Joey Yellen sat down on a cushy black chair inside of Arizona State’s quarterback room, staring at the big screen in front of him as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Rob Likens pulled up the film.







The freshman gunslinger looked up as the play began. He remembered it instantly. The play was footage from Peyton Manning’s time with the Denver Broncos a few years back, one Yellen thought back to vividly given his devotion and near-obsession of the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback.





“It was kind of funny because I remember watching those games so it’s kind of weird knowing the why behind them now,” Yellen said.





The NFL film sessions, which have moved the platform away from practice or opponent film in the spring, were integrated into the Sun Devil offense this spring, a result of Likens’ summer deep-dive into some of the league’s best offenses.





Aside from the Broncos, three teams caught the eye of ASU’s offensive coordinator: The Los Angeles Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, and New England Patriots -- three of the NFL’s top four scoring offenses in 2018.





The Patriots, Likens quickly noted, are the “masters of doing the little things great.” The Chiefs are an explosive offensive that finds creative ways to get guys like receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce the ball.





And then there’s the Rams, perhaps the creme de la creme of Likens’ NFL indulgence.





“We watch Chiefs and Rams every day -- literally every day,” quarterback Dillon Sterling-Cole said. “Because their offense is simple but at the same time you can do so much with different kinds of concepts throughout their offense. It’s good to see coach Likens go into that pro-style deal and kind of implement that into our offense.





“Watching (Chiefs’’ quarterback) Patrick (Mahomes) running around the field. (Rams’ quarterback) Jared Goff, a pocket passer but at the same time if he needs to use his legs he does that. Watching them every day, it makes you tighten up your game.”





Even now, almost five years removed from coaching him as the assistant head coach at Cal, Likens still brings up Goff quite frequently.





“I think he kind of mentions him a lot to all of us,” Yellen said of Likens talking about Goff. “I would too if I coached the No. 1 (draft pick.)”





Likens still stays in contact with the Super Bowl runner-up, noting that his knowledge of the Rams’ offense delves much deeper than the Sun Devils’ offensive coordinator just turning on some tape. “I kind of know what they’re trying to do,” he said.





Of everything Likens has soaked up about Los Angeles’ offense, an overlying theme in its strategy has stuck with him through spring camp: Aggressiveness. Sometimes, he may not even love the play the Rams call. Still, he admires the mindset they operated under.





And that mindset comes against fellow-NFL teams that boast speedy defensive backs trying to do everything possible to take away the big play. In college, it’s the opposite. Most of the defenses ASU faces is more concerned with shutting down the short passes.





Thus, Likens sees an advantage. As spring comes to a close, he’s still in the midst of evaluating four quarterbacks, tasked with picking the starter come late August. When spring camp started, he made it very clear, the Sun Devils’ next starting quarterback will need to be able to throw the deep ball.





“Then when it’s crunch time, and this is the tough thing when you’re calling plays. You look down there and it’s like, ‘Man, they’re giving me that touchdown shot,’” Likens said. “The more confidence you have in that signal caller and the guy throwing that ball, the more times you’re going to go ahead and call that shot. That’s the kind of quarterback I’m looking for.”





ASU wide receivers coach Charlie Fisher admitted that Likens and the Sun Devil staff have taken their affinity for the high-powered NFL offenses to the next level, implementing specific plays they watch into their playbook.





“Pretty much everything we see we’ll put in,” Senior wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk said.





Added Fisher: “You kind of implement certain parts of it. It’s hard to do all at once.”





This isn’t too uncommon. Coaches cherry-pick plays from around the football world often. But the Sun Devils, going all-in on the method of teaching, not telling, have integrated it into meetings and films sessions.





The goal: Instead of drawing X’s and O’s on a whiteboard, show the players an example of how to perfectly execute a play.





“Especially when putting in a new play, you can only go so far writing it on the board and saying, ‘This is how it’s going to work,” because it almost never works how you put on the board,” Yellen said. “It’s kind of cool when you see how it’s run in the NFL.”





“Anytime you can watch guys do it, and at the highest level, that’s a big, big help,” Fisher said. “Everybody learns differently but at the end of the day, everybody can learn visual and that’s very important.”





Earlier in the spring, Likens showed the offense a play from the Patriots. Translating the play into Arizona State’s offense, senior wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk was New England receiver Julian Edelman, who was running an option route.





When Aiyuk -- who at 6-foot-1 is two inches taller than Edelman -- jotted out to the practice field, the option route just became an acting lesson. All he had to do was mimic Edelman. “When you’re doing it, you picture how they’re doing it,” he said.





Likens is honest, he understands he can’t pluck every successful play he sees in the NFL. His capabilities are different -- Goff and Edelman aren’t walking through the Sun Devil Stadium gates and suiting up anytime soon.





He watches play-to-play, thinking to himself, “Can Frank Darby run that route? Can Brandon Aiyuk run that route? Oh, Kyle Williams, he could do this.”





“The big thing is just because it looks good with those guys doing it, there’s a different guy running that route, and we may not have a guy with that skill-set,” Likens said.





But as Yellen made sure to mention about the plays that Likens does select for the ASU playbook:





“If it’s good enough for the Rams, we should be able to do it here.”





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