Sun Devil football may be on track to have a breakthrough season defensively, but that progress might now have a setback as the team saw senior linebacker Tyler Whiley suffer a season-ending broken right ankle and foot injury, as reported by The Arizona Republic.
Whiley, standing at 6 feet tall and 217 lbs, did not have an outstanding 2017-2018 season as he only had three total tackles in the four games he played.
All of the aforementioned tackles were all considered solo.
However, as reported by Arizona Sports 98.7 FM in an interview with head coach Herm Edwards, Whiley had an extremely impressive offseason.
Moreover, he was competing for a starting position because of that work.
Whiley was playing the “Tillman” position, meaning he was acting as a linebacker and safety hybrid just as the late Pat Tillman did.
This injury comes to Arizona State as senior outside linebacker Koron Crump returns from an ACL injury that ended his season after only three games last year.
By that point in the season, Crump already had 11 solo tackles and 1 assisted tackle. ASU has plenty of linebackers in its lineup, but the amount of useable depth comes into question.
There will be more updates to come from the State Press as Edwards deals with injuries and cuts the roster after the next several practices.
Reach the reporter at pburnell@asu.edu or follow @paige_burnell on Twitter.
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