(Photo: ASU Athletics)
“Good teams don’t rebuild, they reload.”
That has been the mantra of head coach Todd Graham throughout the course of fall practices leading up to last night’s season opener—a game in which ASU came away with a 31-point victory, yet still showed vast room for improvement on both sides of the ball.
While the performances of many Sun Devils can be referenced as evidence to support Graham’s claim that ASU is not in rebuild mode, no performance exemplifies it better than that of DJ Calhoun.
“DJ Calhoun,” Graham said in the post-game press conference. “He made some mistakes, but man let me tell you something, he is tough; he is going to be a great player; he wants to learn—bright-eyed. Really pleased with him. He and Smallwood—two true freshman starting. They aren’t afraid at all. I love how they attack things. I love how they listen. They want to learn; they want to be great.”
His stats on the night may not scream domination: five tackles, one pass breakup. But as a true freshman performing in his first collegiate football game, Graham believed his presence and attitude were far past his years.
“(The hardest thing) is staying focused,” Calhoun said. “You come out and you have all that adrenaline. But once you make that first hit, you just start settling down.”
And “hit” is all Calhoun did throughout the entirety of the game. He and defensive end Jaxon Hood combined to bottle up and drive backwards Weber State running back Zach Smith at the one yard line to prevent him from scoring on fourth down. Calhoun also made his presence felt on special teams when he and Devilbacker De’Marieya Nelson raced down the field to deliver a devastating blow on Weber State return man Bo Bolen at the 10-yard line.
In fall camp, Todd Graham stated multiple times that the biggest question mark on the defensive front was who would fill the void of Chris Young at the WILL linebacker position. Located on the weak side, inside area, a WILL linebacker under ASU’s scheme is normally the most athletic, most flexible and most blitz-oriented player amongst the group.
With a mix between massive size and blistering speed being a prerequisite for mastering the position, there were some concerns that Calhoun’s 6-foot, 205-pound frame would be overmatched.
Graham cried malarkey on that speculation.
“I don’t worry about DJ’s size at all. I keep having to tell him to quit ramming into 300-pound lineman though. He is strong and tough and I just love him. He is a joy to coach during the game. I just love the guy. He was awesome.”
It should be noted that linebackers in a 3-4 defense, which ASU employs, do not need to cover as much ground as linebackers in a 4-3 defense. However, since ASU’s fourth linebacker is the Devilbacker, who routinely ball hawks with the defensive line (somewhat converting ASU’s defense into a 4-3 scheme), the other three linebackers are forced to take on bigger workloads and more complex assignments.
Of course it was only Weber State, but if last night is any indication of what is in store for Calhoun the rest of the season, the loss of the production from players like Will Sutton, Carl Bradford and Davon Coleman will be much less pronounced.
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