Michelle Gardner, Arizona Republic
During the spring and into the summer and fall conditioning drills Arizona State football coaches noted the camaraderie between the four athletes fighting for the starting quarterback spot, that quartet consisting of junior Dillon Sterling-Cole, previously the backup to Manny Wilkins, as well as true freshmen Jayden Daniels, Joey Yellen and Ethan Long.
Daniels won the job, which as announced by head coach Herm Edwards upon the team’s return from Camp Tontozona.
Two of those have departed with Yellen and Sterling-Cole opting to enter the NCAA transfer portal. But the four remain close with Daniels, particularly Yellen. In fact, Daniels is frequently seeing wearing a long-sleeved white hoodie sweatshirt bearing Yellen’s name and his No 18.
Daniels says one day he went to his lock box where each athlete keeps his personal items and found it there, which all presume was placed there by a team equipment manager. Daniels has been wearing it ever since.
“We’re all still brothers. That will never change,” Daniels said, after the Sun Devils (7-5) wrapped up practice on Sunday, in preparation for Tuesday’s Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl against ACC representative Florida State (6-6). “We’ll always have each others’ backs. We want the best for each other.”
Daniels says the four remain on the same group texts so the two who have left are still in the loop as to happenings at their former school.
The apparel issue started as a running joke, with Yellen saying in the group text that he wished he had taken the sweatshirt with him before he left. So Daniels started wearing it, just to get a rise our of his former teammate, knowing Yellen would see through social media postings, which he has indeed.
Yellen says now the running joke is whether or not Daniels will return it or keep wearing it.
With Yellen and Sterling-Cole having departed, Long has moved into the backup role previously belonging to Yellen, who left three weeks ago. Long had worked at other positions, including slot as well as on special teams, but has not done so since the Sun Devils got down to two quarterbacks.
“The three of us (freshmen) came in together. We’re always going to be close,” Daniels said.
