Our daily countdown series continues with full steam ahead, and with 87 days remaining until Sun Devil football returns, we take a look at one of many accomplished Arizona State tight ends in Chris Coyle.
Arizona State once had a reputation as Tight End U, thanks to players like Todd Heap and Zach Miller, and it helped convince several tight end recruits to pick the Sun Devils. Coyle was one such player. A late riser in the recruiting class of 2009, Coyle earned offers from big time schools like Oregon, Boise State, Washington and UCLA.
He stuck with the Sun Devils, though, hoping to become the next great tight end to come out of Tempe.
What Coyle didn't know is that he was entering college at a time of great change, both for Arizona State and the tight end position. After his redshirt sophomore season, Coyle saw head coach Dennis Erickson fired and Todd Graham hired. Graham brought in Mike Norvell as his offensive coordinator, who modernized the offense to the spread, rising in popularity, which generally meant fewer opportunities for tight ends.
Coyle stayed determined, though. He had been working hard on special teams the past two years, racking up multiple tackles and even recovering a fumble at one point, but he was now the top tight end on the depth chart.
In that first year with Graham and Norvell running the show, Coyle proved so reliable that they were forced to tailor their scheme to him. Coyle finished with 57 receptions and 696 yards, both of which led the team by considerable margins.
Coyle's numbers experienced a decline the next year, largely thanks to the arrival of one Jaelen Strong who rightly hogged all the targets, but Coyle remained productive. He caught 29 passes for 423 yards and four scores, finishing top four in receiving.
Unfortunately, the fluctuation impacted Coyle's future prospects, as he was undrafted in 2014. Coyle signed on with the Texans after the draft, but never made the active roster, eventually calling it quits on his NFL career.
Coyle's legacy is a complicated one, given the timing of his arrival in college and how it coincided with the position being heavily phased out of modern offenses. The tight end has made a comeback in recent years, but Coyle missed out on that.
Still, he remains as the leading receiver on that 2012 team that ushered in a new era for Sun Devil football, and that's worth remembering with 87 days left until kickoff.