It didn’t take long for ASU to do the offensive line shuffle.

Sophomore Matt Hustad, who started the first game at right tackle, was moved to right guard during practice on Tuesday.

With sophomore center Garth Gerhart nursing a second big-toe injury, redshirt freshman Andrew Sampson took snaps at center. Sampson started the first game at right guard.

Hustad, who had 40 family members and friends at the season opener, all donning “Matt Pack” shirts, was just happy to be on the field for the first time in three years.

“There could have been three guys out there and I’d have been jacked up,” Hustad said. “I could really care less where I play, so long as I’m out there.”

Hustad said he likes the mauling potential of the line’s interior.

“I love being guard,” he said. “The guy is right in front of you.
There’s no time to think; you’re just right on him.”

With two weeks before their next game, and given the assortment of players jostling for position on the offensive line for ASU, Hustad believes there is still plenty of time to get things straight.

“Well, [injuries] will make for a very versatile line,” Hustad said. “You’d like to know the person you’re playing next to. What their tendencies are. We‘ll figure it out.”

Senior Tom Njunge practiced with the first team at right tackle on Tuesday.

Redshirt freshman cornerback Deveron Carr did not practice.

Big hit U

Three seconds within a single play.

That was the time it took for the highest recruit in ASU history to turn hype into reality — three seconds of hyper-reality.

The ASU true freshman linebacker with the name sportswriters live for, and soon ball carriers will learn to fear: Vontaze Burfict.

It was the third series of the middle linebacker’s college career, the third quarter of ASU’s 50-3 romp over Idaho State.

ISU junior quarterback Russel Hill took the snap in the shotgun, completely unaware of Burfict’s inferno in front of him, and scooted to his left on a designed roll out.

Burfict mirrored the quarterback from the far hash, where the play started, to the near hash, where it would soon end. Once Hill crossed his left tackle, Burfict, who was more than ten yards from Hill, took off.

The freshman accelerated toward Hill, and with the perfect angle achieved, Burfict reached his target, lifted off his feet, planted his helmet into Hill’s right shoulder pad and drove him five yards into an alternate dimension.

It was a collision that can’t be taught at Terry Tate’s school for office linebackers, a hit straight from the Blitz video game.

“He’s got tremendous acceleration,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “He explodes to the football very well.”

Burfict’s first-career play was a blitz, in which he went untouched over the center and guard, causing a rushed incompletion.

He also recovered a fumble and had a team-high five tackles.

As a testament to the defense’s highlight reel, Burfict’s hit may have come in second to senior middle linebacker Gerald Munns’ first half devastation of ISU senior running back Clint Knickrehm, which caused a fumble.

After reviewing the film, Erickson was quick to point out how well the defense played overall as a unit.

“There is peer pressure to play extremely hard [on defense],” the coach said. “That’s how the leaders are, and that’s how we all played.”

One of the defense’s leaders, senior Mike Nixon, was named Pac-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday.

Nixon had three interceptions — one he returned for a touchdown — and a blocked punt in Saturday’s win. The 26-year-old linebacker has eight interceptions in his last nine games.

Reach the reporter at nick.ruland@asu.edu.