Aaron Pflugrad takes the ball up the field at a home game in Tempe in 2011. (Photo by State Press Staff)Aaron Pflugrad has always had a knack for coaching.
It seemed natural to him even when he was a wide receiver for the ASU football team. As a senior on the team two years ago, Pflugrad said he found himself giving tips to the younger players on the team.
Pflugrad is now a graduate assistant on coach Todd Graham’s staff, and the same players to whom he was once giving tips are now the team’s veterans, but Pflugrad's relationship with them has hardly changed.
Senior tight end Chris Coyle lined up with Pflugrad dozens of times two years ago when Pflugrad was a senior and Coyle was just a sophomore.
He remembers what it was like having Pflugrad tutor him.
“When he was my teammate, he was such a great leader,” Coyle said. “Now that he’s moved on to coaching, I look up to him as a leader. I’ve called him ‘coach’ from day one. I don’t call him Aaron Pflugrad or ‘Pflugie’ anymore. When he’s out on the field, he’s coaching us, and I give him that respect.”
Pflugrad played for the Sun Devils for two years and finished his ASU career with 73 catches for 994 yards and seven touchdowns. After he graduated, Pflugrad had a brief stint with the Philadelphia Eagles, but he still often came back to Tempe to visit ASU’s spring practice.
The Eagles cut him before training camp, but Graham offered him a minor coaching role on the team a day after Pflugrad found out he was released.
“I’ll forever be grateful for that,” Pflugrad said. “This place has always been a part of me and kind of where I want to spend the rest of my life.”
Coaching was what Pflugrad said he wanted to do after his playing career was over, anyway.
Pflugrad takes after his father, Robin, who was a collegiate coach himself throughout Aaron’s childhood and now is the offensive coordinator at Weber State.
As a Christian, Pflugrad said he wants to glorify God through coaching and to serve other people.
Pflugrad was promoted as a graduate assistant over the offseason and the 25-year-old mainly helps receivers coach DelVaughn Alexander with the wideouts and making sure the players are mentally in check.
“It’s been phenomenal getting the chance to learn under Coach Graham and (offensive coordinator Mike) Norvell,” Pflugrad said. “I’m really learning how to pour on to the guys and get the most of out of them and to prepare for championships. I’m learning a ton and learning on the run, but I’m trying to coach these guys up and understand that you have to get after it every day and have a championship mentality in every aspect of life. That’s what I’m trying to teach them.”
And he’s already inspired some of the players, just ask Coyle.
“I want to be just like him and the way he was fundamentally sound,” Coyle said. “He ran his routes with such technicality and he caught everything that came his way. He was always one of the more undersized guys at his position like I am at my position. I try to simulate my game similar to how he played.”
Pflugrad’s main goal is to eventually move up to be a position coach for the Sun Devils and would love to be a head coach one day. For now, he’s making the most out of his chance to study Graham and help the team close in on its first Pac-12 South title.
“I think I’m in the right situation learning under coach Graham and all of the coaches on the staff,” Pflugrad said. “I just wanted to be where I am and be the best G.A. in the country every day and whatever that details."
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Josh_Nacion
