ASU Football: Sun Devils prepping for ‘big evaluation’ on Saturday|ASU Hot Topics|Team BattleGround|College BattleGround

The Arizona State Sun Devils continued its preseason preparations today outside on the Kajikawa practice fields. The media was allowed to view stretching in addition to individual and 11-on-11 drills.

Mixing it up:

During the “takeaway” period, ASU offense and defense flipped roles as the offensive coaches worked with the defense and vice versa.

Some of it went along just fine:

Some of it… less so:

Saturday scrimmage:

Head coach Todd Graham said the team will conduct a scrimmage on Saturday and that it will be a “big evaluation” for every position, most importantly the quarterback battle between Manny Wilkins and Brady White.

“It’s been very competitive, but Saturday will be a huge evaluation for the quarterback position as well as every other position,” Graham said.

Graham is putting an emphasis, as always, on turnover ratio and is looking for which quarterback takes care of the ball the best. When asked if either QB is putting any distance between the other, Graham said:

“Sometimes when they walk on the field, there’s a little bit of space in between them. That’s it.”

So that reveals a lot.

Injury update:

Junior defensive back Mo Chandler and redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jalen Harvey were both in green but participated in most drills today. Neither were seen during the team period. Redshirt senior Laiu Moeakiola and redshirt senior Salamo Fiso were not seen while the media was at practice.

“We’ve had a lot of, not major stuff, but a lot of missed practices and stuff on the back end,” Graham said. “We just got to get some steadiness there.”

Two-minute Drill:

Media viewed a couple series of 11-on-11 today. The defense worked in a nickel set for a portion as well.

First-team offense:

QB: Manny Wilkins

RB: Demario Richard

WR (outside): Cam Smith, Ellis Jefferson

WR (slot): Tim White

TE (slot): Raymond Epps

LT: Evan Goodman

LG: Sam Jones

C: Stephon McCray

RG: Quinn Bailey

RT: Zach Robertson

First-team defense:

DT: Ami Latu

3-tech: Tashon Smallwood

Devil: JoJo Wicker

SAM: DJ Calhoun

SPUR: Koron Crump

WILL: Christian Sam

Corner: Kareem Orr, Gump Hayes, Tyler Whiley

Bandit safety: Chad Adams

Field safety: J’Marcus Rhodes