ASU Preview: Coach Edwards Returns to Where Playing Career Began
Much of buzz in Tempe this week is about the “homecoming” of Arizona State head coach Herman Edwards, who leads the Sun Devils (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12) into Memorial Stadium Friday night.
The game itself has considerable importance for ASU. Coming off a major upset of then-24th-ranked Michigan State on Sept. 14, Arizona State was 3-0 and had visions of glory. Then the Sun Devils stumbled at home on Saturday night to Colorado, picked to finish last in the Pac-12 South. So Friday night’s game against 15th-ranked and undefeated Cal (4-0, 1-0) in Berkeley is close to a “must-win” for ASU, which has Washington State, Utah, UCLA and USC looming after a bye week.
But Edwards (above, center)j is also a big story. He played two years at Cal, in 1972 and 1974, before transferring to San Diego State. Still, Berkeley holds a place in his heart.
“I never thought in my lifetime when I went to college there, and then when I went to San Diego State, that I’d actually be visiting these campuses again,” said the second-year ASU coach, whose team played at SDSU last season. “I’ve been back numerous times, but not as a coach. The world is a circle, it is. I can remember a lot of great memories walking through that stadium as a player and playing with a pretty good football team. It’s my first college I attended as a freshman back in 1972. Seems like it was just yesterday. A lot of memories for me.
“When I go up and visit that campus, taking my daughters there, and kind of just showing them where Dad first went to college, just to give them a spectrum of where their dad was before they were even born. And it’s kind of interesting to walk over there, so this will be kind of interesting to walk through that place, and I’ll be the coach. … San Diego State was one thing, and now I’m going back to this place, you’ve got to be kidding me. So it’ll be a lot of fun.”
Mike White, who was Cal’s head coach at the time, remembers the former defensive back very well.
“He was the first person I recruited, ” White said by telephone this week from his Southern California home. “He is an interesting guy, and a great athlete.”
But Edwards’ stay at Berkeley was interrupted and abbreviated. He played in 1972 then went to junior college. “He left after one year, saying it (Cal) wasn’t a good fit for him,” White said. “And then he came back (in 1974) for another year before he left again. It’s too bad it didn’t really work out.”
Edwards did manage to intercept four passes in one game, which is still the Cal single-game record. “I remember that game,” White said. “He was something else.”
White had followed Edwards’ career, and the two crossed paths several times when they were both coaching in the NFL. “We don’t see each other a lot, but we’re friends,” White said. “I saw him at the Hall of Fame in August, we were there for Tony Gonzalez. We had some good moments together.”
And White has noticed what Edwards has done at ASU, where last year he took a team with low expectations to a 7-6 record and a bowl game and briefly cracked the rankings this season.
“I am really impressed with the job he’s done,” White said. “He was out of coaching for a number of years (ESPN analyst 2009-17). He’s very smart and he’s got charisma. And he has hired himself a great staff.
“He’s a good person and he’s got enthusiasm, but that doesn’t always get you wins. You’ve got to know what you’re doing. It seems like he was ready for this job. He knew what he wanted to do and he knew how he wanted to do it.”
Granted this year’s opposition, aside from Michigan State, was not the strongest (Kent State, Sacramento State), but Edwards’ team was second in the country in scoring defense, 7.0 points per game, until Colorado scored 34 Saturday. The Sun Devils are particularly good against the run, giving up just 103.3 yards per game on the ground.
“They play a lot of funky fronts,” said Cal offensive tackle Jake Curhan this week.
And under defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales the Sun Devils do present some unusual alignments. They generally start in an unusual 3-3-5 configuration with three down linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs. But that can change while the quarterback is calling signals.
Linebackers move up to the line, linemen drop back and DBs get up close to the offense. Evan FIelds a defensive back known as a Tillman safety in Gonzales’ terminology, can line up anywhere from the middle of the field to the end of the defensive line. All of this makes it hard for an offense to find out where the trouble is coming from.
“They are physical up front with their front four and they’ve got good skill in the linebackers,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said.
Sophomores Merlin Robertson, last year’s conference Freshman Defensive Player of the Year, and Darien Butler were expected to the mainstays of the linebacking corps coming in, but senior Khaylan Kearse-Thomas is finally living up the billing he brought into the program.
