Tag: Arizona State

Alabama football set to host Arizona State transfer Ed Woods this weekend

Kalen DeBoer and Alabama football are making moves in the transfer portal

Kalen DeBoer and the Alabama Crimson Tide football team have been fairly quiet so far in the spring transfer portal cycle. Aside from a few walk-ons deciding to leave and the additions of Kadyn Proctor and Graham Nicholson, Alabama’s roster has remained intact.

Now it appears Coach DeBoer and his staff have zeroed in on another potential portal addition. On Monday, On3 reported that the Crimson Tide will host a visit with Arizona State defensive back Ed Woods.

Woods has played corner and safety over the last couple of seasons for the Sun Devils accumulating 66 tackles, 10 passes defended, and one interception.

Alabama could use the experience of Woods in a secondary that is littered with young but promising talent.

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Arizona State QB Jaden Rashada opens eyes with transfer portal move

Jaden Rashada can’t seem to find a situation he likes.

The Jaden Rashada story has taken another wild turn. Rashada, who had signed with Florida before reversing course and choosing Arizona State, has entered the transfer portal and left second-year Sun Devil head coach Kenny Dillingham. It’s another plot twist in a journey which has been more interesting off the field than on.

Gators Wire offered background on Rashada when he originally went to Arizona State:

“He signed with UF during the early signing period, but a reported $13 million name, image and likeness deal fell through before he ever enrolled in classes. That’s when Rashada asked to be released from his letter of intent and set off to find a new home.

“In the end, perhaps Rashada wound up where he should be. He’ll still find success in the NIL market wherever he goes, and playing under the pressure of a $10 million-plus contract might have ruined him before he even got started in the Swamp. There’s also class of 2024 quarterback DJ Lagway to consider. The five-star recruit would be coming in a year after Rashada and competing with him after a year of Graham Mertz or Jack Miller III as the starter.”

Everyone will be intensely interested in Rashada’s next landing spot.

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Report: Troy Brown garnering interest for college WR coach position

Troy Brown could be eyeing a jump to college football

Former New England Patriots assistant Troy Brown was on the Arizona State campus and is reportedly a candidate to replace Ra’Shaad Samples as the new wide receivers coach, per Noah Furtado of 247 Sports’ SunDevilSource

Brown has spent the last four seasons as a member of the Patriots’ coaching staff.

He was the running backs coach and kick returners coach in 2020, before serving in the role of kick returners and wide receivers coach from 2021-2023. He has remained on the New England staff, despite the organization hiring Tyler Hughes and Tiquan Underwood to coach wide receivers.

Brown has a long history with the Patriots as a player before he took up coaching. He was a decorated member of the team for 15 seasons and inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2012.

Although Brown is technically still a member of the New England staff, it appears that he is garnering interest elsewhere. Things move fast in football circles, and it appears this situation is one of those cases.

Packers to host Arizona State DB Chris Edmonds on top 30 pre-draft visit

The Green Bay Packers will host Arizona State defensive back Chris Edmonds on a top 30 visit ahead of the 2024 NFL draft.

The Green Bay Packers will host Arizona State defensive back Chris Edmonds on a top 30 visit ahead of the 2024 NFL draft, according to Justin Melo of The Draft Network.

Teams are allowed to host up to 30 prospects on visits ahead of the draft. Packers Wire is tracking all the reported visits here.

Edmonds, a transfer from Samford, produced 121 tackles, three interceptions and eight pass breakups over two seasons at Arizona State.

According to Pro Football Focus, Edmonds finished with 26 stops while playing mostly in the box for Arizona State’s defense in 2023. He also has experience at free safety and in the slot. Edmonds did miss 13 tackles and give up three touchdown passes in coverage during a disappointing season overall for the Sun Devils.

Edmonds (6-2, 210) wasn’t invited to the NFL Scouting Combine. At Arizona State’s pro day, Edmonds ran the 40-yard dash in 4.46 seconds, hit 32″ in the vertical leap, covered 9-8 in the broad jump, completed the three-cone drill in 7.14 seconds and finished nine reps in the bench press. His Relative Athletic Score (RAS) is 5.55 out of 10.0, mostly due to poor marks in the jumps and agilities.

