ASU football wrapped up its four-week, 15-session-long month of Spring Practice Friday night with the annual Maroon & Gold Practice at Sun Devil Stadium.
An early riser by nature, Arizona State coach Herm Edwards initiated Spring Practice almost a month before most Division 1 contemporaries. Like all daybreak endeavours, the decision was risky, but the second-year coach felt it was worth it.
“I think it’s going to pay dividends for us,” he said. “Especially in the weight room in the next seven weeks. We’re still building, (but) I like that we started early. I think it’s going to help us in the long run.”
Friday’s Maroon & Gold Practice was both the final Spring session and the first opportunity for this year’s team to play in Sun Devil Stadium. Previous trainings occurred in ‘shells’ (shoulder pads and helmets) without live tackling, but this experience incorporated full uniforms and ‘thudding,’ where players made initial contact before backing away.
The night’s only tackling took place during the thrill-filled ‘Oklahoma’ drill between offensive and defensive players. The offense took the crown thanks to blocks like this from Curtis Hodges.
#ASU WR Curtis Hodges with a monster pancake block to help RB Paul Lucas get in for the score. @Devils_Detail pic.twitter.com/wNWK2q50C0
— Schmidty (@TheEthanSchmidt) March 1, 2019
ASU also conditioned its four scholarship quarterbacks (Dillon Sterling-Cole, Jayden Daniels, Joey Yellen, Ethan Long) with stadium reps. All showed positive flashes, but as expected, there were some rough patches too.
“It’s still a competition,” Edwards said. “That’s the great part about it. This is their (the freshmen) first college Spring ball. They should be in high school right now.
“You got to take your hat off to them, because they understood that it was important for them to get to some college campus in the Spring, so they could compete. We’re fortunate enough that all three of those young guys decided to come here.”
Edwards said the team is looking forward to added depth in the summer – specifically with the defensive line and its remaining freshman class – to increase competition. Until then, the Sun Devils have a sample size to evaluate from early workouts.
Those talks will certainly revolve around the quarterbacks, which we’ll discuss with two more headlines that stuck out in Friday’s practice.