Tuesday’s Post-Practice Quotes

ASU’s Head Coach Dennis Erickson addressed the toe fracture injury to WR Chris McGaha and other team news.

Dennis Erickson

On the extend of the injury to Chris McGaha

“He had X-rays today and he has a little bit of a fracture there (in his toe). They don’t know if it’s old or new. They may not even go in there (for surgery). We’re gonna send him to a foot specialist and see what he thinks.”



On whether during the last week of spring practice he introduces new plays, schemes, etc. or just reviewing what was implemented the first three weeks

“Today we added a couple of little things on offense, but kind of reviewed everything we did. Really nothing (added) on defense. We reviewed everything today but when we play in the spring game on Saturday, we’ll be pretty vanilla. You won’t see any blitzing or anything like that.”

On his assessment of his team thus far in spring practice

“I’m happy with where we are. I’m happy about where we are defensively, we are way ahead of where we were a year ago this time as far as what we got in – obviously because we got a lot of players back. Offensively I’m happy with where we are at. Rudy (Carpenter) has had an outstanding spring…our front is getting better all the time. You can see a tremendous improvement in that group since the beginning of spring football.”

“I’ve seen a lot of progress in Jon Hargis in the last four or five practices, and that’s what you’re kind of looking for right now.” On whether the offensive line is further along with the run or pass blocking

“I think with the run blocking, but run blocking is always easier. Pass protection is a lot harder because you have more thinking to do. Against us, because we do a lot of different things on defense, you’re seeing different things all the time.”

On making the protections more complex in the future, after the introduction of simpler schemes

“We’re pretty complex and we’re doing what we want to do protection wise. I think we did too much last year. Even if I had all those guys coming back (on the offensive line) I would cut back on what we were doing protection wise because it was a little confusing for us. We simplified our pass protections; we’re doing some more max (protection) stuff. It’s not simpler, just easier to pick up. ”

“In our blitz drills we miss some, but assignment wise we’re in pretty good shape.”

On whether he has given any thought where he would like to plug in some of the newcomers arriving in the fall, based on what he has seen in the spring

“We’ve talked about it but it’s hard to tell. I can see a corner coming in and helping us, maybe a linebacker. Obviously the defensive front is somewhere where we need help, and we have the two junior college players coming in, who gotta help us. One of those young high school guys can help us like (Lawrence) Guy of (Jamarr) Jarrett. Offensively Zach Schlink or Patrick Jamison may help us.”

“I think Gerrell Robinson can help us at wide receiver and maybe even (A.J.) Pickens. But it’s hard to say until they get here and you see where they are competitive. It’s a pretty good transition coming in as a freshman and playing a lot. Took Omar Bolden quite a while and he’s pretty good. ”

Erickson added that if the season started today David Bertrand would start at defensive tackle alongside David Smith, while Mike Nixon would be the starting WILL linebacker.