(Photo: Reece Andrews/WCSN)
The defensive back position hasn’t been a question for Arizona State Football in a long time.
Former Sun Devils like Jack Jones and Chase Lucas have held down the role for the team for the better part of the last five years. Those two pieces are gone, and ASU is left with two significant silhouettes in the secondary.
The changing of guard isn’t only on the field but on the sideline as well, with former defensive backs coach Donnie Henderson being promoted to defensive coordinator and former Missouri assistant Aaron Fletcher filling in for Henderson.
The changes as a whole flummox the Sun Devils’ secondary heavily.
However, during Wednesday’s press conference, one couldn’t sense a looming doom about the departure of the two long-time Sun Devils, but rather saw excitement for the competition that will fill those spots.
“Everybody feels like they have the opportunity to really play,” sophomore defensive back Isaiah Johnson said. “Right now, we’re all in a rotation to figure out who fits best with who in certain coverages.”
The uncertainty after the departure of Jones and Lucas created excitement for the young guys last year, and the transfers have created a competitive environment. In this current ASU secondary, one of the veteran Sun Devils is redshirt junior Jordan Clark, who touched on how much he has loved the energy so far in spring practice.
“It’s been amazing,” Clark said. “It brings in competition, and brings in competition for the new guys as well. But ultimately, how we’ve taken it is we bringing in another brother, another guy you can lean on on Saturdays and in practice every day.”
Clark has been with the program since 2019 and has learned from Jones and Lucas firsthand. The pair taught the Louisiana-native a lot about being the pinnacle of the ASU program on the field while also being a leader off it.
“[With Jones, it was] confidence – supreme confidence. You got to think you’re the best player in the world,” Clark said. “[With Chase, it was his] passion and love for the attention to detail. Chase came into this building every day, for however many years he was here, and he was happy to be here. He made sure everybody else was on the same page.”
Clark knows he’ll be the leader of an ASU secondary that is going through a coaching change with Fletcher at the helm, but the junior was adamant that the defense will be the same as last year. A big part of that was some of the transfers that the Sun Devils could garner, with former Samford safety Chris Edmonds and former Hawaii safety Khoury Bethley stepping up early in spring practices.
“Physically, I think we’re in a really good place,” Clark said. “We’re bigger, stronger, faster than we were last year. Mentally, guys are really picking up on what we’re trying to do. The way we recruit, the people we brought in filled in the holes that we needed to fill, and I think we’re pretty complete as a defense. I’m pretty excited.”
Edmonds was one that Clark highlighted having embraced ASU’s culture and as someone who’s been great energy for the team. ASU’s secondary has become close in a short amount of time, and redshirt sophomore defensive back Willie Harts points to Fletcher as a big part of that change.
“More with Fletcher, it’s, ‘How can you be better as a person in life and how can you uplift others next to you?'” Harts said. “We’re beyond looking at football. We’re like, ‘What do you think about career goals if you don’t make it to the NFL?’ and, ‘If you do make it, what do you plan to do after that?’ So, we’re beyond those steps to make sure we’re succeeding beyond football and more [so] in life.”
Fletcher has implemented the idea that players should uplift one another, learn about any struggles that teammates are going through – whether it’s schoolwork or home life – to build chemistry that’ll transfer onto the field. The phrase “community over individual” has rang through the halls of ASU’s practice facility so far this spring and, and that idea can seemingly already be seen on the field.
“It works good because it’s making us a better person outside of football,” Harts said. “We’ll hang out more, and when we’re on the field when one person makes a play, the whole field gets electrifying. We’re way focused on each other instead of individual goals.”
Working for a group instead of one’s own stats has been the message from Fletcher to the group. With the many open starter spots, the newbie in Fletcher has tried to teach everyone everything.
“We’re focusing on developing everybody, to the point that if somebody goes down, it’ll pick up very fast so nobody will miss a beat,” Harts said. “We learn everything dynamic instead of a robot in their position. So not knowing who the starter is or who’s going to play, it helps out more because it helps [separate] who cares about who’s going to start [to more so], ‘Are you going to know what to do when you get in?’ t
“That’s what matters to us.”
Harts believes Fletcher has taught all the new and old players how to mesh together.
“It’s just the time that we’ve spent together,” redshirt junior defensive back Alijah Gammage said. “This group has been together for about three or four years, wholesome years. So, that’s pretty much the main thing, and we’re doing meetings outside of lifting together, all the little things that make us close.”
Gammage claims that there are “no more weak links” in this Sun Devils’ secondary, and part of that is because of Fletcher’s philosophy and the now-veteran defensive backs stepping up. Johnson mentioned how Gammage had been one of the players whose stepped up to be a leader, but Gammage claims that everyone has done that.
While ASU’s defense might be the same scheme wise, Johnson is still learning a lot of tricks up his sleeve.
“We gotta keep that closed up. We can’t tell y’all,” Johnson chuckled on the new sets from Fletcher. “There’s not really that much of a transition. With Fletcher, we learn a lot more new techniques so far. I like the way he coaches. He’s very vocal, and he keeps it all the way real with you.”
While ASU enters the 2022 season perhaps counted out because of the program’s substantial changes, the team is internally ready to embrace that.
“We play better as underdogs when nobody believes in us – telling us what we can’t do,” Clark said. “Honestly, we just roll right into it. We’re a team full of underdogs. I think we’ve just accepted it. Just take it and run with it.”
