DeWitty, Tanner Are Redshirt Possibilities

As the days tick down to the ASU’s season opener, the Sun Devil coaches are not only thinking of what lies ahead for this Saturday. Season-long decisions, based on depth chart and injuries begin to from, and Head Coach Dennis Erickson talked to the media after Tuesday’s practice about some of those player personnel matters.

On the status of Luis Vasquez

“He’s doing some things. We were having problems adjusting his brace…whether he plays or not? I can’t give you an answer. My opinion right now is that he wouldn’t but I’m not gonna count him out. If he’s not full speed…you can’t do that. I won’t do that with any of these guys.”

On the status of Brandon Smith

“He’s doing better, but he’s not full speed either. He missed three weeks of practice, and it’s hard to play when you haven’t practiced. He might play some, he might not. Same thing with Rudy (Burgess). He was pretty good in practice and got tired towards the end, and that’s what happens – they might feel better, but they haven’t done anything. It’s not exactly 60 degrees out here.”



On the status of Eric Tanner

“He’s still hurt with the bruise on his knee. It’s a possibility that we can redshirt him – he has a redshirt year. We’re kind of gonna wait and see how it comes along.”

On the status of Ryan McFoy

“He’s better than he has been. He’s missed time and we’d like to have him back. He could help us on special teams. I definitely wouldn’t count on him Saturday.” (Erickson added that Jarrell Woods would be out as well)

On the first team nickel defense with Rodney Cox

“It’s pretty good. Cox, (Josh) Barrett, and (Troy) Nolan, and then you have (Jeremy) Payton too. That’s six, seven guys…knock on wood that’s a first for me in a while, where we’ve had enough depth where we can play nickel and dime. There’s a possibility where we’ll face some people, where we’ll have to play six DB’s and one linebacker. If I was playing Hawaii I would consider doing that, with the guys they have.”

On Shaun DeWitty being on the scout team

“My plan right now for Shaun is to redshirt him. But again, I hate to say that because who knows what’s gonna happen down the road. There are a lot of guys redshirting that we may end up playing.”

On the benefit of having an extra practice (on Sunday), in preparing for this week’s game

“It gives you some mental preparation that you wouldn’t have. But as we get into our normal routine - Sundays we don’t do a lot. It helps, but they (San Jose State) have the same preparation, so I don’t know that it’s an advantage to anybody.”

On having all the walk-ons in practice

“This is the first day we had all the walk-ons. We had walk-ons tryout a couple of weeks ago. I believe they’re seven or eight and they will help us on the Scout team.”