Arizona State WR Malik McClain will redshirt, sit out rest of 2024 season

TEMPE — Arizona State wide receiver Malik McClain will sit out the rest of the season and redshirt to maintain an additional season of eligibility, head coach Kenny Dillingham said Monday.

Dillingham said McClain had a hard time getting up to speed as a late transfer, so he approached him about the redshirt. He suggested they could toss out the redshirt in case of injuries.

Kenny Dillingham said the plan is for WR Malik McClain to redshirt this season, as he’s had a hard time picking up the offense as a late transfer.

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— State of the Sun Devils (@AZSportsDevils) October 7, 2024

As a rule, redshirt players cannot play more than four games in a season, so McClain was inactive for the first time in ASU’s win over Kansas on Saturday. He practiced as a member of the scout team in the week leading up to the matchup.

This season was the 6-foot-4 receiver’s first without a catch through his first four games, as he struggled to find snaps as one of ASU’s highest-upside transfers from the offseason.

McClain was originally recruited by Dillingham to Florida State from the class of 2021. Next season would be his fifth in college football.

Through four games, McClain had taken the fifth-most snaps among wide receivers. He had no catches on three targets, per PFF.

His busiest game of the season was Arizona State’s loss to Texas Tech, in which he had a third-down conversion that was taken away by an illegal touching penalty and had an end-of-half Hail Mary go through his hands.

While the vast majority of the wide receiver snaps have gone to Jordyn Tyson, Xavier Guillory and Melquan Stovall, McClain represented strong depth given his catch radius along with Jake Smith.

Troy Omeire, also 6-foot-4, filled in as WR5 in Saturday’s win over Kansas. He had one catch for six yards across four snaps.

Omeire led the Pac-12 in average depth of target last season at 17.3 yards downfield, finishing with 223 yards on 20 catches and three scores.

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