ASU’s Herm Edwards believes Pac-12 will play football in 6 weeks

Arizona State football coach Herm Edwards expressed confidence in the Pac-12’s fall football plan on Monday.

Edwards told Arizona Sports’ Doug & Wolf on Monday that he believes the Sun Devils will be ready to go within six weeks.

“I think we’re on the same page, it’s just a matter of when do you want to turn it?” Edwards said. “We’re on the same page, it’s just that people turn it faster than others. It’s all good.”

Edwards, who has gone 15-11 in two seasons in Tempe, said he’s confident the conference’s leaders will unveil their blueprint on Thursday.

Regardless of timing, Edwards is confident that ASU will be ready whenever the season kicks off.

“We’re excited, the way it’s moving right now, we just have to wait for the people that make those decisions to make the decisions,” Edwards said. “So, I’m pretty confident eventually that we’re going to play.”

Edwards said the Sun Devils have been working out throughout the pandemic-related delay, but that the team needs time to install offensive and defensive schemes in addition to other, more minute aspects of pregame preparation.

“Here’s the deal now. We’ve been working out, so it’s not like we’ve been sitting around,” Edwards said. “We’ve been working out for the last two months. Now we haven’t worked out, as far as offense versus defense, that hasn’t been a part of the picture. But we’ve run, we’ve done individual drills, we’ve installed things, as far as offensively and defensively.

“But we’re just like everybody else. It’s going to take at least five or six weeks and when they decide to do this, they know the parameters on what it’s going to take, so we’ll see where it’s at.”

Edwards believes that the lack of preseason conditioning workouts and games has played a role in the spike in injuries during the first two weeks of the NFL season.

That’s why he doesn’t want the Pac-12 to rush its return, so players can ramp up their conditioning in a safer manner.

“I think because the missed opportunity to go to training camp. And that’s showing up in the NFL, with all of those injuries in the second week, that doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “They’re all soft tissue injuries. Because all of a sudden these guys have been doing stuff but they haven’t been in game mode. And all of a sudden, games are full speed, they’re not like in the preseason you work your way into it.

“Now, they count, and all of a sudden the strain of playing fast football in a competitive environment against an opponent, people don’t realize the difference of that.”

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