If college football recruiting is considered its own season, as ASU coach Dennis Erickson suggests, Wednesday represented the Super Bowl.
National Letter of Intent Signing Day, a date college football diehards have had circled on the calendar for months, saw ASU cement the commitments of 26 players, a class comprised of 20 high-school athletes and six junior-college transfers.
The number of junior-college players is the most Erickson has signed during his four-year tenure in Tempe, athletes the Sun Devil coach said “can fill a need” right away.
The highlight of the class is offensive tackle Brice Schwab out of Palomar College in California, who is already in Tempe and enrolled at ASU. Schwab was originally committed to USC, but he changed his tune once Pete Carroll decided to join the NFL ranks with the Seattle Seahawks.
“Brice Schwab, as an offensive tackle, is probably the best offensive lineman that I saw,” Erickson said. “When they made the change at USC, obviously we did a good job of getting on top of him. … We expect him to come in and have an impact right away. He’s got a chance to be one of the better [linemen] I’ve been around.”
With the offensive line battered by injuries the last two years — linemen Matt Hustad, Zack Schlink and Mike Marcisz have missed significant time — Erickson he knew the Sun Devils needed to find immediate help in the area.
“In order for us to get better and compete for a Pac-10 championship next year, we felt we needed to get a couple of junior-college offensive lineman, which we did in this class,” Erickson said.
ASU also inked junior-college linemen Chris DeArmas (6-foot-4, 305 pounds) and Aderious Simmons (6-foot-7, 310) out of El Camino Junior College.
Another junior-college transfer who should be poised to help the Sun Devil offense right away is wide receiver George Bell out of Southwestern College in Chula Vista, Calif.
With Kyle Williams and Chris McGaha lost to graduation and junior T.J. Simpson likely to miss spring practice due to injury, Erickson thinks Bell is capable of helping the corps right away.
“I really believe he has a chance to be special,” said Erickson, noting that ASU tried to bring in athletes with great speed to complement the offensive plans of new offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone.
Perhaps the greatest strength of the freshman in the class is at running back, where ASU signed three recruits, including Chandler High product Taylor Walstad.
“When we saw him a year ago we thought he was one of the better prospects in this area,” Erickson said.
Of the 20 freshmen who faxed in their letters of intent on Wednesday, four are from Arizona — the others come from California (13), Texas (1), Idaho (1) and Colorado (1).
The class is comprised of 15 offensive players, nine defensive players and two all-purpose athletes.
Assistant departs
Erickson announced on Wednesday that wide receivers coach Eric Yarber has taken the same position with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I thank him for everything he’s done for this program,” Erickson said.
Erickson said he hopes to have Yarber’s successor named by the end of this week.
In addition to coaching wide receivers, Yarber was responsible for recruiting in the Los Angeles area.
ASU is scheduled to begin spring practice on March 30.
Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu
