ASU Football: Practice report (10/30)

The Arizona State Sun Devils held their first media availability of the week Tuesday morning ahead of their matchup against the Utah Utes on Saturday.

Last practice: Wednesday, October 24

Next practice: Wednesday, October 31

Music

Uproar (Lil Wayne), Wake Up In The Sky (Gucci Mane, Bruno Mars and Kodak Black)

Injury Update

The usual suspects were held out of practice including quarterback Ryan Kelley and wide receiver John Humphrey.

Wide receiver Ryan Newsome was around practice in a walking boot.

Linebacker Jay Jay Wilson participated fully in all drills after missing time recently.

Defensive back Jalen Harvey was not seen at practice after being dinged up against USC.

What went on

It was a fairly typical practice for ASU, it began with each position group working on various drills. Brandon Aiyuk and Isaiah Floyd worked as kick returners as the Sun Devils’ special teams worked on kick coverage.

The offensive line incorporated a new drill where they began in their technique and worked on shifting two steps to their left and then springing their body low into a tackling doughnut. This was emulating a run blocking scheme to try and open holes in the defense’s front seven.

Offensive line coach Dave Christensen was instructing his unit to accelerate through when making their blocks and applauded the technique from the linemen.

Linebackers coach Antonio Pierce was his usual vocal and profane self on Tuesday morning, as he barked out instructions to his players to be physical and hit the ball carrier hard.

The wide receivers and defensive backs practiced running/covering routes without actually catching passes thrown from the quarterbacks.

Manny Wilkins and ASU’s other QB’s threw passes to members of the scout team during the same time.

During 11-on-11 drills ASU held out running back Eno Benjamin and offensive linemen Casey Tucker and Alex Losoya. All three were involved in drills, and it was likely just a scheduled off day from 11-on-11 participation.

The Sun Devils ran a lot of designed runs with different personnel during the 11-on-11 action and shuffled out Floyd, Carter and Nick Ralston for different packages.

Tuesday’s practice only featured one scout from an NFL team, as the New York Giants sent a representative to watch the Sun Devils.

First-team Offense

QB: Manny Wilkins

RB: Isaiah Floyd/A.J. Carter

WR: N’Keal Harry, Kyle Williams, Frank Darby/Brandon Aiyuk

TE: Tommy Hudson

OL: Zach Robertson (LT), Roy Hemsley (LG), Cohl Cabral (C), Steven Miller (RG), Quinn Bailey (RT)

First-team Defense

DL: George Lea, Renell Wren, Jalen Bates

LB: Darien Butler, Merlin Robertson, Tyler Johnson

CB: Chase Lucas, Kobe Williams

Tillman: Joey Bryant

S: Demonte King, Aashari Crosswell