Munns becoming man in middle
April 10th, 2008, 9:40 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Dan Zeiger
Gerald Munns
During the three weeks that Arizona State has been in spring drills, coach Dennis Erickson said, it has not been difficult to identify the defensive player with the biggest knack for finding the football.
“Any time there is a collision, Gerald Munns seems to be involved,” Erickson said. “He’s been making as many plays as anyone.”
Munns, a junior, has displayed enough awareness, anticipation and aggressiveness to claim the first-team assignment at middle linebacker, a status he held very briefly last season before a knee injury caused him to miss four games.
Now healthy, leaner and with two years of college-level learning experience, the Hamilton High product believes that he has gained the maturity to be a regular impact player. This upcoming season, he feels, is his time.
“I’m starting to see the field a lot better,” said Munns, who recorded 20 tackles (15 solo) and a sack last season. “With experience I have, I feel a lot more calm out there, and things are starting to slow down. I can react a lot faster and go out and make plays.”
ASU linebacker Gerald Munns brings down Southern California running back Stafon Johnson last season. (Jennifer Grimes/Tribune)
The 6-foot-4, 238-pound Munns — listed at 240 pounds last year, he said that his weight has remained steady as he has added more muscle — impressed during fall camp and early-season practices, earning the starting nod for the San Diego State game on Sept. 15. On the second series, he suffered the knee injury.
After his return, Munns backed up Morris Wooten and Mike Nixon in the middle.
“It was hard to get back into shape for a while,” Munns said. “I had to get my knee back in shape, and my overall endurance was tough to get back. But everyone goes through injuries. It was something I had to get over and keep fighting.”
Munns’ biggest asset, Erickson said, is his ability to read and recognize a play developing, which enables him to “play faster,” as it is known in coaching parlance.
“He’s smart and knows what’s going on,” Erickson said. “You watch him on tape, and he looks like a guy who runs 4.4 (seconds in the 40-yard dash) because he knows what he’s doing. I don’t think he’s that fast, but he looks that fast on the field.”
A soft-spoken nature belies Munns’ torpedo style on the field. Middle linebacker is a position where leadership is usually expected, and Munns said that as he grows more comfortable in the spot, he will raise his voice more often.
“We have a lot of guys on the team that need to step up vocally, and I’m probably one of them,” Munns said. “But I primarily try to show leadership with my effort and hustle to the ball. I’m a guy that can be held accountable. That’s the most important kind of leadership, I think.”
The most talked-about happening at Thursday’s practice was a shoving match between guard Shaun Lauvao and defensive tackle Jonathan English that turned into a skirmish involving several players.
Erickson could only chuckle afterward, saying that the pile-up was big, but tame.
“They couldn’t hurt each other,” Erickson said. “It wasn’t vicious. That was like it was almost planned. There’s a coaches’ clinic here, so (the players) had to do something to show how tough they are. It wasn’t really exciting to me. I almost fell asleep.”
There indeed appeared to be theatrics. As the fracas broke up, running back Keegan Herring shouted at cornerback Omar Bolden, “I was looking for you in that huddle!” Herring’s usual mile-wide smile indicated that he was not even half-serious.
Two of the special-teams vacancies appear to be filled, as Erickson said that Thomas Ohmart is “by far” the best long-snapper in camp and that backup quarterback Danny Sullivan will likely hold on placement-kick attempts. Kicker Thomas Weber is still the first-team punter, but Zach Richards and two junior-college walk-ons will get a chance at the job in the fall.
The scrimmage, the second of the spring, is at 9:45 a.m. Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium. It will follow a format similar to the first. There will be several street closures around ASU due to Sunday’s Arizona Ironman triathlon, so the school is offering travel tips for those planning to attend the scrimmage and other athletic events this weekend.
The Sun Devils have a wrinkle when they employ an empty-backfield formation, occasionally splitting a running back out where a wide receiver normally lines up. When Dimitri Nance has lined out wide in recent workouts, an outside linebacker has covered him — a favorable matchup that ASU would like to create whenever possible.
“We’ll throw those (running backs) around different places,” Erickson said. “We’re doing a lot of things out of an empty formation, and you’ll see a lot more by the end of spring. We were pretty successful out of the empty in the first scrimmage.”
Tight end Dane Guthrie (shoulder), safeties Jonathan Clark (shoulder) and Jarrell Holman (back) and defensive linemen Luis Vasquez (ankle) and David Smith (concussion) did not practice on Thursday but should be back on Saturday.
Construction on ASU’s indoor practice facilities for football and basketball is expected to begin by the end of April, a school spokesman said.
