ASU Football: Progress amongst receivers, defensive line a theme of spring practice so far

Around this time a year ago, sports teams were pausing their seasons and shutting down their activities because of the growing COVID-19 pandemic. While the coronavirus is still raging, Arizona State Football is practicing in the spring this time around, making progress that has its coaching staff ecstatic.

The theme of Monday’s media availability was progress, as assistant recruiting coordinator and assistant wide receivers coach Prentice Gill spoke about freshman wide receiver Chad Johnson Jr.’s growth.

“He has come a long way and looks like he belongs now so I’m really excited about him,” Gill said. “He’s probably made the biggest turn.”

Freshman wide receiver LV Bunkley-Shelton was also mentioned as one of two players Gill thought has improved. The shifty slot wide out missed parts of winter workouts due to personal reasons, which made Gill more impressed with his leap.

Redshirt freshman wide receiver Andre Johnson, who played in three games last season and caught just one pass for 35 yards in the Sun Devils’ second game against UCLA, was also mentioned.

“Dre [Johnson] has been evolving a lot and the good thing is that he stays even keel and you can coach him hard,” Gill said. “He takes it, has been playing well this spring and he’s young and that’s the bright spot about this.”

Gill believes the experience the freshman receiving corps is getting against a secondary that consists of senior DeAndre Pierce, redshirt senior Jack Jones and redshirt senior Chase Lucas will contribute heavily to the group’s production.

“Those guys have seen a lot of ball, and it’s great since most of them have started for four years,” Gill said of the defensive backs. “The good thing is we don’t have to play against them on Saturdays, but they give us a really good look and challenge us.”

On the other side of the ball, ASU defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez said that it’s a competition between two players for who has shown the most growth in their game.

“I’m really proud of both [redshirt sophomore defensive lineman] Stanley Lambert and [freshman defensive lineman] Joe Moore for the progress they’ve made from our last game to now,” Rodriguez said. “We were starting to see those steps in our last two games in both guys but they’ve made even more progress in the right direction.”

As defensive ends, there’s no doubt the future is bright for Lambert and Moore given their age. Rodriguez said that they still have a long way to go in becoming all-around players, but he was still impressed with the steps they’ve taken so far.

“They’re both playing faster, with more body lean – their technique has improved exponentially and the angles they take to the football have gotten better,” Rodriguez said. “When they get to the contact point, they’re more aggressive, protecting their bodies better and they’re playing with better balance all around.”

Rodriguez acted as if Lambert has undergone a complete makeover the past year.

“He’s a different guy,” Rodriguez said. “It’s light years ahead of where he was last year. He’s had to make a lot of changes physically but more so mentally and emotionally. You’ve got to get your mind right to do some of the things the defensive line is asked to do and you’ve got to be a little tougher.”

The steps both players are making up front could help out an ASU secondary that allowed 252.5 passing yards per game in 2020, which ranked fourth-worst in the Pac-12. Rodriguez was pleased about the duo’s ability to make moves on offensive linemen instead of bull rushing, which creates a forceful pass rush and allows both to become better overall players.