As 22 football players made their desires to be Sun Devils official at 2004 NCAA signing day, head coach Dirk Koetter announced that the new recruits would allow the coaching staff to make changes to the team's game plan on both sides of the ball.
On offense, the Sun Devils will eliminate the fullback position and mostly play with two tight ends. On defense, the team plans to "melt" both its signature nickel formation and the traditional 4-3 set into one permanent scheme.
Not coincidentally, Wednesday's recruiting class was highlighted by a strong group of three linebackers and two safeties, as well as two of the top tight ends in the nation -- Valley natives Zach Miller and Andrew Pettes.
"With the addition of Andrew Pettes and Zach Miller, it will allow us to move to more of a two-tight end offense, something we've wanted to do the whole time we've been here. But we didn't have the depth at tight end to do it," Koetter said.The recruiting class met the Sun Devils' needs numbers-wise at all positions with the exception of defensive line, he said. The team has also yet to sign a scholarship punter.
There were four junior college transfers among ASU's 2004 recruiting class, as well as seven players from Arizona.
"We own the state of Arizona -- we always make it a priority," said Koetter, who has signed 31 players from the state during his four recruiting classes at ASU.
The jewel of the group is Miller, who is rated as the No. 1 tight end in the nation and was the Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year. Koetter compared the Phoenix Desert Vista product to former Sun Devil and NFL Pro Bowler Todd Heap.
"I've been recruiting in Arizona a long time, but I don't know if I've ever seen a player come out of high school better than Zach Miller," Koetter said. "He can make a difference in any program, and he has a chance to help us right away."
Pettes, a Phoenix Moon Valley product, was ranked as the No. 12 tight end in the country and seventh best player in the state.
The team may have found its replacement for Jason Shivers -- the team's leading tackler each of the last three seasons, who bypassed his senior season for the NFL -- in Maurice London, a junior college All-American. London is the only signee who is currently enrolled at ASU and will participate in spring football.
Koetter said he looked for linebacker Antone Saulsberry to make a "quick impact," and trumpeted the 6-foot, 215-pound Bellflower, Calif., native as being "fast and a playmaker."
Saulsberry had been targeted by the coaching staff since his junior year of high school and was at the top of defensive coordinator Brent Guy's list.
Koetter said junior college transfer, linebacker Dale Robinson is one of two players who will be able to compete right away, the other being Miller. Koetter called Robinson a "great blitzer."
Guy said that in the past the defense, which switched between a 4-3 and a nickel package, had to make substitutions and change rules for the players. ASU will now simplify both schemes, and combine them into one.
Both Saulsberry and Robinson appear suited to play a blend of an extra strong safety, taken from the nickel package, and the third linebacker from a 4-3 formation.
Defensive line was a major priority throughout the recruiting period for the coaching staff. The Sun Devils managed to sign three defensive linemen in the class -- including two junior college transfers -- but will still need to address the area through current players making position changes, Guy said.
As is becoming a tradition with Koetter's recruiting classes, ASU signed more than one signal caller, as it inked Rudy Carpenter from Westlake, Calif., and Max Hall of Mesa.
Carpenter was rated as the No. 20 quarterback in the country by rivals.com, and will be a candidate to replace team icon Andrew Walter after the 2004 season.
Hall is a nephew of former Sun Devil and Dallas Cowboy Danny White and likely will go on a two-year mission either immediately or following his freshman season.
Koetter added that the "star system," which measures how good recruits are, was the "biggest joke I've ever seen," and that he personally asked that such rankings be removed from ASU's list of signees.
"I can give you a million examples of guys that were a one-star recruit one day and a three- or four-star recruit the next," Koetter said. "I guarantee you the guy that made that switch didn't watch them on film a lick."
Koetter also said that negative recruiting was "alive and well as much as it ever has been," and he attributed part of that to rumors floating around on the Internet as to various recruits' status.
Koetter added that during the two-hour block of time that Rudy Carpenter visited ASU, reports of Carpenter being at a different school, as well as a report of the quarterback committing to a different school, were published online.
Reach the reporter at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
