With a year under their belts, ASU’s young guns hungry for more

TEMPE, Ariz. — With one of the youngest defensive units in the country, their was some doubt heading into last season for the Arizona State Sun Devils.

That doubt was quickly snubbed out as ASU’s freshmen made an impact, and fast.

Allowing the fewest points (332) since the 2012 season, while holding nine of their opponents to under 30 points, the defense was no longer a glaring weakness like it had been in recent years.

While still unfinished college products, freshmen linebackers Merlin Robertson and Darien Butler, safety Aashari Crosswell and redshirt freshman defensive lineman Tyler Johnson were catalysts for the up-and-coming defense.

“The young core that we have and a lot of us starting, I feel like it gives us a big boost because they’re comfortable with the speed of the game, they’re comfortable with the defense,” Johnson said during the team’s media day Thursday. “They know that they can coach somebody up now and boost them along the way to make the game even greater.

“That’s something that was awesome to see develop because now we can jump into a game and we’re like ‘I can trust, I can trust him. He’s going to do his job, I’m going to do my job. It’s all going to work out how it’s supposed to work out.'”

The accolades and performance on the gridiron speak for themselves.

Robertson was named Pac-12 Freshman Defensive Player of the Year — to go along with other numerous honors — and Crosswell was an All Pac-12 Honorable Mention.

Robertson was a force for ASU all season long, racking up 77 total tackles, five sacks and an interception, solidifying his role on the team.

“Honestly I wasn’t really satisfied with my performance last year,” Robertson said when asked about his Pac-12 honors. “I just got to lead by example and keep doing what I need to do. Know the defense, get the scheme down.”

The duo of Johnson and Butler chipped in a combined 108 tackles and five sacks, while Crosswell was a huge thorn in opposing quarterbacks’ sides. He snagged four picks and knocked down nine balls to go along with 43 tackles.

Instead of relishing in the positives of last year, and the hype of this season, the core of ASU’s defense is eager to get back on the field.

“Leading the Pac-12 in interceptions this year and getting better each and every day,” Crosswell said when asked what his goals were heading into the season. “I’ve been working way harder than I was last summer when I first got here.

“Our group, we can be untouchable. I feel like we can just do it all. We can do anything we put our minds to.”

But even with the first-year success on the field, defensive coordinator — and now assistant head coach — Danny Gonzales is looking for more out of his defense.

“Winning cures all in everything,” Gonzales said. “But in my opinion, we didn’t meet our expectations of what we thought we were capable of doing. Some people out there thought we did better than we should have, we were picked last.

“They picked us to win anywhere from two to four games. We won seven. We should have won more.”

At 7-6, ASU proved it could compete last season, but saw small lapses at times that proved to be too much for the young team. In five of the six defeats, the Sun Devils fell by a touchdown or fewer, with their only loss of more than seven points coming against Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl (11).

“Last year I think we did pretty good as a defense, but there were just little mistakes that we need to pick up,” Robertson said. “But I feel like this year we’re coming out stronger with a better bond than last year and I feel like we’re going to be really good, really aggressive as well.”

But while they are focused on the upcoming season, don’t think those losses have left the minds of the young Sun Devils.

“We’re not trying to lose by a touchdown or less… we need to take advantage of the ball on offense and we need to get stops on defense,” Johnson said. “[There were] many, many plays on defense where maybe that one call was not the right call or that one person was not in the right spot.

“If we can change all of those things, our defense will be amazing because pretty much everyone who contributed last season is coming back.”

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