(Photo: Aiden Longbrake/WCSN)
TEMPE — Six chapters into the Book of Judges, Gideon seeks reassurance before making a decision. He places a wool fleece on the ground and asks for a sign.
First, he asks that the fleece be wet while the ground remains dry. The next morning, he reverses the request for extra confirmation.
Growing up in a household of faith, Arizona State fifth-year defensive end Emar’rion Winston knows the story well. He has turned to it at some of the biggest crossroads of his life, including his first transfer to Baylor.
“There’s a story in the Bible that talks about laying a fleece down,” Winston said. “If it rains outside and the cloth is dry, then do you know to make a certain decision? That was what I went off of for my first time getting into the transfer portal.”
Winston’s faith was shaped in part by his family. His mother and grandmother served as missionaries, and his older brothers are outspoken believers.
A Portland native, Winston grew up an Oregon fan and spent his first three collegiate seasons living out his childhood dream. When he committed to the Ducks in 2022, Winston followed in the footsteps of his brother La’Mar, whose four years playing linebacker for the program ended with a 2020 Rose Bowl victory.
Another brother, Eli’jah, played linebacker for three years at USC, then transferred to Nevada for his final two seasons. Surrounded by brothers, Winston was challenged from an early age.
“They sharpen me to this day,” Winston said. “From getting beat up at the house all the way to learning pass‑rushing moves in high school when they would come to my games, or just talking to them on the phone after every game of high school. Even now, in college, we talk about effort.”
Winston has kept that connection close to him throughout his college career. Paying homage to La’Mar, Winston donned No. 32 at Oregon. He carried that number to Waco and initially opted for it again upon transferring to ASU.
When fall camp rolled around, however, Winston was wearing No. 4. This time, he mirrored Eli’jah, who switched from No. 34 — the same number La’Mar wore as a freshman — when he joined the Wolf Pack.
“I’m just repping my older brothers,” Winston said. “I was No. 32 in honor of my oldest brother, La’Mar, when he was at Oregon. My second‑oldest brother, Eli’jah, was at USC for a while wearing No. 34. He went to Nevada and was No. 4.”
Winston’s idea of brotherhood extends past family. Football creates bonds that go beyond blood, and church has brought him a similar sense of community.
For Winston, the hardest part of leaving Oregon was saying goodbye to the teammates he grew closest to.
“To leave all my guys at first was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do,’” Winston said. “After three years of playing for a team, you get an opportunity to build brotherhood at a place, similar to how I have here. I had a lot of brothers in Christ there.”
With the Bears, Winston found locker-room connections that reflected those he’d built as a Duck. In just seven months as a Sun Devil, he’s established more of those relationships.
Winston’s commitment to ASU reunited him with head coach Kenny Dillingham, who was Oregon’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2022. The two stood on opposite sidelines in 2023, as the Ducks won 49-13 at Mountain America Stadium. In 2024, ASU gave Winston an offer the same day he entered the portal.
Dillingham has praised Winston’s consistency. That steadiness carried into the weight room, where he gained 20 pounds over the offseason. Winston was previously asked to drop back in coverage occasionally, but the Sun Devils plan to use that added size up front.
“He’s been such a consistent player here,” Dillingham said. “This is the heaviest he’s ever been since playing football. We’re a little bit different scheme-wise; we don’t ask our ends to drop quite as much. He’s allowed to be a little bit bigger.”
ASU defensive line coach Diron Reynolds envisions Winston being an “edge guy,” responsible for rushing the passer and setting the edge on outside runs. Like Dillingham, Reynolds applauds his work ethic.
Reynolds also admires Winston’s off‑the‑field commitments, highlighted by his June engagement and wedding, both of which happened within the same week.
“I was ecstatic for him, he did it in a big-time fashion,” Reynolds said. “I’m glad to see a man with that type of maturity go ahead and make a big decision like that in his life.”
From 2022–23, he and his wife Ajanae were both athletes at Oregon. Ajanae played soccer for the Ducks before transferring to West Virginia, where she graduated.
Because their relationship began near the end of their time in Eugene, they immediately stepped into long-distance. Ajanae weighed a leap to the professional level, but chose marriage over continuing her career.
“We started off with distance,” Winston said. “She ended up deciding not to play pro ball. She wanted to be a wife, and I made her one.”
The couple has made it a point to let their faith guide how they build their life together. Early on, there were concerns about whether it was too soon for vows.
In the midst of wrestling with that idea, the two of them turned to Scripture for guidance. As conversations unfolded, they came to see marriage differently.
“I feel like the world has a certain viewpoint on marriage,” Winston said. “We were thinking of marriage as the worldly concept of, ‘I don’t know, it’s early,’ and we’re like, ‘But is it early?’”
Winston was taught by his family to let the Bible guide his next move. When faced with major decisions, he has returned to the story of Gideon’s fleece, seeking clarity before taking his next step.
“I prayed on it and I put my fleece down,” Winston said. “I have never wanted to transfer a lot, go to a lot of places and do a lot of things. But I just prayed on it, and it came out to be the right decision.”
