ASU Football: Fall practice No. 8

A vintage Arizona dust storm rolled through the Valley Thursday evening forcing ASU to practice inside. It also gave the Sun Devils an opportunity to work on playing on artificial turf.

Last practice: Monday, Aug. 13

Next practice: Wednesday, Aug. 15

Music

Plain Jane (A$AP Ferg) Morning in Rio (Earl Klough)

Injury Update

Linebacker Koron Crump was limited in participation as he did some walking blitzes and worked on timing the snap count with other linebackers and defensive linemen.

Defensive back Tyler Whiley has been ruled out for the entirety of the 2018 season due to a broken ankle suffered during Saturday’s practice. Whiley was expected to serve as the Tillman, the new hybrid safety/linebacker position implemented by Danny Gonzales.

Wide receivers Frank Darby and Terrell Chatham were again limited during practice. Wide receiver Curtis Hodges was held out as he continues to recover from a previous injury.

Tight End Tommy Hudson returned to the action Tuesday night after missing the previous few practices.

Center Cohl Cabral was again out from due to an injury suffered during Friday’s scrimmage.

What went on?

There were some notable names that attended Tuesday’s practice. Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson and ASU president Michael Crow were in attendance for Tuesday evening’s practice.

There were also representatives from the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders.

Manny Wilkins was the star of the show Tuesday evening. He was slicing and dicing against the Sun Devil defense and hitting his receivers with well-thrown passes.

His play caught the attention of wide receiver N’Keal Harry.

“He’s gotten real comfortable in the pocket. Our first two years the pocket would collapse a lot, so he’d be forced to run out,” said Harry. “With the line we have he’s shown real good pocket presence and I’m really excited to see what he can do this year.”

Harry was one of the recipients of Wilkins’ play catching a deep pass during the first play of 11-on-11 action.

Another impressive throw and catch was a leaping sideline completion to Brandon Aiyuk. Aiyuk lept to catch the pass over the top of Demonte King and was able to successfully drag his left foot in bounds before landing on the ground completing the catch.

It was not the defense’s best night. Partly due to the fact that contact is limited during these practices in order to reduce injury risk.

Chase Lucas did make a nice play in the backfield on a corner blitz. Lucas came off of the left side and was able to wrap up Eno Benjamin as the play was blown dead.

JUCO transfer sophomore quarterback Kurt Walding received some reps in 7-on-7 and performed to mixed results. Walding did a nice job completing short passes, but struggled to throw the ball down the field.

During defensive drills, safety Ely Doyle intercepted a pass from Dillon Sterling-Cole.

First-team Offense

QB: Manny Wilkins

RB: Eno Benjamin, Trelon Smith

WR: N’Keal Harry, Kyle Williams, Brandon Aiyuk

TE: Tommy Hudson/Ceejay French-Love

OL: Casey Tucker (LT), Alex Loyosa (LG), Cade Cote (C), Steven Miller (RG), Quinn Bailey (RT)

Second-team Offense

QB: Dillon Sterling-Cole

RB: Trelon Smith, Isaiah Floyd

WR: Ryan Newsome, Keith Davis, C.J. Jarmon

TE: Jared Bubank/Mark Walton

OL: Tyson Rising (LT), Roy Hemsley (LG), Cade Cote (C) (took reps with both the first and second teams), Jarrett Bell (RG), Zach Robertson (RT)

First-team Defense

DL: Jalen Bates, Renell Wren, Shannon Forman/Dougladson Subtyl

LB: Merlin Robertson, Nick Ralston, Kyle Soelle

CB: Chase Lucas, Kobe Williams

Tillman: Dasmond Tautalatasi

S: Demonte King, Langston Frederick

Second-team Defense

DL: Jermayne Lole, D.J. Davidson, Jordan Hoyt

LB: Jay Jay Wilson, Stanley Lambert, Malik Lawal

CB: Terin Adams, Darien Comay

Tillman: Joey Bryant

S: Aashari Crosswell, Jalen Harvey

For other updates and videos from Tuesday’s practice follow @Alec_Henden on Twitter.