Tuesday was a great day for the Arizona State defense on the Kajikawa Practice Fields and featured very little success for the ASU offense. While the offense tacked on a few explosive plays late, due mostly to Kalen Ballage running through tackles, the quarterbacks struggled to find much of anything against the secondary and running between the tackles was hard to come by.
That was partly aided by the return of Marcus Ball, who returned to his spot as the starting SPUR linebacker in the absence of Laiu Moeakiola. Prior to back spasms on Thursday that kept him out on Saturday, Ball was having one of the best springs of any player on the team and he continued those successful ways on Tuesday.
As was the case on Saturday, Mike Bercovici, Jordan Simone and Lloyd Carrington all still had Pat Tillman 42, camouflage jerseys on and were joined by several players wearing Inferno helmets. I'm sure Byron will give a run down of the offensive players in flame helmets, so it was James Johnson, Ronald Lewis, A.J. Latu, DeAndre Scott and Salamo Fiso in the Inferno helmets on defense.
The full two-deep for 11-on-11s on Tuesday was as follows:
1st Team
DL: Edmond Boateng (DE), Demetrius Cherry (NOSE), Tashon Smallwood (TIGER), A.J. Latu (DEVIL)
LB: Antonio Longino (WILL), Salamo Fiso (SAM), Marcus Ball (SPUR)
DB: Lloyd Carrington (Field CB), Kweishi Brown (Boundary CB), Jordan Simone (Bandit S), James Johnson (Free S)
2nd Team
DL: Renell Wren (DE), Connor Humphreys (NOSE), Ami Latu (TIGER), Ismael Murphy-Richardson (DEVIL)
LB: D.J. Calhoun (WILL), Christian Sam (SAM), Carlos Mendoza (SPUR)
DB: Solomon Means (Field CB), Ronald Lewis (Boundary CB), Dasmond Tautalatasi (Bandit S), Chad Adams (Free S)
Keep in mind that the WILL and SAM linebacker spots have featured constant rotation and, while it was Longino and Fiso, that started in the lineup for the first 11-on-11 drill, Sam and Calhoun got plenty of reps as well.
Sam continues to stand out to me as the best of the inside linebackers and I think it's going to be hard to keep him off the field. He plays every rep like it's the Rose Bowl and has been in a scrap with just about every offensive player. Sam got a talking to from Jackie Shipp and Todd Graham after he ripped off his helmet in celebration for a fourth down stop.
Longino is another player who doesn't really know any speed under 100 percent and he consistently delivers the biggest hits in practice. The senior has a knack for carving his way to the line of scrimmage and meeting running backs, but on one of the last reps of the day he had a collision that left him slow to get up. Trainers helped him take off his helmet and two people assisted him to the side, which he didn't return from.
Otherwise, it was a pretty healthy day for the defense that had Ball back in the lineup. It looked like Carlos Mendoza injured his right elbow on one play, but he ran back in for the next rep and immediately got in a scrap with freshman offensive lineman Steven Miller.
The most interesting thing at practice was some experimentation by the coaches with Demetrius Cherry on offense and Kalen Ballage on defense.
While one-on-one pass rush drills were happening, Ballage worked to the side on pass rushing drills with new outside linebackers coach Shawn Slocum and got just a few reps as a Devilbacker. He didn't have much success at getting to the passer, but it'll be interesting to see if that's a spot that he continues to get time at.
Cherry played just a little bit as a blocking tight end, essentially an extra offensive tackle, during inside running drills. Not too surprising considering he's 6'5, 298 pounds and able to fire off the ball.
If you're thinking Ballage's time as a Devilbacker is an indictment of the play of the others at the position, that's probably fair. Ismael Murphy-Richardson is very good in one-on-one pass rushing drills and has the size and athleticism to get after opposing quarterbacks, but he's a liability any time the team is in 11-on-11.
One of the only successful plays of the day for the offense came when Brady White pulled the ball back on a read option and ran more than 60 yards for a touchdown. That happened because Murphy-Richardson came off the edge, committed fully to the running back and ran right by White. There's plenty of potential there, but growing still needs to be done.
To wrap things up, one player I've picked on a lot is cornerback Ronald Lewis, who I expected to be soon replaced in the two-deep by Jayme Otomewo. Lewis bounced back in a big way on Tuesday and even had an interception of White, who was looking for Ellis Jefferson deep. Lewis almost had another pick just a few minutes later and he looked stout as a run defender, even recording one of the defense's seven tackles for loss. Maybe it was the flame helmet, maybe it was No. 16 that he was wearing instead of No. 17, but whatever it was needs to keep happening.
