Scott Sandulli is back and here's his practice report
Offense
First Team
OL
LT Isaia Glass
LG Slone Finau
C Leif Fautanu
RG Cade Briggs
RT Emmit Bohle
QB
Jaden Rashada/Trenton Bourguet
Rashada and Bourguet shared reps, but most 11v11 first-team reps went to Rashada. Drew Pyne was not in pads for practice due to a minor hamstring injury at Camp Tontozona last week.
RB
Cam Skattebo
DeCarlos Brooks
Skattebo and Brooks rotated reps, with a slight favor to Brooks in terms of total snaps.
WR
Elijhah Badger
Xavier Guillory
Melquan Stovall (slot)
TE
Jalin Conyers
Bryce Pierre
Even split of first-team reps between Conyers and Pierre at tight end
Second Team
OL
LT Bram Walden
LG Kyle Scott
C Ben Bray
RG Sean Na’a
RT Max Iheanachor
QB
Trenton Bourguet
RB
Kyson Brown
WR
Max Ware
Andre Johnson
Gio Sanders (slot)
TE
Jalin Conyers
Messiah Swinson
Even workload on the second team for Conyers and Swinson
With the aura and beauty of Payson in the rearview mirror, the Sun Devils returned to the Kajikawa practice fields relaxed, and recharged for another week of practice. Maybe a little too relaxed, though.
Head coach Kenny Dillingham expressed major displeasure with the performance of the offense on Monday’s practice, mostly with their passion and effort.
“On offense, we didn’t have passion,” Dillingham said after practice. “We gotta have passion. If you don’t have passion, if it doesn’t piss you off, if you don’t have a good day, if it doesn’t frustrate you, something is wrong. We have no chance of being a good offense if we don’t have it. Zero. None. Negative chance of being a good offense if we don’t have passion.”
It wasn’t just something that was wrong to Dillingham at practice, but nearly everything from the first period on. The team tempo segment ran for over an hour, eight drives in total, nearly double its usual allotment. With flags aplenty on the offensive line and overall sloppy play from the unit, both Dillingham and offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin suggested the unit’s physical and mental conditioning wasn’t at the level it needed to be.
“We gotta get in better football shape,” Dillingham stressed. “We gotta be more mentally tough as a football team.”
“We need to get in better shape,” Baldwin added.
As the coaching staff hopes for more out of their players, they also weren’t shy about pinning the blame of a rough session on themselves. Monday’s practice marked the first of a new offensive rhythm, and Baldwin knew there would be growing pains with that.
“We put in some new cadence stuff,” Baldwin noted. “Going through the first day of a new cadence, we gotta get through that. I think that set us back a little bit. You gotta go through setbacks, but I like the direction we’re headed even if there’s a ton of stuff to learn off of today.”
“We put in different cadence variations, and instead of doing a four-play rack, we did an eight-play rack,” Dillingham noted. “So, we put in two different types of adversity in the same period. We put in the mental adversity of ‘new cadences are hard.’ Ask any spread, tempo offense.”
Unfortunately for Dillingham, the team didn’t march to the beat of the new drum that well. The offensive intensity wasn’t on par with that of its defensive counterparts on Monday, specifically from the offensive line who committed well over double-digit false starts and holding penalties across all periods. The out-of-sync linemen seemingly spread the bad vibes throughout the offense, as pass breakups and inefficiencies on route running held the offense back.
With Drew Pyne still nursing a minor hamstring tear, Jaden Rashada got the opportunity to take first-team reps and was plagued with inconsistency. Throughout position drills, he would hit streak routes over the middle with ease, leading his receiver in perfect stride, whereas underthrows held him back on sideline routes. Rashada exhibited great pocket awareness through much of the 11v11 periods though, scrambling out of the pocket and throwing out of sacks when necessary.
Baldwin noted the increased snaps for Rashada with Pyne out but didn’t offer any guarantees.
“Both Jaden and Trenton will get a lot of reps, and we’ll see how that plays out,” he said.
