ASU football practice notes: Defensive development

ASU football was back on the practice fields after a short break for the start of classes. In the first practice coming off of the latest scrimmage, the Sun Devil defense had an up-and-down day. 

Defensive development for ASU football

In individual drills, the defense worked on tip drills, interceptions, and breaking the ball loose from ball carriers. Arizona State coaches Brian Ward and Charlie Ragle led those two individual drills and seemed happy with the results that came out of those drills.

Later in the session, the defensive line transitioned to working on swim moves in order to put pressure on the quarterback. Vince Amey was ecstatic with his defensive line, particularly Dashaun Mallory, Sam Benjamin, and Blazen Lono-Wong. The defensive line has been one of the strong suits through camp and the scrimmages up to this point.

Continuing on Sam Benjamin, the redshirt freshman transfer from Idaho State has done well in multiple spots. Aforementioned, Benjamin not only did well on the defensive line but also did well in the tip drill with linebackers earlier on in the session. As a true freshman last season Benjamin had three batted passes along with his 14 tackles. With some short depth along the defensive line, Benjamin will be a much-needed addition to the defense.

Team drills

Moving onto team drills, seven-on-seven, the defense put in some good plays which resulted in some takeaways. The defense forced two turnovers, both interceptions with one from Ed Woods on Jacob Conover and one from Damon Williamson on Jaden Rashada. Forcing turnovers has been a real point of emphasis for Brian Ward and his assistants. Last season, ASU was tied for 118th out of 131 teams in turnovers. The Sun Devils forced 12 turnovers, one fumble, and 11 interceptions. Ward will have his work cut out for him trying to help the defense get more turnovers.

Another aspect that ASU struggled with last season was open-field tackles. Ward and assistant coach AJ Cooper have been constantly working on open-field tackling. Linebackers primarily worked on covering short passes. All the coaches preached repeatedly to drive the shoulder, not only to make the tackle but to force the ball out as well. While the linebackers did not force any fumbles during 7 on 7 drills the tackling was much improved.

There’s still a lot of work and improvement to do as practices progress. Luckily, ASU has 11 days remaining before their first game against Southern Utah on August 31st. 

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