Offense and defense are the two main phases of football, but the "hidden third" has been a consistent issue that's cost the Sun Devils all season long.
ASU's special teams ranks 132 out of 136 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, according to KFord Ratings — a computer metric. The scale is 0-100, with 50 being the average; the Sun Devils' rating is 2.5. Even after adding the field goal ability of redshirt senior Jesus Gomez, ASU is still toward the bottom.
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"We're struggling on special teams," head coach Kenny Dillingham said. "We're just going to focus more on detail. We're not squeezing edges, we're not doing fundamental stuff well."
One of the prime examples of the special teams' issues came against then No. 7 Texas Tech. Sophomore punter Kanyon Floyd kicked a weak 29-yard punt that resulted in a 36-yard return that put the Red Raiders on the 12-yard line, eventually taking the lead. The Sun Devils came back to win the game, but special teams almost cost them their first win against a top 10 team since 2019.
The following week, Dillingham spoke on how he intended to improve this phase of football.
"We kept the entire team in special teams meeting today," Dillingham said. "Every coach, every player and I said 'I'm going to run this thing, we're going to watch every clip and we're going to get this fixed.' So that's a priority for me to try to improve that area of our football."
Currently in the Big 12, ASU ranks at the bottom in both net punt yards with 33.1 and net kickoff yards with 39.3. Net yards are the total gross yards of a punt or kickoff, minus return, penalty and touchback yards. This illustrates the significant field position advantage some teams have gained against the Sun Devils during these special teams moments.
READ MORE: ASU football's third down struggles stall offense while defense succeeds
The already struggling ASU special teams unit took a hit as third-year special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Charlie Ragle announced he would miss the rest of the season to attend to a health issue.
"Coach Ragle is not replaceable," Dillingham said. "He's one of the best coaches the state's ever seen. He's one of the best mentors you could ever have. So he's not a replaceable person."
The announcement came a day after ASU's disappointing loss to Houston, Gomez missed two field goals and the Sun Devils committed four special teams penalties for a loss of 33 yards.
Jack Nudo, a first-year football analyst for the Sun Devils, was announced as the interim special teams coordinator. He immediately took a hands-on approach to help the ailing Sun Devils' unit.
"Coach (Dillingham) was the first person to tell me what happened (with Ragle) and immediately told me I would be taking over for special teams," Nudo said.
Working during practice on the fundamentals like snaps, holding and drops, Floyd, who also serves as the team's holder, took ownership of the unit's struggles, looking to improve what Ragle built along with Nudo.
"He's trying to continue what coach Ragle did with his own style," Floyd said. "We haven't really done our best, but each week we’re going to get better."
Nudo, a native of Arizona, went to high school at Brophy Prep in Phoenix and played football collegiately at Division III Benedictine in Mesa.
He has bounced around different universities across the country, including Ball State, East Carolina, UCLA and most recently Austin Peay, where he served as special teams coordinator.
"I'm a high-energy guy as well," Nudo said. "I'm not going to try and be Coach Ragle because nobody can do that other than Coach Ragle."
In Nudo's first game at the helm of special teams in ASU's 24-19 victory over Iowa State, Gomez went one out of one on field goals and Floyd pinned Iowa State inside the 20 on two of his six punts. The unit was still penalized twice on kickoffs for a loss of 15 yards.
"We have a talented special teams group and I know we haven't performed to the ability that we can," Nudo said. "But we're not going to be able to make a million different changes with the specialists right now."
Edited by Jack McCarthy, Senna James and Ellis Preston.
Reach the reporters at eapache3@asu.edu and niall.rosenberg@gmail.com and follow @RosenbergNiall on X.
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Niall Rosenberg is a lead Sports Reporter at the State Press. He has previously worked with sports teams such as the Rockford Rivets of the Northwoods League. He is in his 2nd semester with the State Press with the chance to cover football and other sports.
