The Arizona State Sun Devils will start Drew Pyne at quarterback against USC. When Pyne played the Trojans last year as a member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, he completed 23 of 26 passes. One big key: He had a strong offensive line.
Pyne will not have a strong offensive line on Saturday night in Tempe.
Per ESPN’s Pete Thamel, ASU will be missing at least four offensive linemen who have started games for the Sun Devils, with a fifth — Cade Briggs — being a game-time decision. These are not the third-stringers on the depth chart. These are players who were expected to play for much if not all of the 2023 season.
Here’s more from Thamel:
“ASU is down to nine healthy scholarship offensive linemen, which has limited how it can practice. The Sun Devils are without linemen Ben Coleman, Max Iheanachor, Isaia Glass and Emmit Bohle, all of whom have started or were expected to start. ASU has just 82 scholarships available as it is down three because of self-imposed NCAA sanctions from former coach Herm Edwards’ tenure, further impacting depth.”
ASU has 10 projected (preseason) or actual starters out for this game.
Catch all of Ducks Wire’s Pac-12 team previews for the 2023 season:
Arizona — Arizona State — California — Colorado — Oregon State — Stanford — UCLA — USC — Utah — Washington — Washington State