ASU Football: Walk-ons get scholarships; Wilkins at backup

(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)

Practice in the bubble concluded on quite the bubbly note, as head coach Todd Graham presented two scholarships to walk-ons, those being sophomore long snapper Mitchell Fraboni, and sophomore running back Jacom Brimhall.

“It was everything that you could feel put into one,” Brimhall said. “Thinking back of everything of last year, being on scout and just wanting to get the scout team as best we could and this year giving it everything I had and as soon as he said my name I just started crying. I couldn’t hold it, it was special.”

The first to jump up and congratulate Brimhall was former walk-on and now senior captain safety Jordan Simone, the rest of the team then followed his celebratory lead.

Linebacker Competition

The kickoff to the Sun Devils’ season is only 15 days away, and what appeared to be the starting defense in practice wasn’t far off from what is to be expected.

“We’re tight knit man, we’re like a real brotherhood,” redshirt junior linebacker Salamo Fiso said. “It’s all about trust on defense, trusting that the guy next to you is going to do his job.”

Despite a significant portion of the defense returning, there is still a lot of competition. Especially for the linebacker position. Fiso along with sophomores Christian Sam and DJ Calhoun are just some of the names in that group battling to get more time on the field.

“I hope guys will continue to improve,” head coach Todd Graham said. “There’s a lot of competition at linebacker… I hope there’s continued competition throughout the year.”

With the deep competition at linebacker, it gives the younger guys more of an opportunity to show what they can do, and in Fiso’s eyes one guy has stood out in particular.

“My boy Alani Latu,” Fiso said. “He just comes every day and works. See him in pass rush he works, in team he works, and he’s not giving up.

Manny Wilkins backing up Bercovici

While there may not have been any question about who will start at quarterback for the Sun Devils this season, there is uncertainty in regards to who will be the understudy to redshirt senior Mike Bercovici.

As the team arrived to practice, Bercovici and redshirt freshman Manny Wilkins were wearing the quarterback-designated grey jerseys, while true freshmen Brady White and Bryce Perkins were in the yellow, scout team jerseys.

“We’ve got the other two young guys down here because I think they can help us get prepared to play for possibly two quarterbacks we’re going to see,” Graham said. “Obviously we would like for Manny to step up and to be that number two guy, but I still think all three of those guys are really close.”

Sure enough as the second team offense took the field for a hurry-up session, Wilkins was under center and no reps were given to neither White nor Perkins in that session.

Practice Notes

–       Redshirt junior receiver Tim White, who has been getting reps with the first team offense, had a cast on his left hand. He was in a green no contact jersey.

–       Sophomore running back Jacom Brimhall ran with the second team offense in the hurry-up session.

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