Wicker explains Thursday’s lack of substitutions

By Jordan Kaye

TEMPE, AZ - AUGUST 31: Wide receiver Royce Caldwell
TEMPE, AZ - AUGUST 31: Wide receiver Royce Caldwell /
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ASU football linebacker JoJo Wicker explained the likely reasoning for the lack of defensive substitutions during Thursday’s win versus New Mexico State.

With the temperatures reaching the high 90’s at Sun Devil Stadium Thursday, substitutions seemed like they would come early and often.

For the Sun Devil defense, that was not the case.

The first defensive substitution didn’t come until early in the fourth quarter and that was only because of an injury.

Getting in there snap after snap with no substitution in sight can be a daunting task, taking its toll on players. That seemed to show in the fourth quarter as the New Mexico State offense put up 18 points to cut the Devils margin of victory to six.

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After the game Thursday, Junior defensive lineman JoJo Wicker noted how the fatigue was a factor for him and his teammates.

“I mean it was,” Wicker said to the media. “You’re running 13 plays, 12 plays in a row while they doing tempo, I mean it gets tough — but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

“So it’s the first game, we definitely felt it, but it’s not a shock to us, it’s just something we have to prepare for.”

The decision for defensive coordinator Phil Bennett to leave his starters in a Week One game against an inferior opponent is no doubt strange.

And as a result, many began to question the positional depth on a defense that ranked second-to-last in total defense a year ago. Obviously, every coach wants to have their best players in the game as much as possible, but it raises some questions.

Does the coaching staff only trust the starters? Are the lack of defensive substitutions going to be a theme for this team in 2017?

Those are valid, but here’s another one. What if there’s a method to the madness, and Bennett and the coaching staff have a plan?

That question seemed to get answered after Sunday’s practice with Wicker explaining how the lack of subs on Thursday will get the defense ready for San Diego State and beyond.

“I believe the only thing that really gets you in shape for games, is games,” Wicker said Sunday with co-captains Manny Wilkins and Kalen Ballage nodding beside him. “So, I believe [Coach Bennett] doing it was probably the smartest thing we’ve ever done — it gets us ready for this weekend coming up.”

Many would say that the conditioning of players should be established after over a month of fall practices, but players and coaches always talk about not being able to replicate a game. The pace is different, the physicality is different and the duration is far different than practices.

So, if playing in games is the only way to get in shape for games, according to Wicker, then the more time you get in them early on, the better shape you’ll be in when taking the field later on in the season.

Bennett’s goal from Thursday’s game seems to be apparent. Improve the conditioning and experience of a subpar defense by, essentially, leaving the starters in the entirety of a fairly easy game.

The experiment didn’t cost the Devils a loss, but rather, most likely just a higher margin of victory. A few points will seem very insignificant, however, if the experiment is successful and helps turn the Arizona State defense around.

This plan was not put into place to beat New Mexico State, or even San Diego State. This plan was put in place to beat teams like USC and Utah, and ultimately to help ASU sustain success throughout October and November, a spot the Sun Devils fell apart in last season.

Bennett, in his first year as ASU’s defensive coordinator, was not in Tempe for that collapse in 2016. But upon arrival, he knew he had work to do as he inherited a historically bad defense — and as the saying goes, “drastic times call for drastic measures.”

Next: ASU Football: Sun Devils begin season 1-0 despite shaky finish

It may be a while, though, to find out if those “drastic measures” produce results, but the attempt to use such unorthodox methods to produce results shows self-awareness from Bennett about his defense — and that is a step in the right direction.

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