2026 will feature a revamped Sun Devil defense
The 2025 Arizona State defense began its season with 10 of its 11 starters from the previous season. The success of winning a Big 12 Championship kept a heap of juniors together during a two-season window, but the Maroon and Gold’s most recent 8-4 campaign commenced a roster overhaul on the defensive end.
Just one Week 1 starter remains in Tempe, rising senior, defensive lineman C.J. Fite could’ve entered his name in the 2026 NFL Draft following an impressive season anchoring the Sun Devils defensive front that finished second in the Big 12 in sacks and third in rush defense.
“I feel like the best decision for me and my future was to come back,” Fite said Wednesday. “After having those conversations with God, spending time with God and building our relationship, I feel like it led me to come back … when I decided to come back, I knew what I was going to do. I was going to be a Sun Devil.”
Fite struggled to find his footing regarding the predraft process. Outside factors, beyond football, such as training, agents, meetings with teams and scouts, all played a part in his hesitation to take the next step in his career.
He decided after weeks of confusion to step back from football and unplug for an entire week. Getting away allowed the 305-pound tackle to make the best choice for him and his future.
“It’s a lot that goes into just other than football,” Fite noted on the NFL Draft process. “So, it’s a lot of mental. So it can be very stressful at times. I know at one point I just took a week off and everything. I just didn’t want to think about anything football.”
Entering his fourth season in Tempe, Fite becomes a de facto leader in the program. Since his sophomore season, Fite has been part of the Pat Tillman Leadership Council, a group of a dozen players across numerous position groups who serve as representatives to bridge communication gaps between players and the coaching staff.
“I let people know that I’m not above anybody,” Fite said. “If you have something, I’ll accept it. Like, if you have an idea or you have something, or like me, I’ll ask the guys, what do you think? So, it’s not like a dictatorship, or I’m telling what to do. It’s more like what I suggest.”
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Fite’s role as a starter was set in stone long before the 2025 season began, but due to injuries, especially in the secondary, a flurry of young players had to rise into large roles as time progressed. Perhaps no other Sun Devil maximized his opportunity off the bench more than rising junior Adrian “Boogie” Wilson. The former Washington State safety came to ASU and filled in for Xavion Alford and flourished.
Wilson finished fourth on the team in tackles (57) and pass breakups (6), whilst becoming an impressive zone-coverage defender. Now going from backup to surefire starter, his role shifts to becoming a leader in the secondary.
“I think for one is becoming more of a leader and then for two just learning every position on the field,” Wilson listed as goals he has for the upcoming season. “So I can better my game and know the situations, know people I’m in with, know their strong suits, and know what they’re also weak at, and so just maximizing the day.”
Alford and Wilson formed a strong relationship in 2025, as Wilson learned from Alford, who was battling injuries. Wilson has previously mentioned that his immense growth is largely due to what he learned from Alford. Now, as the former Sun Devil prepares for the NFL Draft, he remains in Arizona, still helping Wilson blossom into a leader.
“[Alford] was here like one of the workouts, and he was like telling me what to do and what not to do or what not,” Wilson said. “So I think yeah, their leadership roles are still trickling down in me.”
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Rising sophomore cornerback Rodney Bimage Jr. was in a similar spot to Wilson last season; he played an increased role behind Keith Abney II and Javan Robinson.
Bimage finished 2025 with 12 tackles, two pass breakups, and one tackle for loss. Bimage appeared in just seven games last season after suffering an injury above his shoulders against West Virginia.
Heading into his third season in college football, Bimage wants to put his name on the map.
“I want to get to be all-American and just prove myself,” Bimage noted. “Prove to people I am who I think I am.”
The transition from inexperienced talent to leader is lightning fast in college football; that notion is evident for Bimage, who welcomes freshmen and transfers while sliding into the limelight as a marquee player in the defensive back room.
“Being with [Abney] and [Robinson], I’ve just learning from them, learning how they study for the game and stuff like that,” Bimage said. “Helping the younger guys out. Teaching the older guys the plays and stuff like that. just being a leader and just being more of a communicator with the team.”
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New faces from across the spectrum of college football are among the incoming transfer portal class. A player whose numbers certainly warrant a move to the Big 12 is junior linebacker Owen Long.
Despite finishing last season 2-10 with Colorado State, Long is a physical, instinctual player who hits hard and often brings players down. He notched 151 total tackles in 2025, the most of any player on the FBS level.
Averaging 12.6 tackles per game for the Rams, so despite playing at the Group of Six level, he isn’t worried about his transition to power conference football.
“At the end of the day, football is football,” Long claimed. “So the skills that got me to where I was at and the things that I kind of pound my chest for being a good player, like those are the skills I got to bring with me.
“The competition changes a little bit, but at the end of the day, it’s still ball. That’s the good thing about this winter and spring, you get the summer as well if you get a chance to go get better every day.”
Picking up a mid-major transfer who stuffed the statsheet with tackles as a sophomore is very much the ideal target for head coach Kenny Dillignham and linebackers coach A.J Cooper.
In 2024, ahead of the Sun Devils’ Big 12 Championship campaign, Keyshaun Elliott transferred from New Mexico State after he racked up 111 total tackles in his second year in college. Elliott went on to lift the Big 12 Championship trophy, record 163 tackles in the Maroon and Gold, earning him consecutive All-Big 12 Second team honors.
“Coach Coop always holds us accountable,” Long said about his early relationship with Cooper. “Which is something that I’m very appreciative of just because I know I’m going to get his best every day and he’s going to continue to build me into a better player.”
Long won’t be building up a linebacker room without a heap of impressive running mates. Junior Martell Hughes, graduate Zyrus Fiaseu, and sophomore Prayer Young-Blackgoat are just a few names Long mentioned amongst the linebacker room who have welcomed him thus far.
The group spends time bowling, an activity that Hughes is passionate about. He owns his own shoes, his own ball, and was whipping down said ball between each turn, according to Long.
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In the secondary, ASU reinforces its defensiveback room with experience. Fifth-year player Lyrik Rawls is a Big 12 lifer, so to speak, having spent three years at Oklahoma State before transferring to Kansas in 2025.
“It’s just been a whole wraparound for me,” Rawls laughed about playing for his third Big 12 program. “Just to like be playing on these opposing teams and now being a part of them and seeing like how their lifestyle is, and I’m just like thankful for the experience.”
Rawls recorded just 67 tackles in three years with the Cowboys, but with the Jayhawks, he increased his aggression inside the box, sliding down from Safety frequently and recording 56 solo tackles in his lone season with Kansas.
Now, as he gets settled and more acclimated to his new team, the safety aims to add some poise to an otherwise youthful secondary in Tempe.
“It’s been amazing,” Rawls added. “Just from the views or just the campus, and like the brotherhood. I’ve enjoyed it all. When I came here on the visit, they just seemed so welcoming and like so down to earth, and I just knew that was the type of people I wanted to be around.”
