(Photo: Courtney Pedroza/WCSN)
With dark clouds on the horizon, the Sun Devils proactively moved their practice inside the Verde Dickey Dome on Wednesday to avoid the possibility of rain.
The practice, which started later than usual and ended earlier than usual for the media, didn’t give reporters much of a look at the team’s work, outside of warmups and a defensive walkthrough on the other side of the dome.
Still, there were interesting notes, including Carlos Mendoza in practice with a white jersey after several weeks featured the sophomore linebacker observing from the sideline.
Mendoza on the mend
The play of freshman linebacker D.J. Calhoun has been a positive for the ASU defense so far in 2014, but had it not been for an injury to another linebacker, Calhoun likely would’ve been relegated to a backup role.
It was redshirt sophomore Carlos Mendoza who had a strange hold on the WILL linebacker position in fall camp after he took the role away from Calhoun early in August. After a tumultuous career that has featured a season-ending shoulder injury in 2012 and struggles to return from that injury in 2013, Mendoza appeared primed to make an impact, but was sidelined once again.
On Wednesday, Mendoza shed the green, non-contact jersey that he has worn since Camp Tontozona and the linebacker didn’t hide his excitement to be back on the field with his teammates.
“It feels really good right now to be out here practicing with the team again,” Mendoza said. “I’ll just say from a personal standpoint, my knee and everything feels great.”
While Mendoza said he’s currently at about 80 percent in his recovery from the injury, he did say he will play against UCLA. His bigger concern is catching up on lost time, as he said he’s behind on his footwork and mechanics after a month out of action.
“It’s just slowing down my keys and taking my first steps right… everything else will come to me. I’ve got the instincts to play football.”
Mendoza first described the injury as “a meniscus slight, partial tear,” although he hesitated shortly thereafter to even call it a tear. “It was more flipped up rather than torn, so they just had to put it back down and scrape a little off and I was fine to go.”
While the linebacker is still wearing a bulky brace on his knee, he was a full go in practice on Wednesday and excelled in contact drills. How much he will play, given the recent impact of Calhoun, is something we can only guess about at this point, but the Sun Devils defense is better with Mendoza healthy than it is with him in green.
Practice Notes
– Laiu Moeakiola was again in a green practice jersey and appeared to have a brace on his right shoulder. He didn’t participate in contact drills once again, but had no problem running with the team in warmups. Todd Graham said yesterday that Moeakiola will play against UCLA, so there’s probably nothing to see here.
– Highly-touted junior college transfer Eric Lauderdale has struggled to adjust to the speed at ASU since arriving and it looks like the wide receiver will likely spend the entire 2014 season catching up rather than playing. For the first time, Lauderdale wore a gold scout team jersey on Wednesday which would seem to indicate this will be a redshirt season for the junior.
– During the defensive walkthrough portion of practice, the team appeared to work on a blitz package that resembled more of a 3-4 defense. With Marcus Hardison, Jaxon Hood and Demetrius Cherry down as lineman, De’Marieya Nelson and Antonio Longino rotated as Devil-backers used in different ways than the traditional edge rushing role. While they sometimes were sent off the edge, the blitz package also featured Nelson and Longino blitzing up the middle.
