Several injured Arizona State football players set to return after week off
Arizona State football has been bumped and bruised so much this season that 20 players have missed a combined 59 games.
Eight players have missed four or more contests, seven of those on the offensive side of the ball.
The injuries have been so detrimental that head coach Kenny Dillingham wishes he could have put his players into a cryogenic chamber during the bye week and come out new.
“In terms of physically and on the field, I don’t know yet. We’ll find out when we practice on Tuesday,” Dillingham said. “I’d be lying if I told you it’s still a week, so it’s not like we went into the Austin Powers ice machines and became a new person. We still have bumps and bruises. I wish we could do that.”
Mentally, ASU players were refreshed in the time away from the field and are itching to get back on the field. There’s just the task of figuring out who can physically play on Saturday night at No. 5 Washington.
Two weeks ago against Colorado, ASU lacked depth and was especially thin on offensive linemen. Six different offensive linemen have missed action this season.
Isaia Glass, who has missed five games overall, and Cade Briggs, who has missed two games overall, could potentially help that situation. Dillingham said during Monday’s news conference that he’s hopeful both will return.
Sione Finau, who was also unavailable against Colorado, could be a third offensive lineman to return as well.
“That’s three guys that were starters to start the year. That’s a critical addition if that happens. We still have to monitor throughout the week because we still haven’t practiced yet,” Dillingham said.
Running back DeCarlos Brooks is looking closer to returning within the next two weeks as the staff is still feeling out his situation. ASU’s No. 2 running back has missed four games.
On defense, nickelback Jordan Clark played over half of the snaps against Colorado two weeks ago and has progressed in the break.
The quarterback position has also undergone a shuffling this season once starter Jaden Rashada missed the third game. Dillingham said that after the 4-6 weeks recovery frame for Rashada was up, the staff would look to preserve his redshirt. If that happened, Rashada could play in no more than two more games.
Now that the timeline is closing, Dillingham has kept Rashada’s return up in the air.
“It just depends on how the rehab goes. He’s been doing a good job rehabbing it and getting out,” Dillingham said. “He’s going to start to get a little bit more engaged in terms of the game plans and being more dialed in this week, just to get his mind back in that mold. He’s been focusing on the physical side of rehab and he’s still going to do that. Just depends on where he is two, three, four weeks from now.”
Who has been out for ASU? Arizona State football injury tracker
ASU vs. Washington State game time and TV network announced
ASU will face Washington State at 5 p.m. at Mountain America Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 28. The game will be shown on Pac-12 Networks.
Here is the schedule for Week 9.
12:30 p.m. PT / 1:30 p.m. MT - Oregon at Utah (FOX)
1 p.m. PT - USC at Cal (Pac-12 Network)
4 p.m. PT - Washington at Stanford (FS1)
4:30 p.m. PT / 5:30 p.m. MT - Colorado at UCLA (ABC)
7:30 p.m. PT - Oregon State at Arizona (ESPN)
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State football uses bye week to help with mounting injuries
