Relaxed But Alert: Herm Edwards And The Sun Devils

With a stable of returning talent that includes electric quarterback Jayden Daniels, Herm Edwards has his Arizona State Sun Devils relaxed, alert and ready to contend in the Pac-12 South. Ashley Adamson and Yogi Roth tackle the state of football in the desert with one of the country's most colorful head coaches.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You've been such an incredible ambassador forthis conference. Well, you get a
lot of play nationally, and it'sbeen awesome to think. Well, you
know, I'm a Homer man.You know, I grew up in this
conference when it was the Back eight, and it means a lot to me
this conference, believe it or not. I mean, this is the first
conference I actually actually had the abilityto play college football, and it was

(00:21):
a conference No. One when Icame out of high school. I wanted
to play in it. You know, I could have went anywhere in the
country, but I wanted to playin the Pack eight. I just did,
and so it's especial to me.Man, I'm West Coast guy.
People lose sight of how many guyscome out of this conference. You know,
they talk about all those other conferences. Thirty five forty guys every year
end up NFL teams out of thisconference. Now, you know, they

(00:43):
lose sight of that. And whatI like about it is the mentality of
the presidents in this conference. Itis truly the student athlete conference. It
really is. And I'm not sayingother conference or not, but I'm just
saying there's something to be said andabout the mindset of the presidents, of
all the people that work in thisconference. The ability to raise student athletes,

(01:10):
men and women. To me,that's important, very important, all
right? Works up then, hearingfrom a lot of Sundevil fans recently,

(01:33):
and they are fired up to seewhat her Medwords and company have in store
this season. And yeah, theschedule may be shortened, but the anticipation
is growing by the day. Andright out of the gate, a su
kicking things off at USC November seventh, the first Pac twelve game of the
twenty twenty season, a nine amkickoff Pacific time. It's the big newon
kickoff on the East Coast on Fox. A ton of eyeballs will be watching

(01:57):
that game, both programs agreeing tostart this season in that early time slot.
So her Edwards, I know,first of all, thanks for be
doing this. We appreciate your timeand it's always great to see you.
I know though that you always cansense an opportunity when you see one,
and you're never afraid of the spotlight. So tell me a little bit about
how this came together and why didyou agree to a nine am kickoff game

(02:17):
one at USC. Well, Ithink obviously it promotes our conference nationally,
and we're always looking for that toget more eyeballs on our conference and the
way we play. It's a uniqueconference in the fact that it's very,
very competitive on both sides, whetheror in the North or the South,
and so at nine am kickoff.Obviously people on the East Coast. I

(02:40):
have a lot of people that watchus, by the way on the East
Coast, but they always tell me, man, by twelve o'clock, coach,
I go to sleep, and Ilike Tony Dunny's a good friend of
mine. He says, Man,I watch you guys in the first half
and the second half. You know, I got to go to bed,
and I wake up suddenly before Ido my show, he says, I
look at He says, Oh,you guys wore He says, I'm good.
Right, But now they can actuallywake up in them and watch PAC

(03:00):
twelve football, which is good.What did the players react to or how
did they react when you told themthey were playing at nine Well, I
think our guys were excited about theopportunity to be on the big stage with
us, with USC and the factthat you know USC as a national brand.

(03:21):
There's no doubt about that. It'salways been that way. I played
in this conference. I went toCalve out of high school, and even
back when I played you know USCas a national band, and you know
it. Um, they're a very, very talented football team. They're always
going to be in a conversation aboutwinning the South Conference. We get it,
we understand it. A lot ofour players come from out of the

(03:43):
same area that SC recruits players inLos Angeles, So this is kind of
one of those deals. When youlook at the game, there's a lot
of players that are here in ArizonaState that actually live in Los Angeles,
and so it's kind of one ofthose deals. It's one of those games.
You know, we've we've played themtwice. We were fortunate enough to
win one of them. They won. The other one been eight points,

(04:03):
basically beating into two games. Webeat them down at in LA and the
College sin was by three. Theycame here and beat us by five.
So it's been eight points and reallykind of tell the story of both games.
There's so many juicy storylines term inthat matchup that we'll certainly be getting
into in the next month or so. But one of those storylines is obviously

(04:26):
the two great quarterbacks that we'll see. Jayden Daniels, I want to ask
you about him. He's one ofthe biggest names in the league. Saw
his name the team captain on Tuesday. Not surprised at that. We're going
to be talking a lot about hisfootball acumen over the next couple of years.
But can you tell me a storyor maybe something fans don't know about
your sophomore quarterback? Well, Ithink the story that's unique about Jayden his

