ASU Football: Kalen Ballage could be Pac-12’s Jaylen Samuels
To be successful, ASU football needs to make Kalen Ballage the Pac-12’s Swiss Army Knife, in case of emergency beak open glass.
This is what we know going into the 2017 Arizona State Sun Devil football season.
We know that the seat is pretty hot for head coach Todd Graham. We know that the defense is not very good, and has a lot of room for improvement.
We also know that the Sun Devils have a dynamic playmaker that they have to get the ball to in Kalen Ballage.
For ASU to be successful, Billy Napier is going to have to use Ballage in a variety of ways. This leads me to my belief that Kalen Ballage can be the Pac-12’s version of Jaylen Samuels.
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For those who don’t know who Jaylen Samuels is, he is the do-everything player for North Carolina State University. You might ask, why is that important or he plays for a team that I don’t follow and I don’t know any players from that team.
Well, here is why it is important.
Jaylen Samuels doesn’t have a position. He is used all over the field! Last season Samuels lined up at H-Back, fullback, tailback, and in the slot.
He caught 55 passes for 565 yards, while averaging 5.7 yards per rush and accounted for 13 touchdowns. Jaylen Samuels is so well regarded by the ACC media, they made up a position to place him in the All-ACC first team for the upcoming season (the position they made up is AP, all-purpose).
What does this mean for Arizona State and Ballage?
Well at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, Ballage is bigger then Samuels is. Which means, if you line him up at H-Back, he will help you better in the run game if you decide to use him as a blocker.
Last season, Ballage had 536 yards rushing and 44 receptions for 469 yards.
Ballage can be used in the slot as evidenced by those 44 catches. Get him out in space against a smaller corner whom he can run over or a bigger linebacker where he can run away from him.
The Sun Devils need to find a way to get their best playmakers on the field this season.
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If coach Napier can get both Ballage and Demario Richard on the field at the same time other then using the “Sparky” formation, and use Ballage in new and creative ways the Sun Devil offense should be able to hide some of those defects on the defensive side of the ball.