Much like their in-state rival Arizona, the Sun Devils are also in the 2nd year of a change at head coach. At the end of 2017 Arizona State fired Todd Graham and hired their 24th head coach, Herm Edwards, a 64 year old former NFL coach who had not been on the field since being fired by the Kansas City Chiefs at the end of the 2008 season. In addition, his only college experience was 30 years previously as defensive backs coach at San Jose State. Needless to say, the hiring was met with stinging criticism from all directions. Pete Themel in an article he wrote on November 29, 2017 entitled, “Coaching carousel: Why Herm Edwards to ASU just doesn’t make any sense,” calls out Arizona State AD Ray Anderson for, “short-sightedness, puzzling decisions, [with the] potential to ostracize his fan base. According to Themel the initial report on the hiring that emerged from 247Sports was, “greeted with a loud laugh track in college and NFL circles.”
A funny thing happened a couple of weeks later after the Sun Devils knocked off No. 15 Michigan State 16-13 with a time expiring field goal in a brilliantly managed game. Casey Pazzalia writes an article in heatwaves.com entitled, “Herm Edwards Has Resurrected Defense, Attitude at Arizona State.” In spite of the fact that he came to that conclusion just two weeks into the season, it turned out to be a correct assessment. In 2017 the Sun Devils were allowing about 40 points a game. Under Edwards they were able to knock that down to under 30 while going from 88th in points allowed to 53rd. In addition to knocking off Michigan State they also knocked off Utah who ended up winning the PAC-12 South More importantly, going into this coming year, they lost by only a single score to both Washington and Stanford and only by 3 points to Oregon. They became bowl eligible with still three games left and even though they lost to Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl, 31-20, Fresno State ended up being ranked 19th and 21st nationally in the final AP and CFP Polls.
The great thing about all that improvement on the defense is that most everyone’s coming back in 2019 as ASU had the youngest defensive unit in the PAC-12 and loose only three starters from last year. That includes three outstanding linebackers including Merlin Robertson, last year’s PAC-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year, and what has developed into a great secondary. That said, having lost both their QB Manny Wilkins and uber talented wide receiver N’Keal Harry, replicating their offense will be the biggest challenge. As pointed out by Athlon Sports in their writeup, “Arizona State Football: 2019 Sun Devils Season Preview and Prediction,” the Sun Devils were the lone Power 5 program to have a 1,500-yard rusher, 3,000-yard passer and 1,000-yard receiver.” They should be solid in close games with Junior Field Goal Kicker, Brandon Ruiz who was 80% at 40-49 yards and according to Athlon; “The Sun Devils believe they’ve upgraded at punter with the addition of Michael Turk, a transfer from Lafayette,” which should help in getting the opponent in a position where they have a lot of work to do against a solid defense to score.
Bottom line, look for Eno Benjamin who rushed for over 1,500 yards last year-most in the PAC-12- to tear it up on the ground behind a returning offensive line. If their projected QB Jayden Daniels, the top-rated QB in California in the class of 2019-pans out and a couple of good receivers emerge, Arizona State could end up surprising Utah in the South. The Sun Devils start out their season at home on Thursday, August 29th, against Kent State then meet Sacramento State the following Friday. They’ll be on the road September 14th for a rematch against a Michigan State team who travelled to Arizona State in the 2nd game of the year in 2018, ranked at No. 15 in the nation, only to get beat with a last second field goal. Having also lost to Oregon by 1 point in the Redbox Bowl last year I don’t imagine the Spartans are feeling all that warm and fuzzy about the PAC-12. That should be a tough and interesting game to watch. Arizona State opens up conference play on Saturday, September 21st at home against Colorado.