Erickson stated that he’d prefer to practice outside but the lighting storm naturally made it a necessity to move practice indoors. He quipped that the loud generators in the facility made it “feel like we’re playing on the road at home…I thought those airplanes were bad, but with that thing you can’t hear anything. I stood behind it and I could hardly hear the snap count.”
The ASU coach added that the team was able to do some red zone work and other drills that were planned for today’s practice despite the unexpected move inside. A minor drawback is that it takes several minutes for the whole team to enter the facility, since they cannot all enter at the same time.
In probably the most notable depth chart move, junior linebacker Ryan McFoy replaced Mike Nixon at first team WILL. “We’re alternating these guys in there,” said Erickson. “We have some injuries…but he’s getting better and better. The biggest thing with Ryan is that he’s picking the game up; he’s picking the position up. We all forget that we didn’t move him to linebacker until last fall. When you watch him in practice he runs to the football extremely well.”
Keegan Herring and Nate Kimbrough were still sidelined with their respective injuries and joining them was Shelly Lyons who sprained his ankle in yesterday’s practice and is day-to-day. Brandon Smith suffered a hamstring pull. “He should be back in four, five days I would think,” Erickson stated.
Terell Carr hasn’t been 100% healthy and Pierre Singfield saw some action at first team corner tonight. “They’re battling,” Erickson noted. “That corner job isn’t settled by any means.”