ASU Football: How Danny Gonzales changed Sun Devils fortunes on defense

It may be early in the season, but through two games ASU football‘s defense has looked much more stout in the Danny Gonzales era.

Before stepping foot in Tempe, Danny Gonzales was at the top of Herm Edwards’ list of potential defensive coordinators for the 2018 season.

“You keep a list of guys who you think are good coaches,” Edwards said. “(Gonzales) was my first call.”

“(Edwards and I) talked a lot of philosophy,” Gonzales recalled when asked about his first meeting with Edwards. “It was the first time that I had ever met coach Edwards and it was an unbelievable experience.”

At San Diego State, Gonzales coordinated an Aztecs defense that only allowed 20.2 points per game and only allowed nine first downs to Stanford when the two teams faced off last season.

After inheriting a historically strong defensive unit a season ago, Gonzales started his tenure at ASU with a lot of uncertainty.

The Sun Devils have allowed over 30 points per game in the last three seasons and last season surrendered 52 points to N.C. State in the Sun Bowl.

Gonzales was also inheriting only six starters from the team the previous year.

With that in mind, Gonzales went to work and implemented his 3-3-5 defensive scheme that thrives on speed, aggressiveness and rotation.

“Defensively, I’ve watched (Gonzales) from afar and I liked the concept for what (San Diego State) was trying to do in the fact that it’s a 3-3-5,” Edwards said. “In college football he calls the ball, the multi formations and the personnel groups, you don’t have to change defensively.

You can keep five defenders in the field on the back end of the defense. With that, you still have the ability to rush four or five or bring pressure and run your coverages, so it was unique in the sense that that’s really the way you go in college football.”

The change in style and philosophy from the Phil Bennett era has already resulted in dramatic improvement.

Through two weeks, ASU has only surrendered two touchdowns, is No. 1 in the country in rushing yards allowed per game and rushing yards allowed per rushing attempt and lead the country in sacks with 11 in just two games.

Granted, the Sun Devils had a similar two game stretch a season ago when ASU allowed only 13 points in two games to Washington and Utah, but this season Gonzales has been able to tap into his personnel in a way that neither Todd Graham or Phil Bennet could a season ago.

Take Darius Slade as an example.

The 6-foot-5, 257-pound redshirt junior sat out last season after transferring from Ohio State. As a pass rusher Slade had all the tools one could ask for but for Gonzales those tools simply were not enough.

“I really give the young man a lot of credit because when he got here the stuff we were asking him to do he didn’t necessarily like,” Gonzales said. “We had a really good conversation one afternoon I told him that ‘I’m a stubborn old man and I won’t change, so if you want to play here and be successful then you are going to have to change your ways’ and he did (change his ways).

“He put on almost 30 pounds, he came back and worked as hard as anybody in the summer. He came back (and) he looked the part. When he takes on double teams now it’s different. ”

Slade, who leads the team in sacks with 2.5, has not been the only Sun Devil buying into Gonzales’ new ways.

Chase Lucas, a freshman All-American last season, has appreciated the freedom that both Edwards and Gonzales have given him this season.

“We have a lot of freedom, more than last year,” Lucas said. “I have to respect that freedom, we all have to respect that freedom.”

This weekend, Gonzales and the defense will have a tough challenge on the road against a San Diego State team that understands the type of schemes that ASU runs.

“Well, it helps and it hurts (to have Gonzales coaching against his former team),” Edwards said. “They know Danny too, so that’s going to kind of be the chess match.”

Regardless of the Aztecs’ familiarity with Gonzales, San Diego State will still be without starting quarterback Christian Chapman who sprained his MCL last week in the team’s 28-14 victory over Sacramento State.

Without Chapman and with Rashaad Penny now in the NFL, the Aztecs offense is not as explosive as they were last season when they defeated the Sun Devils 30-20 at Sun Devil Stadium.

Expect ASU to have another solid defensive game even in the first road game of the season.

Although it has only been two games, the confidence, speed and intensity that this Danny Gonzales led defense has displayed should give Sun Devil fans plenty of reason to feel confident about the defense for the rest of the season.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.