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By JACOB JANOWER
Cronkite News

TEMPE — Herm Edwards is still very new to National Signing Day.

The first-year Arizona State football coach, who has not been in the college game since he coached defensive backs at San Jose State in 1989, got his feet wet when the Sun Devils inked 11 players in the first-ever early signing period on December 20.

ASU followed that performance up by adding 11 additional commitments on National Signing Day.

Despite being green to the subject, Edwards and his staff thought the results on Wednesday were a success.

“We went after certain players that fit our DNA and I think you’ll see a transformation from those guys over the next few years,” Edwards said. “We’re going to be much bigger, much longer and a much more powerful football team. We don’t give them the talent but we do have to coach them.”

The Sun Devils started out as the hare in the race, entering National Signing Day at the cellar of the Pac-12 recruiting rankings, according to 247Sports. However, by day’s end they were ranked fifth in the conference.

“I think we got the right guys,” recruiting coordinator Donnie Yantis said. “We were laser-focused on a certain group of guys. I think our staff we have were great. A lot of guys that are from the state of California that have experiences and relationships with those high school coaches and some of the players already made a huge difference.”

A big part of the strong finish was the Sun Devils’ ability to lock down two four-stars recruits, outside linebacker Merlin Robertson and safety Aashari Crosswell, the two highest-rated players in the Sun Devils’ class.

Crosswell and three-star defensive lineman commit Jermayne Lole both attended Long Beach Poly High School, which is where ASU’s new linebackers coach Antonio Pierce had previously served as head coach.

Coming into the day, Edwards had secured three commitments, including one from offensive lineman Casey Tucker, a grad transfer from Stanford. Tucker is one of the few local names in the class, as he attended Hamilton High School in Chandler. He figures to be someone who will be in the mix to start right away.

Edwards ability to recruit was questioned after his hiring due to his lack of experience around the college game, but the initial results should at least temper some of the criticism.

“Give coach (Edwards) credit,” defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said. “He was very instrumental in all the kids that we signed.

“He’s flying to California, he’s flying to Texas, everywhere. This man gets up at 4:30 in the morning and works out at 10:00 at night. We are leaving the house and he is still dancing with the families and having a great time. He was unbelievable.”

Edwards didn’t sign any players from Higley High School in Gilbert, but that didn’t stop him from coming by the school for a meet and greet. Knights head coach Eddy Zubey said that they will have some recruitable players for ASU next season.

“He said they are looking for a guy to be a Sun Devil and that means (he) wants to work hard and strive to be the best both on and off the field,” Zubey said via email.

That sentiment was echoed by Edwards, who said he looks for character above anything else in players when he recruits and cited his time around the game as the basis for how he is able to tell which guys have the intangible.

“Don’t tell me how much you want to win,” Edwards said. “We want guys that hate losing. Character is very important because we can trust those guys.”

Yantis believes that ASU recruited enough weapons to establish success on the field for the coming years. It will just be a matter of them performing.

“I think we have evaluated well, now we just need to get them on campus and let our coaches coach them,” he said. “That’s the key. Obviously we are going to put the best 11 on the field on all three phases of football. I think coach Edwards has told every single parent and every player that we’re going to play the best 11 and whoever the best 11 are that give us the best chance to win football games in that stadium.”