Walk-on to difference maker: How Derek Eusebio found his role

(Photo: Jack Simon/ WCSN)

Arizona State needed a big-time play, and it got one from a seemingly unlikely source.

The Sun Devils were in the middle stages of the fourth quarter against Baylor, on the road at McLane Stadium. The first game of Big 12 Conference play for both teams was a tense fight but the Bears were one play away from a significant moment swing; they had taken a one-point lead on the previous drive and were threatening to get the ball back after sacking redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt to push the Sun Devils to third-and-13 at their own 13.

With home fans donned in green and gold trying their best to turn the building into an auditory nightmare for ASU, Leavitt called for the snap.

He dropped back, scanned the field, and then saw him, rarely utilized redshirt sophomore wide receiver Derek Eusebio, wide open down the middle. Leavitt launched a bomb in his direction, and Eusebio hauled it in around midfield, extending the play to Baylor’s 26-yard line before being tackled for a 61-yard gain.

Eusebio – who had only caught his second career reception the drive before and didn’t know the full extent of the play call when he lined up in the slot pre-snap – let his instincts take over, and it paid off. With one play, he injected life into his offense, helping set up a Leavitt touchdown pass that put the game back under Sun Devil control, and emerged himself as a threat that ASU and its opponents had to take seriously.

“We weren’t trying to take a shot,” Eusebio said. “We went 11-personnel, and it was just a middle read, and they left the middle wide open. I was like, ‘Shoot, I’ll take this,’ just happy Sam saw me, he threw right down there. Everyone else did their job so I could do it.”

Eusebio’s big play has earned the 21-year-old significant praise from fans, coaches and the media. With ASU’s offense searching for threats outside of redshirt junior wide receiver Jordyn Tyson and the running back room, he’s positioned himself for that praise to transform into more snaps.

Eusebio wouldn’t be in this position if he didn’t grab the rare opportunity by the horns – something that’s been a theme throughout his life. He wasn’t highly touted coming out of high school and had to walk onto ASU’s roster in 2023. After making the team, he had to fight and prove himself to earn playing time and a scholarship. It’s only after outworking all those odds that Eusebio has asserted himself as a potential piece of the puzzle.

“I’ve been underestimated my whole life,” Eusebio said after ASU’s 27-24 win over Baylor. “Just have to be in that dog mentality, I feel like that’s what (head) coach (Kenny Dillingham) just praises to all of us. Just knowing all these guys around me have that dog in them too, so I’m not going to lesser my average just because I’m a walk-on. I play right next to them.”

Eusebio grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, one of the nation’s hotbeds for quality high school football prospects. It’s there, though, that the underestimations began for the undersized 5-foot-9 receiver.

In his senior year of high school, he led Parish Episcopal to a TAPPS 11-man Division I State title as its star receiver – posting a team-leading 60 receptions for 762 yards and 13 touchdowns along the way – but was listed as a zero-star recruit by 247Sports and didn’t receive a single FBS scholarship offer.

Eusebio, nevertheless, tried his hardest to get schools to notice him. He attended multiple camps hosted by collegiate football programs but only ever caught the eyes of one person: former ASU wide receivers coach Ra’Shaad Samples. Samples liked what he saw and wanted Eusebio to be a Sun Devil, but even then, the Texan didn’t receive a scholarship offer, just an invitation to walk-on.

Still, it was an opportunity.

“My family told me that they would back up my decision, whatever I chose,” Eusebio said. “I was just like ‘Man, I might as well just do it. I’ve been working my whole life, and I love football, so might as well just owe it to myself. I don’t really want to leave any regrets behind.’”

Eusebio’s first two years at ASU were, for the most part, outwardly quiet. He redshirted his true freshman year and only appeared in four games the next go-around, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t grinding behind the scenes.

Eusebio bought into the culture from the start, working to grow as a player and person. He attended bible studies with teammates and grew close to Tyson – who he now lives with – off the field, and got to work on the field. Even when Samples left ASU for Oregon after the 2023 season and was replaced by Hines Ward, he didn’t miss a beat, standing out during the Sun Devils’ trip to their preseason Camp Tontozona facility prior to the start of the 2024 season.

“I saw my growth, for myself, for the first time,” Eusebio said. “It was just like, ‘Dang, that’s really huge.’ Everything these coaches are telling me, everything’s really working. They were telling me it was working.”

In spite of noticeable improvement, Eusebio only touched the football once during the first 11 games of the 2024 season, registering a 5-yard run against Wyoming. Eusebio’s first chance to catch a pass would have to wait until the fourth quarter of ASU’s 49-7 victory over Arizona in Tucson.

It ended up being a play that was worth the wait.

Eusebio caught a screen pass from redshirt senior QB Trenton Bourguet in the backfield, made a man miss, and ran 64 yards into the endzone for his first career touchdown, putting himself on the map.

“I actually didn’t want that play, to be honest,” Eusebio said. “Our defense plays that play kind of different, their nickle kind of fires and probably blows me up most of the time, but they played man and I just had to make one guy miss. … God works in mysterious ways.”

While Eusebio was ecstatic when he scored, celebrating the occasion with his teammates, but the play meant even more two days later. During ASU’s Monday meeting, Dillingham told Eusebio, surrounded by his teammates, that he was going to be placed on scholarship. The news sent his peers into a frenzy, but for the coaching staff, it was a long time coming.

“He earned it,” Ward said. “All the guy did was make plays, never complains, he comes, brings his lunch to work each and every day, put his head down, and I think guys just gravitated to him, just out of respect of how his approach to practice is.”

Getting placed on scholarship was a massive achievement for Eusebio, but he was still yet to crack the rotation. It was back to pushing and waiting for an opportunity to arise while never giving up.

That opportunity, of course, eventually came in Waco.

The Sun Devils have started the 2025 season struggling to get the ball to wide receivers not named Jordyn Tyson. The struggle is partly due to a string of injuries to redshirt junior Jalen Moss, who entered the season penciled into the slot receiver role. To get around the hump, Dillingham and offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo have often utilized 12-personnel sets – meaning more reps for tight ends and less for wide receivers – but on that crucial third-and-13, the duo wanted Eusebio on the field, and he made them look like geniuses.

“I always tell these guys, stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,” Ward said. “When your opportunities call, let’s take full advantage of it. … Myself, Arroyo, we got to find ways to get him in the game. Because every time we put him in the game, he’s in the right spot.”

Eusebio was humble on the Tuesday after the Baylor game, claiming that whether or not he plays going forward, he’s bought into the plan and it’s “just whatever it takes to make the team win.” The fact of the matter, though, is that after impressing the coaching staff behind the scenes for so long, and taking advantage of every opportunity that’s come his way, Eusebio has primed himself for – at the very least – a shot to be an impact player.

“You can trust him,” Dillingham said. “At the end of the day, the messaging to offense was I want people who’ll play as hard as they possibly will play, that we can trust, will be where they’re supposed to be and do what they’re supposed to do. That’s somebody (Eusebio) who will do both those things. … He does all the little things right. … You can win with people who do things right.

“Let’s underthink the coaching and overthink the player.”