The Packers have an obvious need at safety. Multiple draft picks could be used this month to restock the position around newcomer Xavier McKinney. Edmonds looks like a Day 3 or college free agent candidate for the Packers.

Photos: Pat Perez through the years

Here’s a look at Perez, who turned 48 on March 1, 2024, through the years.

Arizona State University product Pat Perez has never been shy about speaking his mind.

The Phoenix native famously called Phil Mickelson’s apology about Saudi Arabia “such horseshit,” then piled the fellow Sun Devil. “In the fact that he thought he was trying to make it better for the players. He was in it for one reason. If anybody thinks he wasn’t in it for his own pocket, and his pocket only, is (blanking) high. They are (blanking) crazy.”

Perez, a winner of three PGA Tour titles who made over $28 million in career Tour earnings, added that he didn’t think a Saudi league would ever come together  — and then he signed with the league in 2022.

After winning his first team event as a member of LIV Golf, Perez was equally as outspoken.

“All the push-back, all the negative comments, everything we’ve gotten, at this point I really don’t care. I mean, I don’t care. I’m paid. I don’t give a damn,” Perez said with a laugh in the media scrum after the 4Aces won the event to take home the top prize of $16 million at LIV Golf’s 2022 Team Championship in Miami.

Perez also split with his wife Ashley after nine years of marriage in 2023. he was also famous for releasing this YouTube music video.

Here’s a look at Perez, who turned 48 on March 1, 2024, through the years.

Jon Rahm’s former ASU roommate Nicolo Galletti making waves at Phoenix Open

Galletti went from the Monday qualifier to making the cut at TPC Scottsdale in his first PGA Tour start.

SCOTTSDALE Ariz. — As much as the concept of quiet exists on a Saturday at TPC Scottsdale, it followed Nicolo Galletti. When he slid a birdie putt past the 14th hole, it earned only a wayward expletive from a fan who wanted to draw some laughs. When he slid another past the 15th, there was a customary groan, but not a personal one. No one, it seemed, knew who Galletti was, and why would they?

On Saturday afternoon, as he made his way around the WM Phoenix Open in anonymity, Galletti was ranked 1044th in the world. He had never played in a PGA Tour event. In 56 career tournaments across the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour Canada, his total earnings added up to just $102,814. A finish in the top 65 would ensure this week as the most lucrative of his career.

So when Galletti walked into the stadium hole at 16, there were none of the “A-S-U” chants that Sun Devil golfers usually receive. If any fans even noticed the pitchfork on his golf bag, they kept it to themselves.

Galletti, though, was determined to change that. He’s been here before, in this crowd. The only year he missed the Open was in 2022, when he fell short in a playoff at the Monday qualifier and couldn’t stomach the idea of seeing the tournament live. Every other February, he’s made his way to TPC Scottsdale as a paying fan, just like everyone else. He knows what this is all about.

“Definitely wanted to pump them up,” Galletti said.

Even if no one knew his name, he figured he could do that with a marketing stunt, throwing headphones in the crowd as he walked towards the 16th green. That got the fans on Galletti’s side, and when he drained a 19-foot birdie putt, they erupted. Finally, someone even noticed his college allegiances. A group of four fans in American flag rompers — the type to arrive at 3:30 a.m. for their premium perch — yelled out ‘ASU baby’ and ‘Go Sun Devils.’

What they didn’t know was that, with Galletti’s birdie, everything changed. He was excited to play to the fans, but also to flip the switch on his own fortunes. The putt gave him a three-stroke buffer to the cut line, enough to all but ensure his tournament would go on. By the end of the round, he was still at 4 under, in a tie for 34th.

It would be a moment out of an aspiring PGA Tour pro’s dreams, except that the past few years have been so turbulent and so busy that Galletti hasn’t had time for dreaming.

