Inside ASU Football
June 23, 2003
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CORRECTION: I apologize I earlier made a mistake on the date for Fan Photo Day. Fan Photo Day will be on Saturday, August 30th, with the start time still TBD. Thanks and sorry for the mix-up, Coach Koetter
This will be the final edition of "Inside ASU Football" until early August. The coaching staff is completing their film evaluations of our early season opponents, making their teaching progression tapes for fall installation and watching recruiting tape before getting some vacation and family time in early July. The players are all involved in summer school and in training sessions for the season with Coach Kenn and his staff. As you would expect, they are working hard to prepare themselves for fall camp. Here is a closer look at what has been happening lately:
In early June, we held our annual football camps sponsored by Viacom and the Sun Angel Foundation. Our senior-only one-day camp had 167 participants representing 15 different states. Next, our three-day individual camp for grades 5 through 12 had 425 kids evenly divided among 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th graders. Lastly, our back-to-back Friday night passing league and lineman challenge camps were a huge success. We had 22 different teams in each passing league, with 12 teams in the lineman challenge during week one and 18 more in week two. All in all, we figure that over 1600 kids received instruction from our staff, and participated at our facilities, as we helped to grow the game of football in Arizona and all around the Southwest. A special thanks to all of the high school coaches who either brought their teams or helped out with the instruction.
Coaches Darryl Jackson and Kevin Ramsey will be serving internships with NFL teams during late July and early August. Darryl will be with the Detroit Lions, while Kevin will be working with the Philadelphia Eagles. We know that these coaches will represent ASU in a positive fashion and bring back some coaching strategies and techniques that will help our team get better.
Perry Edinger, Head Athletic Trainer for the past 11 seasons, resigned in June to pursue other interests. Perry was a valuable member of our team and served ASU well. Although we will miss Perry, we are excited about the hiring of Ed Orr from Bowling Green as his replacement. Ed comes highly recommended and will be on board full-time in early July. Welcome, Ed!
Assistant Strength Coach, Cheyenne Pietri, has been named Head Strength Coach at the University of Buffalo in the MAC. Cheyenne played for us at Boise State and it is always gratifying to watch young men reach their goals. He has been well trained by the "Big House" and we are all very happy for him. This position has yet to be filled within the Athletic Department.
A special congratulations to Mark Brand, the Director of our Media Relations department. Mark has now served ICA for 20 years. Mark and his staff are a big part of the 'behind the scenes' success of ASU teams and athletes. I can tell all of you that Mark is very good at his job and is among the best in the country at what he does. Let's all hope he will be at ASU for another 20 years!
Jermaine McKinney and Moey Mutz are two walk-on players who have been awarded scholarships starting this fall. Both of these young men played their way into scholarships by what they do on the field and in the classroom. Congratulations to Jermaine and Moey!
Now to catch up on some questions from the fans:
Redshirting has changed over the past few years. With 85 scholarships, early entry into the NFL and bigger and faster players coming out of high school, the days of redshirting all of your incoming freshmen are probably over. We tell our guys to come in and compete for a starting job. At some point, if it looks like a player will not be in the two deep, we will talk with him about redshirting. Depth and injuries at individual positions also play a part in the decision, and we would never play someone who isn't physically and mentally ready to play at this level.
Fan Photo Day will be Saturday, August 30th at a time to be determined.
Still getting lots of comments on the new uniforms. At this point, we are all set and don't need any more input. They are all set for this year and we did have representation from long-time season ticket holders on the committee. It really is time for everyone to focus on being positive toward the players at this point and quit worrying about what kind of a fashion statement we are making. If it doesn't work out, we will change it next year.
We all know that replacing Terrell Suggs is not very realistic. We will need to get production from several sources in order to compensate for his loss. We still return three starters up front (Verdon, Montesanto, Jones) plus Nick Johnson. Also newcomer, Kyle Caldwell, joins the team and is much stronger and more polished at this point than any defensive lineman that I have been around.
There are several group ticket incentives available for home games other than USC and Arizona. Any amount over 25 tickets receives some kind of perk from scoreboard recognition to single game suites. Please call the ticket office at 480-965-2381 before August 15th to get more details.
With the new NCAA legislation now in place, the entire team will now report on August 10th. We will practice four times in Tempe (August 11-14) as part of the new one-a-day acclimization period. We will travel to Camp T on the 15th and stay through the traditional Saturday scrimmage on the morning of the 23rd (8 nights at Camp T.) If you are going to Camp T, please remember that we now follow a 2-1-2-1 schedule, so don't assume there is always an afternoon practice. Please see the schedule at the end of this article.
I think that about wraps it up until August. We have covered a ton of ground in this space over the past 11 months. Thanks to all the fans who asked legitimate questions. Hopefully, we got to most of them some place along the way. Hope to see everyone at Tontozona or Fan Photo Day!
GO DEVILS!
Pre-Season Practice Schedule
| Aug. 11-14 | Practice daily from 7:30 - 10:30 AM at Kajikawa Practice Field. |
| (Aug. 11 and 12 are helmets only, Aug. 13 and 14 are shells per new NCAA rules) |
| Aug. 15 | Tontozona, full pads - 3:30 - 6:00 PM |
| Aug. 16 | 8:35 - 11:05 AM |
| 3:50 - 6:00 PM |
| Aug. 17 | 8:35 - 11:05 AM |
| 3:30 - 4:30 Walk Thru |
| Aug. 18 | 8:35 - 11:05 AM |
| 3:50 - 6:00 PM |
| Aug. 19 | Scrimmage: 9:30 - 11:50 AM |
| Afternoon - No Practice |
| Aug. 20 | 8:35 - 11:05 AM |
| 3:50 - 6:00 PM |
| Aug. 21 & 22 | 8:35 - 11:05 AM |
| 3:30 - 4:30 Walk Thru |
| Aug. 23 | Scrimmage: 8:40 - 11:05 AM |
| Afternoon: Return to Tempe |
| Aug. 24 | PM Practice to be determined |
| Aug. 25 | First day of classes - No practice |
| Aug. 26 | Normal Practice: 6:00 - 8:30 PM daily at Kajakawa Practice Facility |
Have you ever wished you had the opportunity to ask head coach Dirk Koetter your most pressing question regarding ASU football? Here's your opportunity! Each week throughout the season, Coach Koetter will provide an insider's look at Arizona State football. As a part of this feature, he will take questions from Sun Devil fans and answer them on TheSunDevils.com! While he won't be able to answer every question submitted, he will do his best to get to as many as he can. Submit your question today with the form below!
Fill out the form below to submit a question to Coach Koetter!