Playing with the second team mostly, Trenton Bourguet played with rhythm under center, and the offense was far less erratic with him as the signal-caller. His first two go-arounds of team tempo may have been the only bright spots of that period, as the returning starter led consecutive touchdown drives through short passes and extending plays. Bourguet would command the first team on a few drives of the 11v11 segment as well, moving the ball each time but failing to get into scoring range.
The passing game wasn’t much to write home about today, but Melquan Stovall got his headlines by finding open space over the middle throughout practice. His speed out of the slot got him free early and often for medium pickups through the air. Other than Stovall though, the pass catchers couldn’t get much going, as much of the secondary played stingy defense with several pass breakups in 11s. Elijhah Badger did show some chemistry with Jaden Rashada to make a highlight reel grab near the sideline for a huge chunk, along with a few short grabs as well. Xavier Guillory reeled in a touchdown off the tip drill in the tempo segment too. Coben Bourguet got in on the action with a touchdown of his own, making a grab in traffic towards the end of practice from brother Trenton. Most pass-catching drills today were focused on catching in stride over the middle of the field and reeling in sideline balls for the catch and go. Tight end Bryce Pierre stood out in this aspect, his long strides helping him get to the deep ball
Not much relief could be found through the ground game either, as gaps off the line were not plentiful. Even when they were, ball security became an issue, especially with a DeCarlos Brooks fumble in the offense’s end zone early in the 11s. Cam Skattebo ran well off the tackles in the open field, but little gain could be made going up the gut for the ASU backs Monday. Their position drills today consisted mostly of breaking through the line to the second level with tackle dummies and buckets.
Despite all of Monday’s shortcomings, Baldwin isn’t worried about the performance becoming a trend and more so just a bump in the road.
“They’re all separate,” Baldwin said, in reference to each practice of the preseason thus far. “If we took a step down in these areas, what do we gotta do to sharpen these areas tomorrow? Whenever you put in something that’s really brand new (cadences), there’s gonna be certain things that come with that. That’s what I felt a little bit today.”
Baldwin even sees Monday’s showing as a wake-up call for the team as well.
“It was good for us, it was good for us to have to go through that,” Baldwin remarked.
Offense
First Team
OL
LT Isaia Glass
LG Slone Finau
C Leif Fautanu
RG Cade Briggs
RT Emmit Bohle
QB
Jaden Rashada/Trenton Bourguet
Rashada and Bourguet shared reps, but most 11v11 first-team reps went to Rashada. Drew Pyne was not in pads for practice due to a minor hamstring injury at Camp Tontozona last week.
RB
Cam Skattebo
DeCarlos Brooks
Skattebo and Brooks rotated reps, with a slight favor to Brooks in terms of total snaps.
WR
Elijhah Badger
Xavier Guillory
Melquan Stovall (slot)
TE
Jalin Conyers
Bryce Pierre
Even split of first-team reps between Conyers and Pierre at tight end
Second Team
OL
LT Bram Walden
LG Kyle Scott
C Ben Bray
RG Sean Na’a
RT Max Iheanachor
QB
Trenton Bourguet
RB
Kyson Brown
WR
Max Ware
Andre Johnson
Gio Sanders (slot)
TE
Jalin Conyers
Messiah Swinson
Even workload on the second team for Conyers and Swinson
With the aura and beauty of Payson in the rearview mirror, the Sun Devils returned to the Kajikawa practice fields relaxed, and recharged for another week of practice. Maybe a little too relaxed, though.
Head coach Kenny Dillingham expressed major displeasure with the performance of the offense on Monday’s practice, mostly with their passion and effort.
“On offense, we didn’t have passion,” Dillingham said after practice. “We gotta have passion. If you don’t have passion, if it doesn’t piss you off, if you don’t have a good day, if it doesn’t frustrate you, something is wrong. We have no chance of being a good offense if we don’t have it. Zero. None. Negative chance of being a good offense if we don’t have passion.”
It wasn’t just something that was wrong to Dillingham at practice, but nearly everything from the first period on. The team tempo segment ran for over an hour, eight drives in total, nearly double its usual allotment. With flags aplenty on the offensive line and overall sloppy play from the unit, both Dillingham and offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin suggested the unit’s physical and mental conditioning wasn’t at the level it needed to be.