“This is always what I thought I would be doing for my life,” he said, but even in college, it was difficult to know what path that would take. “I was struggling pretty good,” Galletti said, recalling an ASU career that only featured four top-10 finishes in as many years.

Meanwhile, his senior year roommate at The Hub, across from Sun Devil Stadium, was the No. 1 amateur in the world. Ticketed for green jackets and multi-million dollar paydays. Some guy named Jon Rahm.

The two were best friends, a pair of soccer fans with southern European connections. Rahm is from the Basque Country in northern Spain; Galletti’s father moved to the U.S. from Italy. On his collegiate bio, he listed his dream historical sporting event not as a bygone Masters or U.S. Open, but as Italy’s triumph at the 2006 World Cup.

They talked about all of that, and everything else roommates talk about. To this day, they’re still good friends. This week, Rahm has been texting him with a steady stream of advice, most of it focused on staying calm amid the hysteria.

But even back at ASU, long before Rahm ditched the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, the notion of playing together on big stages was never discussed.

2024 WM Phoenix Open
Nicolo Galletti plays his second shot on the ninth hole during the first round of the 2024 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

“We were a couple different levels back then,” Galletti said with a laugh. “Which we still are now,” he added, as if that fact were easy to forget.

This season may be the most promising of Galletti’s career — his performance in DP World Tour Q-School last year earned him a card for that circuit — but it’s still not easy. His last event was the Mauritius Open. His next event will be back in that part of the world, two weeks from now at the Kenya Open.

“Definitely don’t have the biggest bank account right now,” Galletti said. “But it is what it is. This week will be nice.”

That’s especially true in contrast to where he’s come from. In 2019 — three years after he graduated from ASU, with his golf career still on the ground floor — he suffered an almost impossible string of injuries. There was a torn oblique that sidelined him for months, followed by a broken wrist when he was sitting on a bag stand that collapsed. As soon as the wrist healed, a friend fell into his leg at Rahm’s wedding, causing a sprained ankle.

Unable to play golf or do much exercise of any kid, Galletti added 40 pounds. “In my golfing career,” he said, “that was definitely the toughest time.”

It would have been easy to see the injuries as a sign to call it quits and to use his degree for a calmer career. Instead, they reminded him how much he needed the game.

“I just like golf a lot,” Galletti said. “I don’t really know what else I would do, to be honest.”

During the pandemic, he found a home on the Outlaw Tour, a pay-to-play circuit that got a financial boost from gamblers desperate for action. A few good weeks there helped him gain a foothold on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, where he played 11 events in 2022. That turned into a summer run on the PGA Tour Canada last year.

By contrast, this year is steady. But it’s not really steady. Galletti knows that. Regular events on the PGA Tour — ones that don’t require a playoff in the Monday qualifier — are still a long way away.

The solution, as he sees it, is to enjoy the present. Wherever it leads.

Once a fixture at WM Phoenix Open, most Arizona State alums now play for LIV Golf

Arizona State men’s golf alumni have traditionally been a big part of the WM Phoenix Open.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Arizona State men’s golf alumni have traditionally been as big a part of the WM Phoenix Open as its crazy costumes and inebriated fans. This year is no different with five former Sun Devils in the field. But it’s the ASU alums not in the tournament who are most conspicuous.

Six former Sun Devils have jumped to LIV Golf, most notably Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson, who have a combined 64 PGA Tour victories. Mickelson once played 30 consecutive times at TPC Scottsdale.

The five remaining Sun Devils in the Phoenix Open field have a combined five PGA Tour wins (three by Chez Reavie and two by Grayson Murray).

“The ASU presence, I feel like it’s not as much anymore,” Murray said of the Phoenix Open field.

But while LIV has drained the Sun Devil connection to the Phoenix Open, ASU coach Matt Thurmond said he does not believe it detracts from his program.

“While I appreciate everything that the PGA Tour does and has done, and I appreciate everything LIV is doing, I don’t have a horse in the race,” Thurmond said. “What I want is what’s best for our players.”

In 2022, Thurmond’s star player – David Puig – decided it was best for him to leave school early and join LIV. Puig now plays for Fireballs GC alongside Sergio Garcia.

