Diron Reynolds Evaluates Arizona State's DL Performance

Diron Reynolds has truly been a revelation for the Arizona State program since joining the program ahead of the 2024 season.

The defensive line coach is majorly accomplished - having coached at both the collegiate level and in the NFL.

Reynolds overhauled the line from virtually day one on the job, and the results have been seen on the field, including C.J. Fite making an incredible leap in his sophomore season.

The DL coach joined Brad Denny's "Speak of the Devils" podcast on Wednesday to talk about numerous topics, including the performance of his group last season.

On what the defensive line could have done better during the last campaign:

"I mean we gotta get the quarterback down. You know, we had a bunch of I mean, you go back and look at the tape, we had a bunch of opportunities, but we're just, you know, dead to rights and just actually just don't get them down. Ans we got to find ways to get that. We're going to work on some things this offseason to be able to do that, being able to finish."

Reynolds took a positive spin off of what he believes the unit needs to improve upon:

"But doing well, man, I think we did a really good job of starting the run. I think our guys really took home to that. And man, you know, you hear coach B. Ward talk about the spine of our defense and that's our interior guys. I think the spine of our defense is really strong and that takes a lot of pressure off everybody around us..."

The Sun Devils did have the best run defense in the Big 12 last season - supplementing for the fact that the pass defense ceded more chunk plays than one would like. Fite, Zac Swanson, and Justin Wodtly were just three of many that contributed to the trenches being a strong point of the 2024 Sun Devils.

The group will look to improve even more in the new season - the opening game is set for August 30 against Northern Arizona.

Read more on projecting the 10 best players on Arizona State's roster going into the new season here, and on Sam Leavitt being selected as the Big-12 Preseason Offensive Player of the Year here.