(04:48):
ability to stay calm and really inbig moments, and that sometimes has not
seen a whole lot. You know. I talked to Jayden all the time
on the sideline between series and whenhe's going on the field. A couple
of things. We're in arresting mLast year, when we played in Michigan
State on the road, I canremember it was gonna be our last possession

(05:10):
and so I kind of walk overand I grabbed him. I said,
five, come here, and he'slooking at me, you know, in
this stadium. I mean, there'snot many eras on the State fans there,
but they were vocal the ones thatwould are right. And I'm looking
at this place, I looking atthis place, you know, and he
says, yeah, coach, AndI said, well, you know,
I said, gonna be our lastpossession, kind of important. We scored
touchdown. You think you can helpme out here? And he looks at

(05:31):
me like he looks at me likewe're in practice. He goes, Coach,
I got this. I said,really, He says, only I
got this. I said, we'llgo do it, and so he goes
out. He takes us down.You know what, He makes a big
run, you know, and thennext thing you know, we're leaving the
game. So that's kind of hispersonality. Same thing I think when we
played Oregon here at home, wehave another possession towards the end of the

(05:55):
game and I look at him andhe says, I know what you're gonna
tell him? I said, yeah, you need to score touchdown? This
drive goes I got you, coach, And so I'm gonna ask him that
every time. Now I'm gonna tellingsomebody ask you you better score. And
so far he has not let medown. We love that. So what
is it like talking to him now? Off the field? Expectations? People

(06:15):
know who he is around the country. Now he's a Heisman candidate. Does
it change and do you try tosee it from his lens a little bit
too, of how he is dealingwith those types of pressures. I do
because this is for for all guys, no matter what level you're playing,
even professional football. You know,once you have your first season, it's
that second season the expectations that othersmay put on you. And I just

(06:40):
told him this, and I talkthis all the time. I want you
to enjoy being a college athlete.Let's don't get caught up in all this
other stuff. And he doesn't.He's in there every day. He walks
in my office every day and hesits down and we just talked, and
we never talked about football. Wetalk about the team. We talk about
things that i'm him to do withpractice, you know, get to get

(07:01):
a hold of a couple of playersor whatever. We just talk and I
keep telling him, enjoy playing collegefootball, Enjoy the experience of being a
college student. Man. Enjoy this, I say, because it goes by
fast, right, And he getsthat part. But he's very aware of
the noise outside the building, butit doesn't affect who he is at all.

(07:25):
And coach to that point, youknow, you've always encouraged your guys
to be themselves as long as theywere taking care of business. You know.
Yeah, let's see the personality thatyou have. You want them to
be able to feel comfortable and bethemselves as you enter your three this is
this is your locker room. Takeus inside the culture to feel the vibe
of this particular group of guys.What's it like? A very competitive group.

(07:46):
And that's when you walk in thedoor. We've always said this,
when you walk in the door,this is a building of knowledge. That's
all coaches that can give you hisknowledge. No coach in the history of
coaching. They sport is given givena player of talent. God gives him
your talent. When we provide youas knowledge, how you accept the knowledge,
how you take it and transfer itfrom in the book class, we
want the grass. We have tohelp you with that. That is our

(08:11):
That is what we do as coaches. We invest our knowledge and we give
it back to you. How youprocess it and how you use it,
that's very important if you want tobe the best version of who you are,
not only as a football player,but as a student athlete. That's
what we tell players when they comehere. I love your personalities, but
no personalities bigger than the room.They're head coach. He has a little

(08:31):
bit of a personality, right,but it's never bigger than the team.
And I think the players understand theculture. We have a lot of fun
here. I've always tell them this. I want a team that's relaxed but
alert. That's just kind of mydeal. We can relax, we can
have a good you know, wehave a good time, and then all

(08:52):
of a sudden, you always haveto be alert. And I want them
to play that way. I justwant them to play that enjoy the game.
You'll have fun. Don't go overthe edge, don't respect the don't
disrespect the game of football, don'tdisrepect our opponents. Just play. And
this is what we say every timewe walk through the tunnel, whether it's
at home or on the road,whatever you do, I just ask you

(09:16):
to do one thing. Leave itall on the grass. Just leave it
out there, and we'll have beenwith the consequences. As long as you
do that, we can walk backin here no matter what happens that we
can say, Okay, this iswhat we did, is what we did
good, this is what we gotto improve on, and if we do
that, we can live with ourselves. Man, when I hear you talk
about knowledge, I also think aboutexperience and I immediately go to your defense.

