It may have been child’s play for those in ASU football uniforms, but make no mistake — Thursday’s spring practice was for mature audiences only.
You want collisions?
For sheer violence and volume, the Hadron Collider had nothing on the Sun Devil defense on this day.
“A lot of energy, a lot of hitting,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “We flew around on defense, and you can see the kind of speed we have at linebacker.”
On a day when high school coaches from across the state gathered to watch as part of their coaching clinic at ASU, the intermittent blasting of helmets and shoulder pads created a palpable buzz on the sidelines and surely a ringing in the ears of offensive players.
Now that’s football.
The projected starting linebackers, the crew from Corona, Calif. — sophomore Vontaze Burfict and juniors Shelly Lyons and Brandon Magee — trash-talked and backed it up.
Sometimes too far.
During a running drill that included everyone on both sides of the ball except receivers and secondary players, Burfict and an unidentified offensive lineman got into a fight that started on the ground. The skirmish trickled into a scrum, as players on both sides of the ball pushed and swung wildly, with others trying to separate the two.
Burfict, the reigning Pac-10 Defensive Freshman of the Year, who earned a reputation for committing personal foul penalties as a freshman, heckled and taunted the offense all afternoon.
There were other fights throughout the day between the two sides, as the offense tried to push back against the big, bad bullies in white.
For those who have seen the ESPN “30 for 30” feature, this is what the Miami football program must have been like in its glory days.
“They are having much more fun than we’ve ever had,” Erickson said. “It’s like a schoolyard again. That’s how it should be.”
Those who have been around the program for years have said the intensity and tempo in practice is as good as it’s ever been — particularly under Erickson.
Much of that credit seems to have implicitly gone to new offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, who has his offensive players running through drills with pace and purpose.
“A lot of it is the no-huddle stuff and the offense is at least attacking back, and that makes it a lot more fun,” Erickson said.
Junior cornerback Omar Bolden agrees the new-look offense has also helped the intensity on defense.
“We are seeing something new and different [from the offense],” he said. “It’s a little more complicated, so it’s making the competition a little more hot. It‘s turned practice into something completely different.”
Surely, the defense will have some questions to answer, as it lost its most productive defensive player and leader in linebacker Mike Nixon.
But ASU featured one of the better defensive units in the country last year statistically, and if Thursday’s spring practice was any indication, it has only built on the identity it established last year.
In fact, the intimidation factor may be going into overdrive.
“You don’t want the [intensity] to be fake,” Bolden said. “We already have that.”
Reach the reporter at nick.ruland@asu.edu
