43. Arizona State Sun Devils |
#6 in Pac 12 |
It’s early, but so far the Herm Edwards experiment hasn’t been the complete disaster everyone assumed it would be. His first year was uneven, with a pair of big wins over Michigan State and Utah, both of whom were ranked in the top 15 at the time, but also 6 losses in probably the weakest Power 5 division, missing out on the Pac 12 title game. Now the conference’s third least prolific passing offense has to try and figure out how to cope with the graduation of multi-year starting quarterback Manny Wilkins, and the early departure of N’Keal Harry, the most physically gifted receiver in the conference, and likely no worse than the third receiver taken in the NFL Draft. Kyle Williams showed flashes as a sophomore that he was ready to break out, but even with Harry eating up coverages across from him, Williams’ junior year fell flat. He’ll have another chance, along surprise performer Brandon Aiyuk, to lead the receivers this year. The Sun Devils are quite set at starting running back, with Eno Benjamin, the Pac 12’s leading rusher, returning. How many more carries can his body take though? Benjamin didn’t just lead the conference in carries, he had 45 more carries than any other player. Isaiah Floyd (45 carries), Trelon Smith (11 carries) and A.J. Carter (4 carries) had the other 60 combined running back carries for the team. Smith, along with two other backs, already announced their plans to transfer, leaving a thin backfield even thinner. If Benjamin misses any time, this offense could get really ugly, and even if he doesn’t it’s hard to envision it working with any meaningful reduction to his workload. The quarterback job is wide open, it’s three freshmen, and Dillon-Sterling Cole, whose experience consists of two incomplete passes last season. The defense, particularly the back eight in Danny Gonzales’ 3-3-5 scheme, has a chance to be really, really good. But the line could be really, really bad. Arizona State had the conference’s third worst run defense a season ago, and that was with big Renell Wren in the middle. Wren may have been the most disruptive nose tackle I saw all season. Jalen Bates on one side of Wren, along with two other linemen, have announced their intentions of transferring. George Lea likely takes over in the middle, but those three man lines in college football generally swing with that man in the middle, and they weren’t good last, even with one of the best. The back seven was young, talented, and undisciplined. That’s part of the reason the Sun Devils’ defense was far better in passing downs than standard downs. But they had the Pac 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year in true freshman Merlin Robertson, another true freshman, Aashari Crosswell, be named all conference, and it was sophomore Chase Lucas who led the team in interceptions. Last year they also started a number of seniors, six were at least part time starters. This year, there is none of that, with the projected spring depth chart only having one senior and two juniors. As many as eight underclassmen could be starting. So the ones who were ahead of schedule last year need to not just improve their play, but become leaders too. Guys like Wren and Koron Crump and Jalen Harvey aren’t there for that anymore.
| KEY PLAYERS |
RB | Eno Benjamin, Junior |
WR | Kyle Williams, Senior |
C | Cohl Cabral, Senior |
| . |
LB | Merlin Robertson, Sophomore |
CB | Chase Lucas, Junior |
S | Aashari Crosswell, Sophomore |