Once he recognized what Arizona State coach Herm Edwards was doing on Tuesday morning, Kevin Mawae began smiling.

The former NFL offensive lineman, who played for Edwards with the Jets more than a decade ago, watched as the second-year Sun Devil coach sent his offensive and defensive linemen – and them only – off the field early on Tuesday, giving the group a little extra rest while the rest of the team’s skill players went through several more periods of 7-on-7 action.

“That’s my practice,” Mawae, now an offensive analyst with ASU, told Edwards, remembering the occasional days when Edwards would relieve his big men early in the pros.

“This practice was dedicated to Kevin Mawae,” Edwards joked afterward. “We used to have these type of practices in New York, where after the team period the offensive line and defensive line went in.”

It was the latest example of Edwards’ pro-style philosophy during this spring’s ASU practice campaign, where rest and recovery have appeared to be as important as the number of reps. There has been no live tackling, no unnecessarily long hours on the practice field, and hardly any superfluous expenditure of effort. The focus has been on teaching players execution, not pushing them to the point of exhaustion.

"I'm about efficiency, I've always been that way," Edwards said. "I don't want to waste people's time, don't waste my time. I just want to go out there. When you become more efficient you become more focused on the job at hand and the players understand that."

That ethos will again be on display during Thursday night’s spring game, an event that will be a “game” only in name. Instead, the Sun Devils will hold a quasi-practice inside Sun Devil Stadium. The session will follow the broad script of most of ASU’s spring practices: there will likely be a positional skills period, special teams drills, and some 11-on-11 team periods mixed in.

“Well obviously there’s a spring contest, I don’t know if we’d call it a scrimmage, we’ll kind of do what we do,” Edwards said. “It won’t be much of a scrimmage to be quite honest. It’ll be more of situation football and watching some of the younger guys competing in certain situations.

“I think where we’re at right now, the key for us is just getting through the next two practices without any injuries.”

To that end, there won’t be any live tackling either, with Edwards instead opting to hold the event in “thud mode,” where players wrap up on ball carriers but don’t take them all the way to the grass.

“Maybe that’s the pro football in me where I just think you can teach tackling and you don’t have to take guys to the ground,” Edwards said. “I think we’ve done a nice of doing that job all spring. I think we’ll be a better tackling team.”

The most physical part of the night might come during the “V” drill – also know as the “Oklahoma” drill – where several players will try to set blocks in front of a ball carrier.

“That’s for television,” said Edwards, throwing a bone to the Pac-12 Network, which will broadcast the event. “I’m a television guy too so you have to get people excited about playing tackle football. We’ll do some tackling and then from there, it’s thud.”

Some of these moves have been by necessity, with ASU practicing with limited numbers this spring, especially on the offensive and defensive lines. But it's also rooted in Edwards’ NFL background, where rosters are small and physically-taxing practicing has become rarer in recent years. Since arriving at ASU, Edwards has declined the dogma of college football that demands coaches drive players to the limit.

“I think the culture is starting to change a little bit and the players are understanding what’s expected,” he explained. “I think it’s good for the 20 [incoming freshmen] that are going to come in here because they’re going to set the tone. Those guys are going to set the tone for the 20 young players we have coming in and we’re excited about those guys. So, knock on wood. Let’s get through these next two days and we should be fine.”

QBs to face ‘situational football’ in spring game

– Even in its modified format, there will be a score kept during Thursday’s spring game, a tally that will revolve around which quarterbacks are on the field.

“We have four quarterbacks, so two will play for the maroon and two will play for the white team,” Edwards said. “And we’ll keep score. We’ll give these folks the scoring and how we do it and we’ll put it up on the scoreboard. We’ve done it in practice a few times and the players like it.”

However, instead of orchestrating drives up and down the gridiron, the quartet of passers – junior Dillon Sterling-Cole and freshmen Jayden Daniels, Joey Yellen and Ethan Long – will be put through “situational football,” where they’ll have to handle different downs and distances from different parts of the field.

“We’ve been doing that the last couple practices, creating situations for the quarterback and for the team, just moving the ball,” Edwards said. “Whether its backed up, midfield, red zone, down and distance situations. This team did a pretty good job when it came to situation football. We’re big on that.”

Edwards didn’t hint at how the reps might be split up, or who among the four signal callers has impressed him most this spring.

“I think all of these guys have done a good job of competing,” he said. “Each of them has the up and down days, but you expect that, and that’s almost not fair to them because one day they’re not going with the 1-on-1 team they’re just doing 7-on-7 so it’s hard.

“But I think it’s the right way to do it right now. When we get into the summer, first week or two, we’ll figure out which way we’re going, and it’s going to be a hard decision. All of these guys have done a great job of competing, but we’re in a good place right now.”

Young players ‘going to have to play’ in 2019

Edwards was honest on Tuesday in his assessment of his team’s performance this spring.

“We’ve gone through practice and we’re OK,” he said.

But without having his full roster assembled – most of the program’s 2019 signing class won’t be on campus until the summer – he was hesitant to project too much based off what he’s seen the last month.

“There’s a young group of guys coming in here (in the fall) that are going to have to play and we know that," he added. "They’re not just coming in here to watch, they’re going to have to play.”

While he’s been largely content with what he’s seen from the group at his disposal now, the second-year coach was also anxious on Tuesday to get the new collection of talent on campus and see them in practice. The speed of the class had him sounding most excited.

“This is going to be interesting when these other guys show up because they’re going to be fast, they’re going to be faster,” Edwards said. “We’ve got some guys that can run on the back end and we’ve got some guys coming in here playing wide receiver that can run too. We’ve got a big old tight end (in incoming freshman Nolan Matthews), he was in here last week, tell you what, he looks like one of those guys, he can run. I know he can run. So we’re going to be a lot faster, which I think we have to be if we’re going to compete in this conference.”

Last year, ASU wasn’t hesitant to play freshmen, handing starts to seven of them on defense over the course of 2018.