“It got to the point where we felt like it was such a no-brainer for him,” Thurmond said.

Puig initially played in a few LIV events as an amateur while remaining on ASU’s team. But eventually the deal “got even better for him,” Thurmond said. So, Puig turned pro in a groundbreaking development for the upstart golf league. The young Spaniard paid his own tuition to complete his degree at ASU and still lives with three current Sun Devils golfers.

“Our relationship as friends, it didn’t change much,” Puig said.

Puig’s LIV decision foreshadowed the arrival of a far more famous Spanish Sun Devil in Rahm. The reigning Master’s champion and world No. 3 player committed to LIV in a shocking reversal last December.

Like Puig, Rahm still lives in Scottsdale. In his news conference before the LIV Las Vegas event this weekend, he expressed sadness at missing out on the Phoenix Open and said he hopes to play in the event again.

Rahm’s absence casts a shadow over the tournament – and the future of the PGA Tour. But the ASU alums still in the Phoenix Open field say their relationships with Rahm are unchanged.

“Jon is one of my best friends,” said Nicolo Galletti, a former Sun Devil making his first PGA Tour start at the Phoenix Open. “He obviously just went to LIV, and I think it’s awesome for him.

“Make your money. That’s what it’s about. This is a job.”

The players did not believe that ASU alums on LIV were actively pulling other Sun Devils to the breakaway tour.

“I think it was just all on an individual basis,” said Reavie, who has played in 400 events on the PGA Tour since 2002.

Puig agreed that the ASU presence on LIV was not a major factor in his decision. But he did speak to Rahm about LIV before the two-time major winner made the switch.

“I don’t know if our talks helped or not,” Puig said.

Puig and Rahm played golf together frequently this past offseason.

“We have a lot of things in common, which is crazy because he’s a superstar, and I’m just starting my professional life,” Puig said.

While it has poached some of the world’s best talent, LIV still lags far behind the PGA Tour in popularity among fans. When both tours were live last Saturday, the PGA Tour received more than 11 times the viewership than LIV.

A 2022 survey famously found that only about 22 percent of golf fans approved of LIV. The league recently came under fire for allegedly threatening to imprison bankers that cooperated with the U.S. government investigation into the planned merger between it and the PGA Tour.

But the ASU men’s golf team seems to feel differently about LIV than most golf fans.

“It’s not just ASU, it’s all teams,” Thurmond said. “These kids are really excited about what LIV’s doing.”

The team aspect of LIV is particularly intriguing for college golfers, according to Thurmond.

With three current players ranked among the top 20 amateurs in the world, the Sun Devil presence on LIV could grow even larger in the coming years. Thurmond said he wouldn’t comment specifically on whether his current players – including freshman Wenyi Ding, Preston Summerhays and Josele Ballester – had already been approached by LIV.

“But I will say that they have had or actively have opportunities all the time,” Thurmond said.

Though the most famous ASU alums play elsewhere, the Sun Devils on the PGA Tour continue to have an impact. Rookie Kevin Yu posted two top-10 finishes in January, putting him inside the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings. Yu accrued the second-best career scoring average (70.46) in ASU history during the Golfstat era, trailing only Rahm.

“One thing that stands out with Kevin is his ball-striking,” Thurmond said. “It’s pretty stunning to watch. He hits it as high and as far and as straight … as anybody I’ve ever seen.”

Murray won the Sony Open in Hawaii earlier this year, earning his second career victory and first since 2017.

Reavie, Galletti and Jesse Mueller – also a volunteer assistant for the Grand Canyon University men’s golf team – round out the Sun Devils in the 2024 Phoenix Open field.

With ASU playing in Hawaii at the Amer Ari Invitational, LIV playing its second event of the season in Las Vegas and the Phoenix Open scrambling to finish after heavy rain delayed the schedule, it will inevitably be a massive weekend for Sun Devils golfers.

“The golf program here has always been just a major part (of the university),” Thurmond said. “Golf is a really big deal here.”

