Arizona State starts Wade Helton at C, Ben Coleman at LG in front of Jeff Sims at Utah

Arizona State opened with Wade Helton at center and Ben Coleman at left guard in a major offensive line shift in front of backup quarterback Jeff Sims at Utah on Saturday.

The move put Coleman back where he played and graded out as one of ASU’s best linemen last season. However, he exited during ASU’s first offensive drive on Saturday after an apparent injury and was replaced by Jimeto Obigbo.

Coleman entered Saturday with the most snaps of any ASU offensive lineman, with all 368 in the middle of the formation.

Helton had previously only seen snaps at center in-game during blowouts.

The shift came after Helton challenged Coleman for the starting role in fall camp and played the majority of the left guard snaps in ASU’s win over TCU after a holding penalty on Obigbo, who started at left guard in the first five games. Obigbo was also called for holding on his first play after replacing Coleman.

Once Helton was inserted, Sam Leavitt had one of his best stretches of the season, completing 17 of his next 20 pass attempts.

ASU coach Kenny Dillingham said the following Monday he wanted to get Helton more run in the hopes of rotating seven linemen each game.

“You can see Wade at some center, you know, it’s harder to move guys in and out of center than it is in and out of guard,” Dillingham said on Sept. 29. “We’re just trying to get the best guys on the field.

“(Ben Coleman is) playing really well right now at center, so it’s like, man, do you mess up your center, but you want to get more guys rotating. … Wade’s probably more of a center, but he’s good at guard and we need him in, but then do you want to change centers?”

Helton, a redshirt freshman who transferred from Iowa State after spring camp, initially contended for starting reps after snapping troubles from Coleman, but they had been largely cleaned up in recent weeks.

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