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By WILLIAM SLANE
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – If Sun Devil fans are not thinking of what could have been with wide receiver Devin Lucien this year, they should be. Despite a slow start to the season, Lucien, a senior transfer from UCLA, ended his only year as a Sun Devil Saturday night as the team’s leading receiver on the year.

His nine-catch, 144-yard, one-touchdown performance in the ASU’s 43-42 Motel 6 Cactus Bowl loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers led all Sun Devils receivers and capped off a season in which he totaled 66 catches for 1,074 yards and eight touchdowns.

The bulk of his production came in the back end of a frustrating Sun Devil season in which ASU finished under .500 for the first time since 2011 and for the first time under head coach Todd Graham.

Lucien didn’t truly come into his own until the Nov. 21 Territorial Cup game against Arizona, in which he posted nine catches for 190 yards and a touchdown. In his final three games as a Sun Devil, Lucien totaled 26 catches for 534 yards and five touchdowns.

“I think he learned a lot about the Sun Devil way,” Graham said. “He’s really grown as a person so I’m proud that he came here.”

All but one of his eight touchdowns came after the Utah game, and 826 of his 1,074 yards came in the second half of the season.

Lucien ended his year as the best receiving target on the team, but Sun Devil fans may be left wondering what if he played that well all year long? Would ASU have beaten Texas A&M to open the year? Would the Oregon game have gone to three overtimes? Would the Sun Devils have been humiliated by USC at home?

There are plenty of possible reasons for Lucien’s slow start to the year. He was learning a new offense, some of it on the fly. Despite having a previous connection with quarterback Mike Bercovici – who tried to recruit him to ASU when Lucien was a four-star receiving recruit out of Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, California, before Lucien went with UCLA – it still took nearly the whole season for the two to really get on the same page.

“Later in the year, we were able to get into our rhythm a little bit,” head coach Todd Graham said of Lucien’s connection with Bercovici. “I think it had a lot to do with the development of those receivers, Tim (White) and Devin, they’ve only been here one year.”

With just one year to play in Tempe, there was a lot for Lucien to learn and not a lot of time to learn it. Still, Lucien crushed his previous career highs at UCLA in catches and yards, both also team highs. And that was with his slow start.

In his first game, against Texas A&M, Lucien didn’t seem to have his timing down with Bercovici, catching just two balls for 25 yards. He played well the following week against an overmatched secondary in Cal Poly, catching seven balls for 79 yards.

Injuries also began to get the better of Lucien throughout the year. He missed time during games after injuring his leg against New Mexico on Sept. 18 and did not play at all in ASU’s 42-14 loss on Sept. 26 to USC. He had a big game two weeks later against Utah, crossing 100 yards for the first time in his collegiate career.

He burst out with a then-career best 190-yard performance against Arizona in November, and eclipsed that one week later with eight catches, 200 yards and three touchdowns against Cal to end the regular season. By that point in the year, Lucien had gotten in sync with his quarterback in terms of rhythm and timing.

“That’s why we had so much more productivity down the stretch,” Graham said. “I’m really proud.”

Perhaps the better question for fans to ask is how would Lucien’s career have been different if he chose ASU over UCLA coming out of high school.

The senior ends his Sun Devil career with more than 1,000 yards, following Jaelen Strong’s back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in two years at ASU. It is just the second time in ASU history that the school has a 1,000-yard receiver in three straight seasons. With running back Demario Richard’s 1,000-yard rushing season, this is the first time in ASU history it has a 1,000-yard runner and receiver in back-to-back years. D.J. Foster and Strong crossed the mark last year.

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