Pac-12 After Spring: Arizona State coach Todd Graham

Spring football is over. Real football is still far, far away.

To help bridge the gap, we’re going to check in on Arizona’s competition in the Pac-12. Over the next few weeks, we’ll run some of the best comments from the league’s coaches after their recent participation in a conference call to wrap up spring ball.

We’re calling it “Pac-12 After Spring,” an homage to #Pac12AfterDark (and a distant runner-up to “Spring Exit Interviews,” which colleague Doug Haller of The Arizona Republic already coined).

Going in alphabetical order, Arizona State’s Todd Graham is first up to the plate:

(on the QB competition among Bryce Perkins, Brady White and Manny Wilkins)

“All three of them have been very, very impressive. One thing I like about all three of them, they can all extend plays. They all are athletic guys. Taylor Kelly was able to do that for us, and we kind of like that.

“Manny’s been here the longest. You can tell he’s got a little experience. All three of them throw the ball extremely well. Each one of them has different things. Bryce is probably, as far as play-action, getting the ball on the perimeter, he’s got an ‘it’ factor to him. Brady, character-wise, he’s a 4.0 student. Highly intelligent kid. Can really, really throw the football.

“It’s been a very close race in the spring. It’ll go through the summer. And it’ll clear up, just like it did with Taylor (in 2012). We didn’t announce Taylor being the starter until the first week, and we won’t announce a starter till the first week with these guys. But we’ll know who the starter is far before that. We did with Taylor. After the first week and a half of camp, everybody knew Taylor was going to be the starter.

“I love the fact that we have three really talented guys, and adding a fourth one; Dillon Sterling-Coe coming in is one of the most talented kids we’ve ever signed. I feel good about that position.

“We’ll see how it goes. There’s a possibility we could use a couple guys. You can only have one starter. We’ll see how that transpires. But I think it will really clear up within two weeks of camp.”

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(on the defense’s mentality and approach after a disappointing 2015 season in which ASU allowed the most passing yards in the nation)

“I think it’s very good. We did some positive things last year. The biggest thing was just giving up big plays in pass defense. A lot of that had to do with injury and personnel and things like that that are just part of it. Playing in the Pac-12, that’s one of the challenges. But I think we were second in the conference in rush defense (third, actually). We got a lot of takeaways.

“Our guys, I think they’re motivated. We pride ourselves on being a team that’s going to play great defense. Especially how we attack. Our guys have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. I like that. I think we’ve got some true leadership emerging.

“At defensive line you’ve got Tashon (Smallwood) and Ami Latu, JoJo Wicker. There’s some impressive guys up there.

“The key for us is going to be in the back end. Just not giving up big plays. I like their mentality. That’s going to be a big, big deal, just continuing to develop.

“We’ve got a little bur in our saddle about going out and righting (the) ship. It all starts with defense and having a championship defense. I loved our mentality this spring. We were very basic and very simple. We have four new offensive linemen, and we wanted to help and aid in their progression and not just go out there the first day and throw the kitchen sink at them. I love how they work. They don’t say much. They just work hard. They’re really close as a unit, and I like that.”

(on rebuilding the offensive line after losing multiple starters)

“We’ve got the best in the business coaching them in Coach (Chris) Thomsen. He does a great job developing our guys.

“We’re going to be young, but we’re going to be athletic. I think we’re going to be more athletic than we’ve been. It’s just getting them to play as a unit. There’s no substitute for experience.

“But honestly, as we sat in our staff meetings throughout the spring, Coach Thomsen was pleased with their development. That’s going to be the key for us. New quarterback. Four new starters on the offensive line. The good news is, very talented tight end corps, receiver corps and running back corps. All veterans. We’ve got a lot of playmakers. The key for us is designing the system where we don’t make it too complicated. We keep that threshold where it needs to be and not have negative plays.”