Herm Edwards has never been one to mince words and it appears his mantra of “You play to win the game” isn’t going anywhere any time soon after he sent a strong message to Arizona State players that scholarships would not make them immune to being cut.
Edwards spoke to the media after the fourth week of spring practice and hinted that players that have remained unable to perform due to injury could be subjected to cuts.
This is Edwards first year coaching the Sun Devils and he clearly intends to shake things up. Last week he stated that only 10 of 11 starting jobs were assured and repeatedly mentioned the 22 recruits expected to come in this summer to add competition.
Starting quarterback, Manny Wilkins, believes the cuts are imminent and sees no problem with it saying:
“It ain’t ‘might’. He’s going to cut some people,” incumbent starting quarterback Manny Wilkins said. “When you get to the league (NFL), your locker one day is going to be cleaned out. It’s the harsh and brutal reality of football. We’ve only got five practices left. I bet you’ll see a difference in some guys now in their attitude and how they’re acting.
“We want to keep everybody. We want everybody to have an opportunity, but if you ain’t understanding and working how he wants you to work, sayonara.
“It’s professionalism at its finest,” Wilkins added. “It’s going to be a rude awakening when they go from student-athlete to student. I think that’s how it has to be. There’s got to be competition at every single point. When there’s not competition is when people get stagnant, and being complacent is when things start going bad.”
Flip the page to hear Herm’s warning to players in his own words.