Arizona State football practice report (4.13.24)

TEMPE, Ariz. — Spring practice practice No. 9 is in the books for Arizona State football. Due to Pat’s Run, practice was pushed to 6:30 pm on Saturday, the first evening practice of the spring.

The practice featured two long periods of scrimmaging, here is our practice report.

Practice Report

Tempo is apparent

It would not be a Kenny Dillingham offense if there wasn’t tempo involved. For the majority of the scrimmage, there was tempo after every single play.

The unique part of the practice is when there was an incompletion, the officials would mark the ball down where it was intended down the field. Then the offense would run tempo from that point on.

The tempo did cause some problems on both sides of the ball.

On the offensive side, some of the offensive linemen had issues with the snap count and jumped early. The penalty for that? The lineman who caused the infraction had to run down the field to the opposite goalpost and back.

As for the defense, stamina seemed to be an issue at times because they could not substitute while the drive was going on. Defensive coordinator Brian Ward has emphasized this spring the goal of elite conditioning, especially while combatting the heat of the desert.

Overall, the tempo portion of practice went smoothly and had minimal issues.

Defensive Line

The defensive line is one of the deepest position groups on the team this season. Ward currently has around 20 defensive linemen at his disposal. Tonight, the defensive line tore it up.

The running backs in particular had a hard time running behind the guards and centers, as well as running from sideline to sideline.

After practice ended defensive lineman Justin Wodtly mentioned how much more the defensive line has been able to penetrate the gaps.

Going into the Big 12 next year, it will be imperative to stop the run since many teams in the conference are run-heavy. In 2023, four Big 12 teams ranked top-10 nationally in rushing yards per game (UCF, WVU, Cincinnati, and Kansas). Wodtly himself played for Cincinnati last season.

Overall, the defensive line is much stronger and much faster off the line of scrimmage.

Receivers

Many wide receivers have had great spring camps so far but two guys stood out in particular yesterday. The two guys who made the biggest impact in practice last night were returning receivers, Jordyn Tyson and Korbin Hendrix.

On several occasions during the scrimmages they made incredible leaping catches over defenders.

What stood out about Hendrix was his ability to get off the ball quickly and make shifty moves into the middle of the field. If you let Hendrix into open space with the ball, good luck catching up to him.

As for Jordyn Tyson, he made several catches that had coaches and players alike going crazy. Not only did he make some contested catches but he also made some wide-open catches that he set up by breaking away from the defenders.

New offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo praised Tyson’s work ethic and maturity through this spring which has led to a huge leap in Tyson’s game.

The receiver room is coming along very nicely and has the chance to make a big impact this upcoming season.

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