Reorganizing defensive staff has given the secondary redefined instruction

The Sun Devils’ Thursday spring practice session got extra chippy after multiple scuffles broke out between offensive and defensive players. The altercations happened during team periods, and although fans might speculate at first glance, all the players walked off the field as friends, not foes, giving head coach Kenny Dillingham lots of excitement. 

“Relationships aren’t built through roses and candy canes,” Dillingham noted. “They’re built through conflict. If you want a really close team, you have to create conflict. There have to be arguments.”

Dillingham claimed for the second consecutive practice, the offense took the reins as the predominant side, claiming they’ve done work on the ground to win the run game. The quarterbacks also had an improved week, turning the ball over less as time on the field continues. In terms of which Signal caller has stood out above the rest, is a question fans won’t receive an answer to just yet. 

“I wouldn’t say there’s a pecking order,” Dillingham noted on the quarterback battle. “I’d say there’s good competition right now.” 

***

A man whose certainly moved up the coaching ranks in Tempe is Assistant Head Coach/ Defensive Pass Game Coordinator Bryan Carrington, promoted to this new role following the 2025 season. The former cornerbacks coach has been integral in recruiting, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, from Texas, and the South as a whole. 

“It’s exciting,” Carrington noted on the players he’s helped recruit to ASU. “Anytime you get an opportunity to have three years to build going into year four, this is where you want to be when you take a job, you want to be in year four to where the foundation is being laid, and you start seeing the fruits of our labor.”

Carrington’s challenge to the players now during spring is to continue pushing the envelope on the talent in the room, creating an environment of growth for younger players, noting that the challenges for many of their impressive young players, including freshman Caleb Chester and Zeth Theus, will come from the mental side of the game rather than physical talent. 

“It’s easy to go out there for three plays and execute,” Carrington relayed. “ But when stuff happens, and drives get extended to 13, 14, 15 plays, that’s where a lot of those mental errors come up when you have a young guy out there.

“We have a lot of nirvana from height and weight in certain rooms. The challenge for us as coaches, how do we get better?”

The Sun Devils expect Rodney Bimage Jr to be the link between the old age of their cornerback room and the new. Bimage was the third choice corner in 2025 behind Ketih Abeny II (NFL Draft) and Javen Robinson (Wisconsin), making Bimage the highest ranking returner. Having worked with Bimage since he arrived in Tempe, Carrington’s seen the boundary corner work with a new level of confidence that will make him dangerous for opposing wide receivers in 2026. 

“I feel like Rodney is a lot more comfortable going in a year,” Carrington said. “This is his third spring. He’s a lot more comfortable. I know he’s not live right now (being held out of contact), but he’s taking a lot of mental rest. He’s scrappy. He’s feisty.” 

***

As for another pair of returners, cornerback Joseph Smith and safety Adrian “Boogie” Wilson, the transition from last year’s cast to the reworked battalion has created an exciting energy. 

“We see some dogs, seeing some great players, see some great human beings,” Wilson noted on the new players. “It’s enjoyable because we bring in great, great people here so it’s like everyone here is a great human so it’s just easy to you know come in have fun with each other.” 

Wilson and Smith are adjusting to coaching changes in their rooms, the program brought in two experienced coaches, Senior defensive Anaylst Demetrice Martin and prompted David Gibbs from Defensive assistant to Safteis coach. 

Both coaches have well over 20 years of coaching experience on the defensive side of the ball, and the new perspectives in the room have led to exponential growth for the returning players. 

This change has also freed up Defensive Coordinator Brian Ward, who double-dipped as the safeties coach in 2024 and 2025. 

“They’ve been in the game, they’ve been around the game for a long time, and I feel like at first it was like for me at least it was like coach Ward was a DC and a safeties coach,” Wilson said. “So, he was trying to like do everything at once, and now Coach Gibbs is able to critique everything.” 

As for Smith, he couldn’t be more excited for the coach who gave him his first start in the room, and like Wilson, working with Martin, who’s made stops at nine previous college programs, has opened up his eyes. Each time the cornerbacks take the field, Martin instructs them to remember their “Why”. 

“I’m proud of the road that [Carrington] took,” Smith commented, “and I’m also thankful for coach [Martin] becasue coach [Martin] is one of them coaches that is going to have you prepared for whatever.

“I just want to improve off of last year me, be better than I was last year. That’s it. Motivating the other corners around me to be better and do better when they’re in.”

Wilson said that his stance on the team became evident after an impressive 2025 campaign following the injury to Xavion Alford. Wilson became the Sun Devils’ primary starter in that position, but has since chopped and changed into different spots in the safety room. Regardless as time progresses, Wilson has embodied a larger role as a leader in the room. 

The beginning of spring practice has been a fantastic time for the secondary to improve against a high-octane offense that is loaded with new weapons, Wilson even going as far as to proclaim ASU has the best wide receiver core in the Big 12. 

“The more we get older, it just naturally happens, you know the rights and wrongs,” Wilson noted. “You know how to help the people around that don’t know or haven’t been here.”

***

Despite being a new addition to Tempe, Redshirt junior Ashton Stamps has plenty of know-how on the football field. Stamps spent the first years of his college career at LSU, where he made 17 starts in 27 games, including every game of the 2024-25 season. 

Stamps made 51 tackles and 14 pass breakups in 2024-25, before playing just three games in 2025-25 starting none. Former LSU head coach Brian Kelly limited the rest of Stamps’ playing time, allowing him to take a redshirt after leaning on younger cornerbacks in the room as their primary options defensively. 

“I came from New Orleans and I went straight to Baton Rouge to LSU, So, I felt like I just needed, something different just to push me a little bit more,” Stamps explained on his reasoning for leaving the program. “I never been around anything like this. So, I feel like that’s the main part. I went mountain climbing already. I went ATV riding. Even though we playing football, you know, we got to be locked in on football. But like you got to be able to enjoy life too because mental is a big part.” 

Stamps has spent spring practice predominantly running with the first team unit; his twitchy 6-foot-0 190-pound frame makes it difficult for receivers to get separation against him. Boston College transfer Reed Harris has been his primary practice matchup in the wide receiver room giving Stamps a tricky 6-foot-5 wideout to physically encounter. 

In Week 2 of the Sun Devils 2026 season, they’ll travel to College Station to face Texas A&M, the lone SEC program on their schedule. Although he’s still getting his feet wet in Arizona, Stamps has played the Aggies twice in his college career, making four tackles in LSU’s 2023 win but just three in their 2024 defeat at College Station. 

“Football is football,” Stamps noted. “So, being able to bring that experience to my teammates. We got to play an SEC team. So, just being able to bring it to them and tell them like football is football. The only thing is you just got to be able to block all the noise out.”

The Stamps family has been integral to his transition to ASU. His brother, Christian, is also a football player for LSU. Despite being the same height, Christian is over 130 pounds heavier, which makes him a swift defensive lineman for the Tigers. 

“The little phone calls, after practice, text me after practice, make sure I’m good,” Stamps noted on how him and Christian stay in touch. “Just kind of hearing my voice because I’ve been around him so long, that’s my family, that’s my brother. So he kind of knows my voice of good practice, bad practice. So if he kind of sees a bad practice, he’ll just be real with me. He’ll get on me a little bit, then he’ll tell me it’s okay.”