Sun Devils hire Vikings assistant Rodriguez

Add another to the list of Arizona State football staff members with NFL experience.

The Sun Devils have hired Robert Rodriguez as the defensive line coach. He becomes the school’s sixth in as many years at that position and replaces Jamar Cain, who departed for a position at Oklahoma.

The position drew a wide pool of applicants from both the college and professional ranks, according to a source close to the program. Six candidates were interviewed, three from colleges and three from the NFL.

“Robert Rodriguez has established himself as a strong up-and-coming coach at the highest level of football and has worked within one of the most dominant defensive organizations of the past several seasons in the Vikings,” Coach Herm Edwards said, in a press release. “But he also has numerous years of collegiate coaching experience and I feel strongly that the combination of his professional and collegiate coaching abilities will prove to be a vital asset along our defensive front.”

Rodriguez, 38, spent the last five seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and served as the team’s assistant defensive line coach.

That unit specialized in pressure and defensive takeaways. In 2019 the Vikings posted 30 defensive takeaways, third-best in the NFL (17 interceptions, 14 fumble recoveries). They were tied for fifth in scoring defense in the league.

While ASU did a good job in generating takeaways it is looking to do a better job of creating a pass rush, the most glaring weakness in an otherwise stellar defense.

“My family, my wife and I are ecstatic for the opportunity to go to Arizona State to work with best staff we could ask for,” Rodriguez said, in the same release. “Getting the opportunity to work with Herm Edwards, Marvin Lewis, Antonio Pierce and that caliber of coaches is one of the reasons that we even looked outside the National Football League. We are all in. Once we got there and saw what they’re trying to build, we knew that this was the place that we wanted to be.”