(09:39):
Right, your front, I thinkis better than people think. Merlin
Robertson, Darren and Butler, theyplayed a ton of football at Shari Croswell.
You might have the best due atcorner on the West coast. What
do you think about that group?Is? To me, they're PAC twelve
championship caliber regarding their defense. Well, a lot of experience, and when
you think about playing all those youngplayers early, it's kind of paying off

(10:00):
worse. Now. I mean,that's kind of where we're at on defense.
It's kind of interesting because when wewhen we first arrived here, we
had a veteran Laydon offense for themost part, right, a lot of
veteran guys. We sprinkled in somefreshmen, but it was veteran guys.
And on the defensive side of it, we played all the young guys.
Now it's flipped. We got moreyoung guys at the skilled positions anywhere on

(10:24):
our football team. Right at receiver, tight end. We got three freshman
running backs. All those guys arefreshmen, So okay, we're gonna play
right, we're gonna play these guys. And so with that being said,
when you look at our defense,they've played together now for you know,
for a good two seasons. Someof them were freshmen when they played a
lot of them were freshmen. Andso it's gonna be interested now with Marvin

(10:46):
and an Ap kind of taken overthe defense and we've kind of changed a
little bit. UM what that lookslike. It's gonna be fun to watch.
I know that coach I don't wantto put Yogi on blast, although
I do enjoy putting Yogian blasts.So he has said to me that Jermaine
Lola, your defensive tackle, mightbe the most underrated player, not just
in the Pac twelve, but inthe country. I do, I do.

(11:09):
Uh. He has six sacks lastyear, I think, And I
don't go by sacks. Let's justgo by the way that guy plays.
He has great instincts and intangibles thatyou can't teach. As far as an
interior alignment defensive tackle. UM,he can. He can come on the
adds and he's a he's a betterpass rusher than people anticipate. UM.
But he's very aware of blocking assignmentsfrom the offense. Um. He is

(11:33):
really a player that he's kind ofsneaky. He's one of those sneaky guys.
He's like, what it made anotherplay? Right? He just he
kind of makes plays. And it'sbeen fun to watch him as a freshman
come in here and now all ofa sudden, he's played two years and
you can kind of see he's matured. Now. You can see the maturity
of guy. That's what's kind ofinterest about our football team. A lot
of these guys were freshman and youwatch him now. We played thirty two

(11:56):
freshman last year, right, whetherthey were as freshman or two freshmen,
and you kind of watch them growas young men, and it's kind of
fun how their personalities change, theybecome leaders. The growth of a young
man is exciting to me because let'sjust watch him when they're young. I
mean, walking here, you didn'tknow where they're going, and then before

(12:18):
you know it, they're kind ofleading other young guys. And I said,
that's a good things. I said, do you remember you with that
guy like two years ago? Theysaid yeah, Coach, I said,
we'll help him out. You werethe same guy, right, And he
said, yeah, you're right,Coach. So it's been fun to watch
that. I have to ask aboutthe receiver position or a couple of years
ago, Frank Darby was walking aroundfollowing Nakil Harry, following Brandon AYU,

(12:39):
Is he the guy now as youhave an influx of first and second year
players of that position. Yeah,he's the senior. He's the one with
a lot of experience. And Idon't want him to feel the pressure of
feeling that, you know, goingbehold the last two years we've had two
number one picks at wide receiver.That's kind of interesting, right, And
I don't want him to feel that. And I talk to him about that.

(13:00):
I said, look, all thatstuff don't matter. You just have
to play, just just enjoy.And Frank is a very passionate player,
as you guys know if you've beenaround him, you know, he is
kind of the energy button, youknow. And I tell him, I
said, you gotta calm down,now, you gotta I still want your
passion, but you gotta call Idon't want you to. I don't want
you to waste all your energy,right because you gotta play down after down

(13:26):
now, you know, and allof a sudden you're gonna get a lot
of attention. And I said,you gotta understand that you were like Brandon
got that I attention all of asudden. You know, the Keel got
that kind of attention too. Onthe field, they might w saw now
right, because you're going to bethe guy they're gonna try to take away.
I said, we gotta live withall that. It's not about the
numbers. I always tell him aboutthis with our receivers, it's not about
the numbers. You don't have tocatch a hunting balls. You just gotta

(13:48):
be a good player. And ifyou do that, you know, I'll
take care of itself. All.Let me talk about energy, and when
I think of you, every timewe talk like, I am infused with
energy. You always come up withdifferent ways to to get people's juices flowing.
How did you keep your players competitivewhen everyone was in quarantine and everyone
was trying to learn via zoom like, what did you do to try and

