Tony White seemed confident with the notion. If redshirt senior Tillman safety Tyler Whiley was healthy last season, Arizona State probably wins one or two more games.

“Because that position, you’re put in a position to make a lot of plays,” White said. “The guys did a great job there before but there was a reason that he was the starter going into the season at one of the most important positions.”

The ASU cornerbacks coach and defensive passing game coordinator thinks back to a play last season against an opponent that slipped his mind. Facing a three-verticals route tree coming at him, ASU’s Tillman (who White didn’t want to name for embarrassment reasons) fell down in the middle of the field, watching as the ball sailed over his head.

“I think if T-Y (Whiley’s nickname amongst ASU players and coach) is there,” White says, “it’s 100 percent intercepted. I know off the top of my head he’s making a couple plays there that’ll probably help you turn the game a little bit.”

Let’s back up for a second.

White hasn’t seen Whiley in a full-go tackling practice yet this spring. It doesn’t matter. With no doubts, he smiles. He and the other coaches were right in their evaluation and projection of Whiley seven months ago, before he was lost for the season.

During a night scrimmage about two and a half weeks prior to the Sun Devils season-opener last year, Whiley broke his right ankle trying to tackle running back Eno Benjamin on the second play of the night.

He was carted away on that hot Tempe night uncertain if that was the end to his college career.

Once a four-star athlete recruit out of Scottsdale Chaparral, Whiley arrived in Tempe as a wide receiver. Bogged down on the depth chart, though, the ASU coaching staff, then under Todd Graham, switched the dynamic ball-hawk to defensive back ahead of his redshirt freshman season.

After not playing in 2015, the coaches moved him again, this time to SPUR, a safety/linebacker hybrid position. For the next two years, Whiley played in five games defensively and recorded just six tackles. Not exactly the way he envisioned his college career going.

Under Herm Edwards and a new staff in a new scheme, 2018 was supposed to be Whiley’s year. He was moved to the Tillman safety position, one similar the SPUR but with more responsibilities against both the run and pass game.

Through two weeks of fall camp, Whiley was the clear-cut starter. Under a staff that had no problem throwing a freshman into a starting spot, the Scottsdale native’s experience was winning out.

Then came the injury.

“It was rough,” Whiley said of sitting out. “It was long. (Rehab) for almost every day for about two hours.”

Very quickly, Whiley’s exposed some serious depth issues for the Sun Devils. Then-redshirt senior Das Tautalatasi took the starting job but was injured against Michigan State. Then Jalen Harvey, who had only been playing defense for a few months, was injured against UCLA. Sophomore Evan Fields was forced to play mop-up duty as the pair returned.

It forced ASU’s defense to now implement what it’s calling ‘cross-training,’ a program that moves defenders into different positions during practice so, should an injury arise, depth will be available.

“Last year you get caught where maybe not the best football player was the next guy in because he didn’t know a position,” White said. “You can never get caught in that regard. And when everybody knows what the guy next to them is doing exactly, they can take more chances because they feel comfortable.”

For now, though, all Whiley has to do is worry about the Tillman position. The Sun Devil coaches seem more than content with that, especially given that Whiley recovered two months ahead of schedule.

During ASU’s third spring practice, Whiley walked through the doors of the Verde Dickey Dome and practiced for the first time in just under six months, limited to just 7-on-7 action. Worried that he wasn’t yet comfortable amongst so many bodies around him, coaches seemed unsure if Whiley would play in 11-on-11 during the spring.

Six practices in, there he was.

“He was taking team reps in there the other day and we’re like, ‘Dude, holy cow.’” White said. “The thing is he wasn't shy about it. He was like, ‘I’m going to take team reps,’ and it’s a run play and he’s running up in there and we’re like, ‘Oh, damn.’ Now you’re scaling him back. You can tell he’s itching to get back in there and throw his body around.”

The Sun Devils aren’t doing much tackling given the nature of spring practice, which means Whiley has to use a hard tap to signify where he would have made the tackle. Just a little reminder that he’s there.

And as the practices progress, White and the ASU coaches are astonished by how many hard taps they’re seeing every day. Six months away from the field be damned, Whiley’s football instincts are already as sharp as ever.

“Football is football, I don’t think you really lose anything,” Whiley said. “It kind of comes naturally.”

White seemed a little more amazed by Whiley’s return.

“We saw his instincts there (last season.) But take those limited reps, get hurt and now come back in spring and be in those spots as fast, it just shows it was the right move,” White said. “It’s pretty cool to see him naturally be in the right positions to make plays. He’s got what it takes to be in there.”

On Wednesday, Devils Digest reported that Tyler Whiley’s extension of eligibility waiver was approved by the NCAA. Arizona State submitted his waiver claim months ago yet the ASU's compliance department was fully confident that the appeal would be approved, allowing Whiley to practice.

Currently, as part of the ‘cross-training’ program, sophomore Aashari Crosswell has been garnering a majority of first-team Tillman reps with Whiley serving as his backup. By the time the season rolls around, that may change.

Asked if ASU was projecting Whiley to be the starting Tillman, White hesitated for a second before working out his answer.

“Ultimately, with all things being equal, it would be...he looks good out there,” White said. “If we had to play the game tomorrow … you think it would be him.”

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