King Jemison is a graduate student at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

Arizona State freshman sets all-time college golf scoring record in just his second start

Ding is having a historic start to his college career at ASU.

Wenyi Ding is having a historic start to his college career at Arizona State.

The mid-year enrollee and 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, Ding was brilliant in his debut last month at the National Invitational Tournament in Tucson, Arizona. He finished solo second at 17-under 199, which tied the fourth-best 54-hole score in team history since 1993-94.

He destroyed that mark in his second college start in Hawaii.

Ding won the Amer Ari Invitational on Saturday at Mauna Lani’s North Course on the Big Island, topping a field that includes six of the top nine golfers in the NCAA individual rankings, and he did so in record fashion. Ding shot 27-under 189, shattering the previous ASU record, Jon Rahm’s 21-under 192 at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational.

Not only is that an ASU record, the 189 is believed to be the lowest 54-hole total in the history of men’s college golf.

Arizona State freshman Wenyi Ding at the 2024 Amer Ari Invitaitonal. (Photo: Alex Gelman/Sun Devil Athletics)

In his six collegiate rounds, Ding has yet to shoot worse than 67, and his worst round at the Amer Ari was 8-under 64. He joined Rahm and Alex del Rey as the only Sun Devil golfers since 1993-94 to shoot 16 under or better in two tournaments during their career. His 10-under 62 in the final round also tied the lowest 18-hole score in ASU history.

Ding was brilliant in Hawaii, recording only one bogey over 54 holes of play. He had 26 birdies and an eagle, as well. He beat Washington’s Finn Koelle and San Jose State’s Carl Corpus by nine shots.

In the team competition, ASU also set a 54-hole scoring record at 63-under 801. However, it was North Carolina taking the team title, beating the Sun Devils by five shots and finishing at 68-under 796.

Last year, Illinois also hit 796 as a team at the Missouri Tiger Collegiate.

Ding is 44 under in his first six rounds as a Sun Devil, and his latest round etched his name in the record books. He has shot sub-200 totals over his first two 54 holes tournaments, which is also believed to be the first time that has happened.

Former USC running back and receiver Raleek Brown transfers to Arizona State

Raleek Brown will play for Kenny Dillingham in 2024.

Raleek Brown is not transferring from one Pac-12 school to another. He also isn’t transferring from one Big Ten school to another.

The world of conference realignment is creating some strange, new realities for everyone to deal with. Raleek Brown is making a move which would have caused a lot more USC fan anxiety and frustration one year ago. Now? It’s not nearly as much of a cause for concern.

Brown committed to Arizona State on Saturday. In 2022, this would have been an in-conference transfer from the Trojans to a direct competitor. Now, with Arizona State going to the Big 12 in 2024 and not being on USC’s schedule, this transfer won’t have nearly the same negative impact it would have had a year ago. USC will be off to the Big Ten, and ASU will be in a separate conference.

Lincoln Riley couldn’t make the pieces fit for Brown, who has obvious athletic ability but had problems making the right cuts and going through the right gaps in a defense. We will see if Kenny Dillingham can unlock Brown’s talents in Tempe with the Sun Devils.

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Another former Fighting Irish quarterback returning to Notre Dame

He’s baaaaaaack! (sorta)

Earlier this offseason came the news former Notre Dame starting quarterback Tyler Buchner was returning to campus. Briefly Alabama’s starting quarterback, Buchner will return to South Bend to play lacrosse for Notre Dame but not football.

Add a second former starting quarterback to the list of people returning to Notre Dame but not playing football. This time its former Notre Dame starting quarterback Drew Pyne.

Pyne started much of the 2022 season after Buchner was hurt in the season’s second game. He transferred to Arizona State this past year. He played in two games, threw two touchdown passes and threw three interceptions.

According to Pete Thamel, Pyne will return to school to graduate but has no plans to be a part of the football program.

Is Notre Dame’s quarterback room getting better?

Seeing as two former starters are back on campus with eligibility remaining but with no interest in playing football, it certainly seems that is the case.

Regardless, welcome back No. 10!