(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Arizona State Football head coach Herm Edwards and redshirt senior defensive back Chase Lucas spoke to the media after spring practice on Monday. Here are the highlights from what both said during the availability.
Edwards glad to have young players in live scrimmages, excited for receiving corps
Edwards echoed a statement that assistant recruiting coordinator and assistant wide receivers coach Prentice Gill said last week about practicing against an experienced secondary.
“I talked to the offense the other day and I told them that when you break it down, you’re going against a pretty talented back end when our starters are out there and they got a lot of football experience,” Edwards said. “Those are the type of players you’re going to compete against.”
The Sun Devils return a young receiving corps for the most part heading into 2021. Of the 777 receiving yards gained as a unit in 2020, 633 of those yards return, with the two losses being tight end Curtis Hodges and wide receiver Frank Darby.
Edwards is excited about the rapport sophomore quarterback Jayden Daniels is building with his receivers.
“I think for the most part Jayden is starting to get comfortable with a few of them,” Edwards said. “I think they’ve done a nice job and are starting to get a feel for them and that’s kind of fun to watch.”
Edwards was happy to get the younger players into live action in an inter-squad scrimmage on Saturday. The veteran head coach usually doesn’t prefer to tackle in practice, but said that ASU did so in its scrimmage and will again on Sunday in the Maroon and Gold Spring Practice.
Last season, the Sun Devils endured a major COVID-19 outbreak with Edwards himself contracting the virus, forcing ASU to cancel three games. After the adversity faced, Edwards is thrilled to be practicing on a consistent basis this spring.
“The enjoyment of being together as a team and the chemistry is coming together since we’ve had this solid month of football,” Edwards said. “It has been a lot of fun and watching them bond has been a ton of fun to watch.”
Lucas hopes ASU legacy is “legendary”
Lucas uttered the word “legendary” eight times during his nearly 14 minute session with the media on Monday, saying his hopes to fulfill the description was the reason why he decided to return to ASU for one more season.
The senior credits equipment manager Jerry Neilly for saying that Lucas could become a “Chandler, Tempe, Arizona legend.” Lucas told reporters that after that conversation, he was officially back as a Sun Devil.
“I didn’t come back here to be average,” Lucas said. “I didn’t come back here to be good. I came back here to be legendary, to be great.”
But when asked about what makes him “legendary,” Lucas talked about the room for improvement in his game.
“I feel like what’s going to make me legendary is me separating myself from how I was my freshman, sophomore, junior, and last year,” Lucas said. “Whether it’s film, it’s me getting in the weight room, I just feel like there’s always room for improvement and until I feel like I’ve done everything I can to check off all those boxes, I’m not going to be legendary.”
Lucas, like his head coach, is also thrilled about the Sun Devils’ chemistry heading into the fall.
“This is probably the most talented group I’ve ever been a part of,” Lucas said. “The camaraderie is something you just got to see for yourself because we’ve got 20-plus guys in the defensive backs room and not one person hates on another. That was something that I never had coming up here.”
Lucas has been named a captain for the 2021 season, and credits fellow redshirt senior defensive back Jack Jones for shaping him as a leader.
“When he stepped in, everybody knew who Jack was,” Lucas said. “Having that presence, swagger, athleticism and being that type of ball player that he is just kind of really just stepped up my game. I felt like I needed to grow and I needed to have a reality check. I believe that he was my reality check. After I handled things off the field, everything started getting correlated to on the field and things started to happen for me positively for good.”
Lucas spoke about a time last year when then-co-defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis got on players for not taking notes during meetings, and how that stressed the importance of details.
“I believe we took that into spring ball and it’s like now we knew what we were doing before we touched the field,” Lucas said. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the coaches. They’ve done a phenomenal job teaching us.”
