(Photo: Reece Andrews/WCSN)
Arizona State Football held its 15th and final spring practice on Saturday in front of fans at Sun Devil Stadium for its annual Spring Showcase.
While many looked to the spring showcase to find answers on the quarterback competition, they were left with more questions than answers.
All five quarterbacks took snaps, and while redshirt juniors Trenton Bourguet and Paul Tyson are considered the front runners, redshirt sophomore Daylin McLemore performed on par with the two of them. With all three planning to focus on themselves during the break, McLemore still believes the starting job is anybody’s role to win.
“I feel like the quarterback competition is still open, just coming and competing every day, seeing where it goes from there,” McLemore said. “I feel like each and every practice I was able to improve a little bit, get more comfortable and make more plays each and every day.”
The three spoke after the game and expressed the inability to evaluate their place in the competition, leaving that to the coaches. However, the coaching staff wasn’t able to provide much of an answer either, insisting on needing to watch more tape to further evaluate the quarterbacks.
“It’s hard to say in the context of what it was,” new offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas said. “I wouldn’t want to say any particular names, but it was good that they all got reps and we’re able to evaluate more film moving forward.
“Daylin got in today and made some good throws. He’s been fantastic for us, so I think it’s very fluid, I wouldn’t want to say any particular names, but we’ve been trying to be as consistent as we can getting all those guys through there”
ASU head coach Herm Edwards was similarly vague.
“It’s competition in that room and we’ll just see where it goes,” he said. “We compete around here and then you make decisions, and you try to get better, so that’s where we’re at.”
Quarterback wasn’t the only position where coaches believe more film study is needed before making any judgments. Defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez spoke on the defense as a whole and what stood out to him.
“I mean we feel good, but not great,” he said. “There’s obviously things that you leave on the field that we need improvement with. …We’ve grown. We’ve gotten better as a whole. There’s a lot of guys in that group that have really improved a whole bunch, but if we’re going to be where we want to be, today was a good example.
“…There’s just a lot of stuff that you leave on the field that it’s plenty to grow on.”
Unlike Edwards and Thomas, Rodriguez was able to find a few names who impressed him on defense.
“I think it was [redshirt junior defensive back] Keon [Markham] that made a good tackle for loss right there, so we got that and I think it was Khoury [Bethley], our new safety transfer from Hawai’i, [who] made a big play. That was really exciting.”
I’m [also] looking at the D-line, so I saw [sophomore defensive lineman] Gharin Stansbury make a couple plays and I saw those guys do some good stuff, so hopefully, we’ll see them grow from that.”
While answers were far and few between when it came to individual performances, coaches on both sides of the ball were excited to see players adjusting well to new coordinators, systems and play-calling on offense and defense.
“Coach [Juston] Wood and I were just joking coming down, [that] it’ll be fun re-teaching it and installing it the second time, so they’ll have heard it two or three times,” Thomas said. “It just sinks in at another level, so it’ll be fun moving into training camp. We’ll learn it hopefully more at a meticulous level.”
On the defensive side, Rodriguez has it a tad easier, given that the system is not largely being changed.
“I know my guys really appreciate it that we’ve kept a lot of things, for the most part, the same, but every play-caller has a rhythm, and so as we get into this, getting used to everything, the guys get used to the play-calling rhythm and it’ll all be great,” Rodriguez said. “The biggest thing is that he kept everything, for the most part, the same and I know the kids played fast because of it.”
While all of the players were excited to be back under the lights at Sun Devil Stadium in front of friends and family, it was the new transfer students who seemed the most enamored with their new home in the Pac-12 Conference.
“It was fantastic,” Tyson said. “This place is great. You can see a couple of the mountains right over here, so it was definitely a real cool and great atmosphere, you know, playing at night, that’s always something special, and we play at night around here a lot so I got something to get used to.”
Coming from schools outside the Power 5, graduate running back Xazavian Valladay and redshirt senior offensive lineman Emmitert Bohle were amazed by the stadium’s environment.
“This nice,” Valladay said. “I ain’t never had nothing like this. We’re in the Pac-12 so, just cherishing it, you know the night lights, this real nice. I stepped on here, I was a little lost for real, but it’s all good.”
Bohle added: “Definitely a lot bigger stadium [than I’m used to]. It was good to get out here though. Not a whole lot of fans tonight, but still a good show out, so that’ll be a big change when that comes around of course, but it was good to be out here tonight for sure.”
With a break now approaching before organized team workouts resume in the summer, many players are prepared to take the necessary steps to improve their game. Whether it’s putting on weight in the case of Bourguet and sophomore linebacker Eric Gentry, or getting more familiar with teammates and the playbook in the case of the quarterbacks, the Sun Devils plan on taking no breaks, with the hopes of improving themselves for next season.
Edwards won’t be taking any breaks either. He plans to spend his “break” watching film to evaluate his current players.
“The coaches go on vacation tomorrow for a week,” he said. “I’ll be here tomorrow like I was the last time, got a lot of tape to watch here. See, when the coaches are gone, I get to really watch tape. I don’t have to worry about those guys. I just watch tape, I watch players, I sit in there, obviously.
“[Associate AD for Football Player Personnel & Recruiting] Andy [Vaughn] is here now. Andy better get ready because we’re going to watch a lot of tape together next week.”
Edwards also plans to spend some time digging into the transfer portal to potentially bring in some more fresh faces.
“We’ve got some more guys to bring in,” Edwards said. “We’ve got, I think seven, eight scholarships left and there’s some guys that we’re going to bring them in here. They’re ready to come. …We’re going to add guys to the roster, now. It’s just how it works and that’s why I think every year we’ve been here, that we always [have] five or six in the pocket because you know something’s going to happen. Spring ball is going all over the country. We’ve gotten transfers in before, now they have this thing called a portal.”
Players were back in action on Monday following the showcase. They’ll go through a couple of weeks of team workouts before splitting off on their own for the summer to prepare for the 2022 season.
