ASU Football: Sun Devils kick off week two of Spring Practice

ASU football returned to the Verde Dickey Dome for its fifth Spring Practice of the month. Here’s what stood out from Tuesday morning.

Arizona State began its second week of Spring Practice this morning. Like each of their previous four sessions, the Sun Devils practiced inside the Verde Dickey Dome, or ‘The Bubble,’ because of the colder weather.

Head coach Herm Edwards joked at his press conference that ASU continues to practice inside at the request of new running backs coach Shaun Aguano.

“Part of his contract,” Edwards said. “I’m always messing with somebody, so I said, ‘I got to mess with Shaun today.'”

Quarterbacks Dillon Sterling-Cole and Joey Yellen took a majority of the reps today. Jayden Daniels and Ethan Long participated in drills at the beginning and end of practice. One of Daniels’ completions can be seen below.

After missing all of last week due to family matters, redshirt junior defensive back Chase Lucas returned today. He played on the defensive second team and was both vocal and energetic while on and off the field.

Due to an undisclosed reason, sophomore linebacker Merlin Robertson was not in attendance. According to Edwards, Robertson is “fine,” and there’s no reason for concern.

Here are some other things that stood out at today’s practice.

Observations

• Sterling-Cole took a majority of the snaps at quarterback, and as many outlets noted last week, he appeared the most experienced of ASU’s quartet. He displayed patience in his reads and showed comfort with the offensive system, sticking routes on the sideline and over the middle.
• Yellen presented his arm strength, launching a fade to Frank Darby in his first pass of scrimmage action. Darby caught the ball, but the presence of Kobe Williams forced him out of bounds. Yellen would also show some youth. After a play broke down, he ran forward and threw an interception to Aashari Crosswell. It prompted coach Edwards to put his hands over his head, saying “No, throw it away!”
• The defense had some impressive moments in 7-on-7s and 11-on-11s. With Yellen at the helm, it had two pass breakups and Crosswell’s pick.
• Upon Reggie Hughes‘ decision to transfer, Ely Doyle took second team reps at linebacker.
• Running back Paul Lucas was used as a wide receiver in instruction with offensive coordinator Rob Likens. Lucas received close advice, as Likens pushed him to imagine the presence of a defensive back while running his routes.

Notable Quotes from Coach Edwards

• On Sterling-Cole’s play in practice:
  • “He’s done a pretty good job. He’s familiar with the offense, obviously, and what I liked about him is that he knew that this was going to happen, (that) we were going to bring some young quarterbacks in. And if you look at him, he changed his whole body. He lost like, 20 pounds. He knows he’s got a great opportunity to be the starting quarterback here. He’s going to have to compete for it. It’s no one’s job. It’s about competition, and this thing’s going to go on until the summer.
  • “He’s trying to take some kind of leadership role in the fact that he’s the guy that’s been around; he’s actually played in some games. So now he understands, ‘I’ve got more experience in the fact that I’ve been around here, I’ve been in the program. I’ve actually played in some games.’ So use that to your advantage.”
• On what he wants to accomplish in the Spring: 
  • “The thing that we talked about was the mental errors that occur in football games. And we want to cut that in half. The fundamentals to help you become a better player are critical. We lost some pretty good players. We lost one of the better receivers in the country. Who’s going to step up? We lost our quarterback, one of the better quarterbacks in the Pac-12. So we lost some players that have played significantly in this system, especially offensively. Defensively, we’ve lost a couple players, especially up front on the defensive line. Nothing we can do about that right now. We’ll have four more defensive linemen coming in here. So troops are coming, we’ll be fine. The back end of our defense, it’s going to change when these four guys appear in the back end, that are pretty good players. The linebacker corps, that’s going to change a little bit. We’re going to have some more guys in there. I just think for guys right now, it’s about competing, it’s about getting better. Because we got to get better. We can’t stay the same. And I challenge them all the time, every day is a day that you can get better if you choose to.”

Depth Chart

First Team Offense 

QB: Dillon Sterling-Cole, Joey Yellen 

RB: Eno Benjamin, Isaiah Floyd 

WR: Frank Darby, Tyerell Baldonado-Kaeiopu, Brandon Aiyuk 

TE: Tommy Hudson, Curtis Hodges 

OL: Ralph Frias (LT), Alex Losoya (LG), Cohl Cabral (C), Cade Cote (RG), Steven Miller (RT) 

First Team Defense 

DL: Jermayne Lole, Shannon Forman (NT), George Lea

LB: Khaylan-Kearse Thomas, Case Hatch (MLB), Darien Butler 

CB: Kobe Williams, Timarcus Davis 

S: Aashari Crosswell (Tillman), Cam Phillips, Evan Fields 

Second Team Offense 

QB: Sterling-Cole, Yellen 

RB: A.J. Carter 

WR: Geordon Porter, CJ Jarmon, Angel Ruiz 

TE: Jared Bubak 

OL: Marco Salas (LT), Dohnovan West (LG), Jarrett Bell (C), Roy Hemsley (RG), Kyle Breed (RT) 

Second Team Defense  

DL: Michael Matus, Corey Stephens (NT), George Lea

LB: Ely Doyle, Darien Butler/Case Hatch (MLB), Kyle Soelle

CB: Chase Lucas, Terin Adams/Darien Cornay

S: Aashari Crosswell (Tillman), Alijah Gammage, KJ Jarrell 

OUT: Spencer Lovell (OL), D.J. Davidson (DL), Mark Walton (DL), Ryan Newsome (WR), Dominique Harrison (CB), John Humphrey (WR), Demetrious Flowers (RB), Zach Robertson (OL), Tyler Johnson (DL), Keith Davis (WR)

Not seen at practice: LB Merlin Robertson (Unknown), WR Kyle Williams (Academics), CB Langston Frederick

All quotes in this article were obtained by a secondhand source.