(14:11):
keep them engaged? Well, wedid some things as far as competition,
you know, or in the weightroom or when we were doing drills.
But then I came up with thiscrazy idea. We had a Madden tournament.
Can you imagine them? We hada Madden Draft, right, I
got one hundred ten guys. Thedraft went from I think it was twenty

(14:33):
rounds or something like that. Andthen we structured this tournament like the NCAA
tournament brackets, right, And wehad an introduction, and we had the
quarterbacks with the captains, We hadthe five quarterbacks, we had five teams,
we had all this. It waslike it was when I first thought
about I said, ye, we'regonna do this. Then I thought about,
how do we do this? Thisis a lot, right. So

(14:54):
it was funny to me because whenwe had the draft, we brought the
five quarterbacks in the the big meetingrules there's only five quarterbacks. We had
this big board of all our players, and so we flipped the coin,
who's gonna draft first? Right,it was like the regular draft. After
the first round went by the firstfive picks. It was amazing how many
players were texting the quarterbacks on thephone. When it was in the second

(15:16):
and third round. I'm saying,I've been drafted yet, and I said,
obviously he's not eve been Matten player, right, You get it was
It was unbelievable. I laughed morethat day. Players are calling these guys
saying coach he wanted to draft tosay, why don't you drafting? Go
coach, he can't play Matt,Now I want to go on my team.
That was a who Now who won? What was that? Here's the

(15:39):
crazy part. So we got wegot it down to the sixth to the
final sixteen, whereas it was bracketsand guess what happened? Low ball?
They said pack twelve, you getto play tackle football. So now we
got it down to sixteen. Wegot to do the rest of it when
the spring starts. So we nevergot to the end of it. That's

(16:00):
good. That's like the little danglingcarrot for furnishing the focus. Now her
well, Yogi said it. We'vegot like thirty thousand more questions that we
could kick back and forth with youall day, but we will be respectful
of your time. Thank you somuch for spending a little bit of time
with us, and we look forwardto seeing you November seventh at the LA
Coliseum. It's going to be agood one. Coach. Best of luck

(16:21):
with camp. Thank you the visitwith you, guys. God bless you,
Yogi. I know you and Icould sit and talk to her med
words all day long. Appreciate thetime he took, you know, spending

(16:41):
with us on National Coaches Day,of all things. I didn't realize it
was National Coaches Day until right beforewe did that interview. So happy National
Coaches Day to her med words.One of the best motivators in the business,
one of the best teachers in thebusiness, and Yogi. I think
as you look at this a suroster, and you look at the staff,
and you look at all of thepieces that Herm Edwards has put together

(17:03):
in his first three years now inTempe, I mean, there's just so
many storylines, Like we could justgo from top to bottom and talk about
every position group and there's juice atevery group. Well, look, I've
been around this conference for almost twentyyears now and almost every year goes by
and you talk about as you beinga sleeping giant, right, and they've
said that for thirty years that precededme. I really believe what Herm has

(17:27):
built from day one when he said, hey, we got room on the
train if you want to hop onthe train. I believe this is as
real of a program as we've seenan Arizona state in quite some time.
Because you can go to every positiongroup actually and be like NFL players,
not a lot of hype, notjust great stories and personalities, but NFL
players. Then you go to thecoaches and you're like NFL caliber coaches or

(17:48):
head coaches in college or the nextguys online, like offensive coordinator z At
Hill. And then I'd look atthe culture and I just think what works
now is old school values, newschool communication. That is Herm Edwards to
me. Old school values got tobe about business. New school communication.
You can still be you, youcan have personality. And that is why

(18:11):
I love him and everything he standsfor, and that is why he recruits
the daylights out of California, andit's why players play and develop when they've
gotten on campus. I would haveloved speaking to that point. I would
have loved to see the draft roomfor the Madden Tournament, and I'm hoping
that there's video that exists of thatsomewhere. We got to try and track
it down. But Yo, becauseyou mentioned Zach Hill, the new offensive

(18:33):
coordinator comes over from Boise State.I know you spent a lot of time
studying what he did there, andyou've been able to connect with him one
on one over the last couple months. So if I'm an ASU fan,
what new wrinkles or what should Ibe expecting from this offense with Jane Daniels
leading the way? Well, Ithink, to be fair, when you
look back at last year, theyhad a true freshman center for the majority

