Even the rain that forced ASU to move its second scrimmage of spring practice from Sun Devil Stadium to inside the Verde Dickey Dome couldn’t slow down its defense Saturday.
From start to finish, the defense dominated play.
The unit was flying around the field, hitting hard and making plays, putting on an impressive show.
“That’s as good in the spring as I’ve seen our defense play,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “I’m talking about two deep too. We ran to the football, we tackled well and we made plays. It was a great day defensively, but that’s what I expect this fall.”
But when playing against yourself, naturally if one unit dominates, the other struggles.
That was most certainly the case on Saturday.
ASU’s offense had trouble putting much of anything together. In the end, Erickson called the offense’s play “unacceptable.”
“How we performed offensively today, is not very good,” Erickson said. “Is it a concern? Sure it is a concern. Can we get it corrected? Yes, we have a lot of talent there. You have to make plays. We dropped balls, threw interceptions, it wasn’t a good day.”
Junior quarterback Brock Osweiler was missing three wide receivers, TJ Simpson, Mike Willie and Aaron Pflugrad, who will play a prominent role in the fall and their absence was obvious, as many of his passes were dropped.
“The way I look at it, if you are on scholarship, you better make plays,” Osweiler said. “There is no excuse if you are on scholarship, it doesn’t matter what your age is. These guys have to understand that with the offense that we run, receivers are rotating every two, three, four plays so they do have to step up and make plays for us.”
One man that took advantage of his opportunity was walk-on sophomore wide receiver Kevin Ozier.
Ozier caught five passes for 121 yards and a score on Saturday.
It was his cousin, former ASU running back J.R. Redmond, who encouraged Ozier to come to Tempe.
“I wasn’t offered a scholarship out of high school and he told me that I’d probably get a good opportunity here,” Ozier said. “It was close to home in San Diego, so it was Arizona State.”
Osweiler was quick to mention how hard Ozier has been working to try and not only earn more playing time, but to get on scholarship.
"He's a kid that has been real hungry," Osweiler said. "I stayed over Christmas break and I was here in January throwing to guys and there were about four guys who were here every single day and Kevin was one of them. Kevin's hungry and he's out there to make plays and trying to earn a scholarship. I thought he did a great job of that today.”
With plenty of wide receivers on the shelf, Ozier knows this is his time to shine.
“Everyone has to step up because people are down,” he said. “We have to pick up the slack.
“It’s hard work. Nothing comes naturally. As long as I continue to work hard, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to keep making plays.”
Defensive standouts
Leading the way for the dominant defense on Saturday were senior defensive end Derrall Anderson and sophomore linebacker Anthony Jones.
Anderson has moved to defensive end from linebacker, something that Erickson thought would help Anderson impact the team.
“I think he’s finally found a place where he is going to fit in and knows he’s going to help this team,” Erickson said. “I was real happy with how he played from what I saw.”
Robinson injures shoulder
With TJ Simpson lost due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament and Willie and Pflugrad missing time in spring practice, ASU can ill afford to lose another wide receiver.
That’s why everybody held their collective breath when senior Gerell Robinson went down with a shoulder injury on Saturday.
Afterward, Erickson called it a shoulder sprain and said that Robinson could have returned to practice.
Week ahead
ASU will continue spring practice on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, with both practices running from 4 to 6:10 p.m. at the Kajikawa Practice Fields.
The Sun Devils will hold their third scrimmage of the spring on Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium. Due to Pat’s Run in the morning, the scrimmage will get underway at 2 p.m.
All outdoor spring practices and scrimmages are open to the public.
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
