ASU football prepares amid uncertainty
There may not be a college football season to prepare for, at least not one coming up as regularly scheduled this fall. But that isn’t stopping Arizona State coach Herm Edwards from proceeding like there was a game on the horizon.
The Sun Devils were originally scheduled to open the season on Sept. 3 at home against Northern Arizona.
Then when the Pac-12 scrapped nonconference play the opener was supposed to be Sept. 26 against rival Arizona in Tucson.
Then came the announcement that the conference was following the lead of the Big 10 and not planning to play until January at the earliest due to the coronavirus pandemic which has wreaked havoc on sports schedules since March.
Many say even trying to play in the spring is being too optimistic.
But Edwards, 66, still arrives at his office by 4:30 a.m, getting in his usual workout before starting the day which is still filled with meetings with his coaches, calls to prospective recruits and media obligations, among other things.
“These guys are athletes and they’re used to competing,” Edwards said. “It’s important that we have some structure. We’re game-planning like we’re going to play. Business as usual. We’ve already broken down game film of all our opponents.”
Of course Edwards and his troop can’t quite do that to the extent they normally would. The NCAA is limiting team work to 12 hours per week.
Edwards is giving his team weekends off along with Wednesdays but he said 75 or so showed up the past Wednesday despite having the day “off.” Among those is sophomore quarterback Jayden Daniels, who stops by Edwards’ office daily.
Players are still only permitted to work out under strength and conditioning coaches in small groups and Edwards said some players didn’t stay long. But he was happy to see them make an appearance when not required.
“We have created a culture here now,” he said. “It’s nice to see that guys want to be here because it’s not always that way
everywhere. There are places guys just hate showing up and hate going to practice. I think we have created a good environment here and that makes guys want to be here.”
Edwards has been in the game for more than four decades, whether it be as a player, coach or broadcaster. His mind is as sharp as ever. He singled out the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001 as the last time he had a season derailed unexpectedly. Back then he was in his first season as head coach of the New York Jets. But that was only a brief disruption.
He had to go much further back to think of a time that a season was completely put on hold. That would have been the 1982-83 season which was late
in his playing career with the Philadelphia Eagles, then coached by Dick Vermeil. That season was reduced to nine games, with seven wiped out by a players strike.
The teams played two games, the second of those on Sept. 19. Then came the strike, with the next game not coming until Nov. 21.
‘You’re used to playing every week, then all of a sudden it stops,” Edwards said. “It’s tough. You want to play.”
Edwards is holding out hope that some sort of season, even a shortened one, will be able to take place in the spring but acknowledges that a big factor in that will be how the virus is contained with students back on campus and attending classes.
If the teams can play some games in the spring among the questions to be answered will be what players opt not to play, sitting out to prepare of the NFL draft instead. Edwards doesn’t anticipate having many players that fall into that category.
The Sun Devils are coming off an 8-5 showing and have a large number of starters returning, particularly on defense. According to college football’s nation preview publications they are expected to challenge USC for South Division honors with defending champion Utah in a bit in rebuilding mode.
“I would say 99% of our players are going to play,” he said. “I really haven’t heard anyone talk about or say they’re not playing. They want to play.”