ASU Football: Previewing the offense as spring practice begins

Less than three months removed from January's Cactus Bowl loss to West Virginia, the Arizona State Sun Devils football team is right back in the swing of things.

Spring practice began on Monday, and the team has 13 more practice sessions to go before breaking for the summer.

Here's a few storylines to watch on the offensive side of the ball for Arizona State as the team starts preparations for the 2016 campaign.

1. Who will emerge at quarterback?

In all likelihood, head coach Todd Graham won't be picking a starter at quarterback until late in fall camp. Hell, we might not even know until the day of the opener against Northern Arizona who will be replacing Mike Bercovici under center.

Still, we should be able to gain at least a little insight into who is the frontrunner to get the nod.

Sophomore Manny Wilkins spent the 2015 season behind Bercovici on the depth chart but did not throw a pass last year. A pair of redshirt freshmen, Brady White and Bryce Perkins, will also be competing for the spot. Each of the three quarterbacks will likely see work with the first team offense this spring.

2. Which wide receiver steps up?

2015 was the first season for the Sun Devils after the Jaelen Strong era, and things did not go well for the group of receivers that followed him.

Thanks to a late-season push, UCLA transfer Devin Lucien was the most successful of any wideout on the roster. But besides for Lucien, most of the passes from Bercovici were short tosses to players out of the backfield like D.J. Foster and Demario Richard.

Dropped balls and poorly run routes often plagued the maroon and gold throughout the year - not a good combination at all for Bercovici's game. Senior Tim White and incoming freshman N'Keal Harry will be counted on to step up this fall.

3. Lindsey takes over

After spending four years as Arizona State's offensive coordinator, Mike Norvell was hired by Memphis to replace departing head coach Justin Fuente. Graham quickly filled the hole, bringing in the very successful Chip Lindsey to take Norvell's place.

Lindsey spent the previous two seasons as OC and quarterbacks coach at Southern Miss, where the Golden Eagles broke multiple school records in that pair of years.

He was linked to the newly vacant head coaching job at USM just weeks after arriving in Tempe, but decided to stay with the Sun Devils after receiving a nice little bonus.

He will have his hands full in his first season in the desert as the team loses seven starters on the offensive side of the ball. It will be interesting to see how the coach breaks in his new players (and a new staff) over the course of the next few weeks.

4. Youth movement

Arizona State will be replacing seven starters on offense this spring, the most of any team in the Pac-12.

Graham and Lindsey will be relying heavily on a host of young players to take over an offense that was starting to really play well towards the end of 2015.

Most freshmen will not be on campus until the summer, but guys like Jalen Harvey and Gabriel Rees will start to see some meaningful snaps at skill positions in their sophomore seasons.

A few new offensive lineman will be added to the mix as well, including early enrollee and Peoria, AZ native Marshal Nathe.