(18:56):
of the season. Of course,they had a true freshman quarterback and Jane
Daniels. So I can't really doa ton. You're you're a little Maybe
I don't afraid. It is probablynot the right word, but for me,
I would have been afraid to doa ton with my quarterback. I
look at them now with Zach Hilland you study him at Boise and we've
seen his teams there. It's somultiple in terms of how they get to

(19:18):
the end formation. So they're gonnashift, they're gonna motion, They're gonna
use tight ends and use a widereceivers and use different cadences and use different
tempos, all the things that everyOC will tell you they want to do.
He's done, so why I gotthe job, and he's why he
got the job. And then youadd in he's got a Ferrari in Jade
Daniels. I mean he's not drafteligible ash, but next year, we'll

(19:41):
be talking, in my opinion,about one of the top quarterbacks in the
country, if not the top quarterback, because when I study him, and
I went back and watched every singlesnap just to be a nerd because we've
had so much time. Not onlyis he exceptional outside the pocket, he
was that way in high school whenhe threw I think for over ten thousand
yards. But he's exceptional in thepocket. Right, And I wear you
out when I say this phrase,but the limiting factor in reaching your potential's

(20:03):
flawed mechanics. The limiting factor andreaching your potential slawed mechanics. Jayden is
not flawed. He climbs the pocket. He's always trying to get vertical.
He understands the integrity of it.His eyes are down field. He's got
grain, timing and anticipation. Andnow he's add a fifteen pounds. So
I know I'm rambling a little bithere, but I think what Zach Hill
will bring alongside Jane Daniel's maturity,physical growth and already acumen around the craft

(20:29):
look out like a yes he's real, and two other spots that I think.
And again, we could go throughevery position group and you'd be able
to give us a deep dive onall these guys. But worth mentioning because
we didn't really get to get intoit with harm was the offensive line.
He mentioned that they played thirty twofreshmen last year. Two of them were
on the offensive line and played alot of snaps. How are you feeling

(20:49):
about that unit as a whole,and what have they done to kind of
get creative, to get some experienceup front. I'm really excited about him.
I got to give credit to DaveChristensen and Kevin More. I mean,
they put this thing together, theydeveloped guys, and I think most
importantly, they kept the young playersconfident. Right. So, Donovan West,
his first game was against Kent Stateon our network last year as a

(21:11):
true freshman. I remember standing inthe end zone because when I'm not calling
it, that's where I stand towatch the game unfold. And he struggled,
right, and of course he did. He's a true freshman playing center
in major college football. Rush LadariusHenderson, another true freshman, plane left
tackle last year. But they stayedconfident and by the end of the year
they were playing really good football inthe offensive line. And then you look

(21:33):
at the staff and what they've donethis past offseason. They've gotten creative in
terms of getting some seniors, someveteran leadership. We're talking about Kelen Deach
grad transfer from Texas A and mHenry had Us transferred from Stanford. Kay
Cody gets his sixth year. Heapplied for it from the NC DOUABLEA.
Thank you NC douba A doing theright thing because he was injured last year.
Who was going to be their startingcenter. So now you look at

(21:56):
and say, well, it waspretty good mix here, right, there's
some that's there's some middle of therow guys or some young guys. I
just think the competitive depth is real. I think their physicality and at least
how their bodies have developed is obviouslygoing to be a positive. And then
you add in the backs that theyhave, You add in the tight ends
that they have, the litany ofreceivers and the quarterback. You start saying

(22:17):
yourself like, yeah, well whycan't as you win the Pac twelve.
And that's where I think we addout here as we get on the Virgie
training camp, Yeah, I thinkno one would be surprised to see them
playing in the Pact twelve championship game. December eighteenth. No doubt about that.
Relaxed but alert. One of myfavorite new says from Herman words,
I'm going to try and take thatapproach as a parent. What do you
think thinking the same things right now? I don't think I'm there. We're

(22:41):
just like on edge, relaxed butalert, like don't don't hurt yourself,
but just chill, chill out ifyou don't mind for five seconds. Maybe
like less alert. You're just likea little bit less alert, more relaxed.
Oh good stuffs. Appreciate all yourinsight has always and looking forward to
talking about this Sun Devil squad overthe next few months and seeing how everything

(23:02):
comes together. In Tempe November seventh, at USC nine am, we will
have our coffees ready to roll,bright and early, just about a month
away. Reminder ASU fans that arelistening to this, if you want to
do a deep dive on any ofthe other teams in the conference, we
are having these one on one conversationswith every single head coach in the PAC
twelve, So make sure you area subscribe to the Pactual Perspective podcast.

(23:22):
You can get them all right hereand on PAC dash twelve dot com.