ASU Football: Observations from 2022 Spring Showcase

(Photo: Reece Andrews/WCSN)

Saturday night marked the conclusion of Arizona State Football’s spring practices. The “Spring Showcase” event started with players participating in positional drills, 7-on-7s and 11-on-11s.

Here are some observations from the 2022 Spring Showcase.

Quarterback Battle

The biggest question of spring ball remains unanswered, as there is no definitive option at quarterback after Saturday night. The question came to the forefront of ASU after junior quarterback Jayden Daniels entered the transferred portal and eventually landed at LSU.

Currently, the Sun Devils have five quarterbacks on the roster: two redshirt juniors in Trenton Bourguet and Paul Tyson, redshirt sophomore Daylin McLemore, redshirt freshman Finn Collins and freshman Bennett Meredith.

Bourguet and Tyson have received most of the reps observed by the media, but ASU head coach Herm Edwards has not declared the quarterbacks’ status amongst each other.

Tyson led all quarterbacks with 20 snaps during the live 11-on-11 session and was followed up with Bourguet’s 16 and McLemore’s 17 snaps. Finn and Meredith rounded out the night with 8 and 9 snaps, respectively.

Bourguet and Tyson led all quarterbacks in throwing, with both completing five of their nine attempts. McLemore had one more completion than each of the redshirt junior duo but did so in 11 attempts.

Most of Collins’ and Meredith’s snaps were used in the running game, but both managed to get a handful of throws. Collins’ completed two of his three attempts, while Meredith went 2-for-4 on the night.

Defense Remains the Same

When Antonio Pierce resigned from the Sun Devils, Edwards decided to promote from within rather than bringing in an external voice. When new defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson spoke to the media on March 19, he told reporters that the players who “finished the [Las Vegas Bowl] game” were the ones starting on defense. For the most part, Henderson has stayed true to his words and has made the most of a defense that has a lot of returning pieces despite big names departing. Below are the groups that ASU started the showcase with on Saturday.

First Group

Redshirt senior left end Michael Matus, redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott , redshirt senior defensive tackle Tautala Pesefea, redshirt junior right end Anthonie Cooper, sophomore outside linebacker Eric Gentry, fifth-year senior inside linebacker Merlin Robertson, redshirt fifth-year senior inside linebacker Kyle Soelle, senior outside linebacker Kejuan Markham, redshirt junior cornerback Keon Markham, redshirt sophomore cornerback Ed Woods and senior safety Chris Edmonds.

Second Group

Redshirt senior left end Stanley Lambert, freshman defensive tackle Robby Harrison, graduate student defensive tackle B’Ahmad Miller, redshirt sophomore right end Joe Moore, redshirt sophomore linebacker Will Shaffer, redshirt sophomore linebacker Caleb McCullough, redshirt junior linebacker linebacker Connor Soelle, redshirt junior defensive back Jordan Clark, redshirt sophomore defensive back Macen Williams and graduate student safety Khoury Bethley.

Penalties

Last season, ASU committed 113 penalties, which ranked as the most in the Pac-12 Conference. The penalties committed played a major role in ASU’s struggles and arguably cost the Sun Devils certain games.

On Saturday, much of that remained the same, as the Sun Devils committed multiple holding calls and even acquired a false start penalty.

While the Spring Showcase event marks the conclusion of ASU’s spring practices, but Edwards said after the showcase that he and his players will be back in the facilities on Monday.