At most schools, recruiting is the last thing college football coaches talk about three days before the season opener.
Don't try telling that to ASU football coach Dirk Koetter.
Angered by an abundance of questions about recruiting, Koetter sounded off on the topic Monday, claiming that the 20-plus in-state players who could make an impact this season is not an unreasonable amount.
A member of the ASU media relations staff distributed a flier at Koetter's weekly press conference. Listed were some of the team's marquee in-state recruits, including sophomore defensive end Kyle Caldwell, sophomore tailback Randy Hill and freshman H-back Zach Miller.
"I don't think this number of guys in Arizona is silly," Koetter said. "Those guys are all Arizona high school football players on our roster, and there's nobody else that has that kind of quality and depth on their roster from the state of Arizona.
"If that's silly, then I'll be glad to meet those guys and say that's silly, and we can talk about it. But I don't think that's silly. There are some pretty good football players on that list, and if someone is recruiting the state of Arizona better than we are, I would like to see who that is."
Koetter cited four Pac-10 schools that had three or more academically ineligible players, including one school with nine non-qualifiers and another with seven non-qualifiers.
"Where is the number silly in there?" Koetter said. "How many non-qualifiers would it take to be a silly number?"
Koetter claims that a team's recruiting class shouldn't be evaluated on signing day.
"All these so-called experts that rank the classes in February ... when we put those non-qualifiers in there, how do those classes look now?" he said. "Why are we ranking them in February? Shouldn't we either be ranking them in August when they report to campus, or maybe better yet, shouldn't we rank them a couple years down the road when they actually play?
"I can name players that we've let go from this state that we haven't offered that have gone to 'bigger programs,' and I don't see them playing. So maybe there's a reason why we let them go."
Altered schedule
The Thursday opener against Texas-El Paso has forced the Sun Devils to drastically alter their schedule this week.
The team typically doesn't practice on Mondays, but workouts lasted until about 10 p.m. Monday, as most players had afternoon and night classes.
On Wednesday, the team won't stay in a hotel, as it usually does the night before home games. Koetter will still take the players off campus for a team dinner. Meetings and walk-thrus will be conducted Thursday before the game.
Quick kicks
Senior defensive tackle Gabe Reininger (knee) has been cleared to play, but will be held out of Thursday's opener for precautionary reasons, Koetter said. Sophomore Jordan Hill will start in his place.
Freshman wide receiver Jeremy Payton has spent the last three practices playing cornerback to help accommodate for the loss of senior R.J. Oliver. Payton played receiver and cornerback in high school.
Koetter said Miller is the only true freshman that is guaranteed to play Thursday.
Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@asu.edu.