As always, I'm ready to answer any questions about the defense in the comments.
That was partly aided by the return of Marcus Ball, who returned to his spot as the starting SPUR linebacker in the absence of Laiu Moeakiola. Prior to back spasms on Thursday that kept him out on Saturday, Ball was having one of the best springs of any player on the team and he continued those successful ways on Tuesday.
As was the case on Saturday, Mike Bercovici, Jordan Simone and Lloyd Carrington all still had Pat Tillman 42, camouflage jerseys on and were joined by several players wearing Inferno helmets. I'm sure Byron will give a run down of the offensive players in flame helmets, so it was James Johnson, Ronald Lewis, A.J. Latu, DeAndre Scott and Salamo Fiso in the Inferno helmets on defense.
The full two-deep for 11-on-11s on Tuesday was as follows:
1st Team
DL: Edmond Boateng (DE), Demetrius Cherry (NOSE), Tashon Smallwood (TIGER), A.J. Latu (DEVIL)
LB: Antonio Longino (WILL), Salamo Fiso (SAM), Marcus Ball (SPUR)
DB: Lloyd Carrington (Field CB), Kweishi Brown (Boundary CB), Jordan Simone (Bandit S), James Johnson (Free S)
2nd Team
DL: Renell Wren (DE), Connor Humphreys (NOSE), Ami Latu (TIGER), Ismael Murphy-Richardson (DEVIL)
LB: D.J. Calhoun (WILL), Christian Sam (SAM), Carlos Mendoza (SPUR)
DB: Solomon Means (Field CB), Ronald Lewis (Boundary CB), Dasmond Tautalatasi (Bandit S), Chad Adams (Free S)
Keep in mind that the WILL and SAM linebacker spots have featured constant rotation and, while it was Longino and Fiso, that started in the lineup for the first 11-on-11 drill, Sam and Calhoun got plenty of reps as well.
Sam continues to stand out to me as the best of the inside linebackers and I think it's going to be hard to keep him off the field. He plays every rep like it's the Rose Bowl and has been in a scrap with just about every offensive player. Sam got a talking to from Jackie Shipp and Todd Graham after he ripped off his helmet in celebration for a fourth down stop.
Longino is another player who doesn't really know any speed under 100 percent and he consistently delivers the biggest hits in practice. The senior has a knack for carving his way to the line of scrimmage and meeting running backs, but on one of the last reps of the day he had a collision that left him slow to get up. Trainers helped him take off his helmet and two people assisted him to the side, which he didn't return from.
Otherwise, it was a pretty healthy day for the defense that had Ball back in the lineup. It looked like Carlos Mendoza injured his right elbow on one play, but he ran back in for the next rep and immediately got in a scrap with freshman offensive lineman Steven Miller.
The most interesting thing at practice was some experimentation by the coaches with Demetrius Cherry on offense and Kalen Ballage on defense.
While one-on-one pass rush drills were happening, Ballage worked to the side on pass rushing drills with new outside linebackers coach Shawn Slocum and got just a few reps as a Devilbacker. He didn't have much success at getting to the passer, but it'll be interesting to see if that's a spot that he continues to get time at.
Cherry played just a little bit as a blocking tight end, essentially an extra offensive tackle, during inside running drills. Not too surprising considering he's 6'5, 298 pounds and able to fire off the ball.
If you're thinking Ballage's time as a Devilbacker is an indictment of the play of the others at the position, that's probably fair. Ismael Murphy-Richardson is very good in one-on-one pass rushing drills and has the size and athleticism to get after opposing quarterbacks, but he's a liability any time the team is in 11-on-11.
One of the only successful plays of the day for the offense came when Brady White pulled the ball back on a read option and ran more than 60 yards for a touchdown. That happened because Murphy-Richardson came off the edge, committed fully to the running back and ran right by White. There's plenty of potential there, but growing still needs to be done.
To wrap things up, one player I've picked on a lot is cornerback Ronald Lewis, who I expected to be soon replaced in the two-deep by Jayme Otomewo. Lewis bounced back in a big way on Tuesday and even had an interception of White, who was looking for Ellis Jefferson deep. Lewis almost had another pick just a few minutes later and he looked stout as a run defender, even recording one of the defense's seven tackles for loss. Maybe it was the flame helmet, maybe it was No. 16 that he was wearing instead of No. 17, but whatever it was needs to keep happening.
As always, I'm ready to answer any questions about the defense in the comments.