Kearse-Thomas is credited with 15 defensive “stops” this season, tied for fifth among Pac-12 linebackers while Butler is not far behind him in eighth with 14. They rank 19th and 29th, respectively, among all Power Five linebackers.
Linebackers coach Antonio Pierce said recently that K-T had the best spring of any of the linebackers. “You can see his body’s changed, his mindset has changed, he’s physical, pays more attention to detail,” Pierce told the ASU media. “He’s the guy that probably coming out of high school everybody thought he was going to be, and look, it ain’t too late.”
Although they did not have a sack against Colorado, the Sun Devils like to go after the quarterback, which puts pressure on the secondary. They are usually up to the task. Corners Chase Lewis and Kobe Williams are capable of shutting down even the best receivers.
Safety Cam Phillips, a redshirt freshman who started the first four games, dislocated an elbow against Colorado and is doubtful for Friday night. True freshman Willie Harts, a local boy from Pittsburg, will start in Phillips’ place.
“Willie Harts is equally as talented as Cam Phillips,” Gonzales said. “He hasn’t played (much). In the first four games, he probably has 60 snaps total. (Phillips) has played at a really high level. He’s probably been, play-for-play our most productive player as far as tackles, pass breakups, being in coverage, doing the right things. So, it’ll definitely hurt not having him out there on Friday. Willie is very talented and smart so he’ll be in a lot of the same places. So can he perform under the light? We’ll find out.”
Beau Baldwin and Chase Garbers will probably help them in that regard. Harts will be tested.
The Sun Devils have a Cal connection on the offensive side, too. Coordinator Bob Likens spent two years (2013-14) on Sonny Dykes’ staff in Berkeley. Not surprisingly he runs a version of Dykes’ “Air Raid” offense.
The most important offensive player is also one of the least experienced. Freshman Jayden Daniels, a native of San Bernardino, was one of country’s top high school quarterbacks in 2018. Now he is the man at ASU, having taken every QB snap so far. He has completed 71 passes in 116 attempts for 1,073 yards and five touchdowns. He has thrown just one interception, but that was against Colorado and it hurt.
“Jayden’s been doing an awesome job,” senior wide receiver Kyle Williams said. “He’s a great, young, poised quarterback. You know, that’s all you can ask from a kid. ...And now it’s our job, the seniors and the line, me and all the upperclassmen, to basically come around Jayden and lift him up.”
He had his best game against Colorado, albeit in a losing cause. He was 24-for-39 for 345 yards and two scores.
In Brandon Aiyuk (22 catches, 424 yards, two touchdowns), Williams (15, 130, 0) and Frank Darby (7, 188, 1) Daniels has three talented wide receivers. And he also has another weapon at his disposal.
“When in doubt, just turn around and hand it off to Eno Benjamin. That kid is a get-out-of-jail-free card," Likens said of what he has stressed to his rookie quarterback. "You don’t have to feel the pressure and the world is not on your shoulders and so we have a good run game, we work on our run game, it’s not a secret. If we were to put a pyramid up of how we designed our offense, the bottom of that pyramid is the run game. That’s the base foundation so just trust in the base foundation."
Benjamin, a 5-10, 201-pound junior, has a relatively modest 292 yards on 77 carries this year. But he set a school single-season record with 1,642 yards last year. He is also a fine receiver and pass blocker.
The offensive line, which going into the season was expected to be one of the most experienced in the country, has been shuffled because of injuries and departures. ASU now starts two freshmen along with three seniors on the O-line, Still, they seem to be holding their own.
Punter Micheal Turk leads the nation with an average of 50.4 yards per punt. Cristian Zendejas is the latest in a long line of the Zendejas clan to kick at ASU. He is 9-for-10 on his field-goal tries this year.
Notes
- Cal leads the series 18-16 and has won five of the last seven, although ASU won the last meeting, which was in 2016.
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Benjamin has scored a touchdown in six consecutive games.
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The Sun Devils have scored double-digit points in 123 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the FBS and the second-longest streak in the modern era of football behind only Louisiana Tech (2008-18).
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Aiyuk has at least one catch of more than 40 yards in each of the four games this season.
- Turk set an NCAA record when he averaged 63.0 yards per punt in the season-opener against Kent State.
- The Sun Devils played 25 freshmen in the season opener (15 true, 10 redshirts) - the most at ASU since freshmen became eligible in 1972.
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