“We gotta get in better football shape,” Dillingham stressed. “We gotta be more mentally tough as a football team.”
“We need to get in better shape,” Baldwin added.
As the coaching staff hopes for more out of their players, they also weren’t shy about pinning the blame of a rough session on themselves. Monday’s practice marked the first of a new offensive rhythm, and Baldwin knew there would be growing pains with that.
“We put in some new cadence stuff,” Baldwin noted. “Going through the first day of a new cadence, we gotta get through that. I think that set us back a little bit. You gotta go through setbacks, but I like the direction we’re headed even if there’s a ton of stuff to learn off of today.”
“We put in different cadence variations, and instead of doing a four-play rack, we did an eight-play rack,” Dillingham noted. “So, we put in two different types of adversity in the same period. We put in the mental adversity of ‘new cadences are hard.’ Ask any spread, tempo offense.”
Unfortunately for Dillingham, the team didn’t march to the beat of the new drum that well. The offensive intensity wasn’t on par with that of its defensive counterparts on Monday, specifically from the offensive line who committed well over double-digit false starts and holding penalties across all periods. The out-of-sync linemen seemingly spread the bad vibes throughout the offense, as pass breakups and inefficiencies on route running held the offense back.
With Drew Pyne still nursing a minor hamstring tear, Jaden Rashada got the opportunity to take first-team reps and was plagued with inconsistency. Throughout position drills, he would hit streak routes over the middle with ease, leading his receiver in perfect stride, whereas underthrows held him back on sideline routes. Rashada exhibited great pocket awareness through much of the 11v11 periods though, scrambling out of the pocket and throwing out of sacks when necessary.
Baldwin noted the increased snaps for Rashada with Pyne out but didn’t offer any guarantees.
“Both Jaden and Trenton will get a lot of reps, and we’ll see how that plays out,” he said.
Playing with the second team mostly, Trenton Bourguet played with rhythm under center, and the offense was far less erratic with him as the signal-caller. His first two go-arounds of team tempo may have been the only bright spots of that period, as the returning starter led consecutive touchdown drives through short passes and extending plays. Bourguet would command the first team on a few drives of the 11v11 segment as well, moving the ball each time but failing to get into scoring range.
The passing game wasn’t much to write home about today, but Melquan Stovall got his headlines by finding open space over the middle throughout practice. His speed out of the slot got him free early and often for medium pickups through the air. Other than Stovall though, the pass catchers couldn’t get much going, as much of the secondary played stingy defense with several pass breakups in 11s. Elijhah Badger did show some chemistry with Jaden Rashada to make a highlight reel grab near the sideline for a huge chunk, along with a few short grabs as well. Xavier Guillory reeled in a touchdown off the tip drill in the tempo segment too. Coben Bourguet got in on the action with a touchdown of his own, making a grab in traffic towards the end of practice from brother Trenton. Most pass-catching drills today were focused on catching in stride over the middle of the field and reeling in sideline balls for the catch and go. Tight end Bryce Pierre stood out in this aspect, his long strides helping him get to the deep ball
Not much relief could be found through the ground game either, as gaps off the line were not plentiful. Even when they were, ball security became an issue, especially with a DeCarlos Brooks fumble in the offense’s end zone early in the 11s. Cam Skattebo ran well off the tackles in the open field, but little gain could be made going up the gut for the ASU backs Monday. Their position drills today consisted mostly of breaking through the line to the second level with tackle dummies and buckets.
Despite all of Monday’s shortcomings, Baldwin isn’t worried about the performance becoming a trend and more so just a bump in the road.
“They’re all separate,” Baldwin said, in reference to each practice of the preseason thus far. “If we took a step down in these areas, what do we gotta do to sharpen these areas tomorrow? Whenever you put in something that’s really brand new (cadences), there’s gonna be certain things that come with that. That’s what I felt a little bit today.”
Baldwin even sees Monday’s showing as a wake-up call for the team as well.
“It was good for us, it was good for us to have to go through that,” Baldwin remarked.
