Both ASU head football coach Dirk Koetter and defensive captain, senior strong safety, Riccardo Stewart believe a new addition to spring football will enhance the level of toughness, an element the team sorely lacked during a disappointing 4-8 campaign last season.
Beginning with Saturday's practice -- the second day the team is allowed to wear full pads and the first day it will beginning hitting -- the Sun Devils will add one-on-one drills between a defensive and offensive player that will, for the most part, be watched by the rest of the team. The drills will take place three times per practice and will be between players of equal skill level, meaning starters will only face other starters.
"I think that helps a lot because a lot of the competition is in front of your whole teammates," Stewart said. "Its one thing to go against guys who are scout team, but its better when it's (junior linebacker) Jamar (Williams) vs. (sophomore tailback) Loren Wade or something like that.
"When it's one-on-one its more competitive and you step your level of play up. It's more of a game-like situation. It's all about competing and that's what we failed to do last year."
Koetter said that one of the reasons he added the drills was to boost the team's intensity, but the players must do other things to up its toughness from a year ago.
"It's a lot bigger than [the drills]," Koetter said. "Its more than just three periods in a 30-period practice. That whole toughness thing is how you approach every day. We've been out here two days in no pads so we'll see over course of spring."
Injury update: Stewart will not wear an orange "no-hit" jersey this spring, but he will be held out of most contact drills as a precautionary measure after a barrage of injuries last season.
Stewart said he will focus on conditioning this spring as he missed out on many of the team's fitness activities the last two months because he underwent minor ankle surgery during the second week of the semester.
Senior defensive end Jimmy Verdon will be wearing an orange jersey due to shoulder surgery over the offseason.
"Medically he's been cleared by the doctor but his strength is not 100 percent back," Koetter said. "Jimmy is a proven player so for him to go in there with a less than a 100 percent shoulder doesn't make much sense."
Notes: Sophomore Ali Likio missed both days of practice after attending a weight lifting session early Monday morning. Koetter said he hadn't heard from the defensive tackle although it is expected Likio's absence is due to ongoing problems with Likio's infant child, who was born prematurely.
"There has been a lot of issues with that," Koetter said. "Ali has a lot of things in his personal life and we've given him a lot of leeway on that."
Senior defensive back Emmanuel Franklin has made a position switch to safety after playing cornerback throughout his ASU career.
Reach the reporter at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
