(Photo: Evan Barcanic/WCSN)
TEMPE — As the first week of ASU football spring practices continues to ramp up so does the energy at the Kajikawa Practice Fields. Several new faces are settling in with their new coaches and teammates, but plenty of old ones are lacing up their cleats, looking to prove how far they’ve come since last season.
Two of those players are sophomore defensive back Keith Abney II and redshirt freshman defensive back Montana Warren. The two second-year players from Texas are looking to fill holes in the secondary left behind by the likes of Jordan Clark, Ro Torrence, Chris Edmonds and Demetries Ford.
For Abney, it’s about building on his true freshman season in which he made the two-deep playing behind Torrence. Now, Abney is taking the lessons he learned from Torrence and the others and applying them to his play on the field.
“I learned a lot from (Torrence), (Ford), you know, just being able to know the game, how to prepare for games going into the gameday, know what to do with your body stuff like that, learning, studying releases and studying receivers plays,” Abney said. “I feel like my mental has grown a lot just sitting behind those veterans last year, learning from them. I feel like that’s helped me learn to take my game to the next level.”
Abney saw action in eight games last season with the Sun Devils, recording his first career interception against Oregon in November, one of only five ASU interceptions all season. While he may be only a sophomore, Abney is one of few returning defensive backs with on-field experience in the maroon and gold. With five freshmen in the position group, Abney has found his way as a leader, setting an example both in the classroom and on the field.
“I feel like I was always a lead-by-example type of person because I’m kind of quiet,” Abney said. “But I’ve been working on my vocal game just, talking to the younger guys, being a leader in the group just so they could follow along.”
Warren has his own approach to his second spring stint in the Valley. Last season, after a promising spring session and fall camp, he missed all but one game due to a preseason shoulder injury suffered at Camp Tontozona.
Although he couldn’t be on the field for most of the season, Warren worked with defensive coordinator Brian Ward to develop in other ways and level up his game from the sidelines.
“Off rip, I was like, ‘Dang,’ literally, like a couple weeks before the season happened,” Warren said. “I feel like I was going to have a great year, but after a while, I’m just like, ‘Shoot that stuff is in the past. I got to prepare myself for next year.’ So Coach Ward really … kept me in the film with everybody who’s playing in the game, so obviously, I was injured but I was still watching the same reps everything that they was doing, so I still got better mental, for sure.”
The former three-star prospect looks to stand out in a crowded group of talented safeties that runs deeper than last season’s squad. In addition to stepping up his football IQ, Warren also worked to make strides in his physicality to better match up with players at the Division I level.
“I was just making sure I got bigger over the offseason,” Warren said. “Everything else … that is natural. I just make sure I get bigger so I can play and hit some of these guys.
“My footwork is way better. Last year I was real jumpy because I kind of knew what I was doing but it wasn’t like, ‘Oh I’m confident in it.’ This year, my footwork, I slowed down. I got everything. I’m moving better. Everything’s just easier.”
Despite the injury, Warren was a leader in his own right. As just a freshman, he was voted to the team’s Leadership Council, finding a way to impact his teammates without actually playing. While Warren can’t quite pinpoint what led to his teammates electing him to that collective, he’s grateful that his fellow Sun Devils put that much trust in him.
Just like last year, Warren is looking to establish himself as a strong and consistent performer this spring, especially coming off the injury. A key tool in doing so will be his confidence, something he says has never really been a problem for him.
“Shoot, my confidence, if anybody knows me since I was little, ever since I started playing sports, my confidence been way up here, just off rip from anything,” Warren said. “But getting a pick and stuff like that, it helped me show that like, okay, my work (is) paying off. The stuff that I did in winter training and all that, that stuff is paying off, watching film all that stuff. Everything’s flowing down. It’s easy to see.”
Both players are a part of the defensive back group that has added loads of depth in the offseason. Thanks to a slew of transfers and incoming freshmen, there’s plenty of competition pushing Abney, Warren and the rest of the position group to perform their best this spring.
“When you say comfortability, when you get to this level, you can’t get comfortable,” Warren said. “You can’t get comfy. If you get comfortable that’s when you get passed up. So especially with having a lot of talented people in the room, you got to stay on your stuff.”
