Jordan HammThe Arizona State Sun Devils were dealt a few blows recently after junior college recruits Darrius Caldwell and Dalvon Stuckey announced they will not enroll at ASU due to academic reasons.
Todd Graham and company already have to replace nine starters on defense, and losing out on these two highly sought after recruits will make replacing the likes Will Sutton and Carl Bradford that much more difficult.
Top-ranked JUCO DT Dalvon Stuckey will not enroll at ASU due to academics. He announced he will attend University of West Georgia.
— ASUDevils.com (@ASUDevilscom) July 21, 2014
Stuckey, a defensive lineman, and Caldwell, a linebacker, were both top-50 junior college prospects according to ESPN.com. They also played together at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi. Todd Graham has had success in recruiting junior college players. In his first season in Tempe, he brought in the then-No. 1 junior college recruit, Marion Grice, and last year brought in the Sun Devils’ leading receiver, Jaelen Strong, from Pierce College.
With Caldwell out of the mix, Chans Cox, Eriquel Florence, and Villiami Latu have already been competing to replace Bradford at the Devil-backer position. 2014 recruit and Desert Edge product Ismael Murphy-Richardson will join the team in August and many think he would be a good fit at Devil-backer whether that be now or in the future. With plenty of questions along the defensive line, Stuckey was thought to compete for a starting position. Going into camp, Mo Latu, Demetrius Cherry, Marcus Hardison, and Jaxon Hood are some of the names competing for starting positions up front for the Sun Devil defense.
Two of ASU’s three junior college defensive additions won’t be with programs, both pass rushers, which is where ASU needs help most.
— ASUDevils.com (@ASUDevilscom) July 21, 2014
The Sun Devils kick off their season against Weber State on August 28th at 7:30 PM.
