Kevin Gemmell, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Arizona State offensive line still has plenty of question marks

If all goes according to plan, Arizona State should dispatch Northern Arizona during Kickoff Week with little resistance. Which is good news. Because with all of the questions on offense, game experience is more important right now than resistance (at least from an FCS team).

The bad news is the offensive line questions are still lingering less than a week before kickoff. (And the fact that the Sun Devils have Texas Tech a week later.)

Doug Haller of The Arizona Republic broke down the state of ASU’s offensive line -- which is looking to replace four starters while also protecting a new quarterback (who won't be announced until game time) under the watch of a new offensive coordinator. That’s a lot of moving parts that have yet to be assembled.

“Our offensive line is young, but we're big up front and athletic," running back Kalen Ballage told Haller. "I think it's just about them getting that game experience."

If the season were to start today, offensive line coach Chris Thomsen projects the starting five would be Evan Goodman at left tackle, Sam Jones at left guard, Stephon McCray at center, Quinn Bailey at right guard and Zach Robertson at right tackle. That’s two seniors (Goodman and McCray) and three underclassmen. Jones and Bailey are sophomores and Robertson is a redshirt freshman.

This sets up to be an interesting year for the Sun Devils offensively. They have good skill position players -- check that -- really good skill position players. Running back Demario Richard is a returning 1,000-yard back (1,098, seven touchdowns) and Ballage (653-4) provides a nice change of pace. The wide receivers are solid with Tim White (57 catches, 633 yards and eight touchdowns) and Cameron Smith coming back from injury. (He had six receiving touchdowns in 2014.)

Tight end Kody Kohl (32-368-4) and true freshman N’Keal Harry round out a solid, if not a little underrated, receiving corps.

But they’ll need someone to get them the ball (hence the QB questions), and they’ll need folks to block (hence the OL questions). It’ll be interesting to see how new OC Chip Lindsey pulls the strings and how basic or advanced the offense looks in Week 1.

"It's just all a matter of trust," Thomsen said. “Do you trust guys that they understand what they're doing when you put them in?"

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