TEMPE — ASU football’s defense has just one position where it needs a new starter, and Purdue transfer Kyndrich Breedlove has the skill set to be the answer.
Shamari Simmons leaves massive shoes to fill at nickel after accumulating gaudy stats the past two seasons with 146 tackles, 11 tackles for a loss, two interceptions, 10 passes defensed, four fumbles forced, two fumbles recovered and a safety.
He will likely find himself on an NFL roster this fall after impressing at the Shrine Bowl, leaving the Sun Devils without one of their most important contributors in the Kenny Dillingham era.
Enter Breedlove, who brought his 336 snaps at nickel in 2024 (605 defensive snaps overall) as a Boilermaker along with previous playing time while at Colorado.
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“I’ll be starting (spring camp) at nickel, but you know, they see me being at free safety, they see me at corner,” Breedlove said on Monday. “They actually don’t have a cap on what I can do. They see me as a versatile player, so I’m excited to see what this defense can be and how everybody’s moved around.”
Last season, he had 40 tackles, two tackles for a loss, three interceptions and four passes defensed in the Purdue unit.
In addition to the versatility he’s shown, defensive coordinator Brian Ward circled the game experience Breedlove has, starting every game in the Big Ten last season. Four of his last six games came against top-10 opponents Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana.
“We didn’t want to take, I guess, any steps backward with losing Shamari this year,” Ward said on March 6. “We wanted to actually find a way to continue to move forward in that room.”
Potentially fitting into the secondary as the last piece has already started to benefit Breedlove given how the veterans in the system have embraced him.
“Just getting used to the culture here, not saying like taking me under their wing, but you know, just being there for me,” Breedlove said. “Not treating me like I’m just a new guy here, but like I’m a brother, like I’m their teammate, like potentially I could be in there going to war with them boys this coming fall.”
With Cam Skattebo now departed, it’s possible the most prevalent leading voice on the team resides in the secondary with safety Xavion Alford.
“He’s a very smart player, you can tell that he’s been in college, picks up on the scheme very fast,” Alford said of Breedlove. “He can play kind of everywhere. Everybody in the secondary, we feel like we can all play different spots, so that’s really big.
“But he’s fitting in really well, I feel like, in our group and he’s definitely going to help us win a lot of games come Saturdays.”
Breedlove wants to showcase that high feel this spring, noting consistency and knowledge of the system are what he wants coaches to see most when camp kicks off on March 25.
Who else is in the mix to be ASU’s starting nickel?
Besides having an experienced addition like Breedlove, ASU returns two younger defensive backs who spent time at nickel with the second and third teams in 2024, Kyan McDonald and Montana Warren, the latter of whom started the Peach Bowl with Simmons out for targeting in the Big 12 title game.
“Having Montana and Kyan at that position as well, they got two guys that are really well versed in the system,” Ward said. “They know the expectation and what the standard is. … So there’s competition at that nickel spot, and you know, hopefully we can continue to move forward at that position and not feel the pain of losing losing a guy like Shamari Simmons as much.”
The three players will have some reinforcements on their side on the coaching staff, with Jordan Lee returning to Tempe as the new assistant nickels and safeties coach after he was a graduate assistant on Ward’s defensive staff in 2023.
Ward, who coaches the safeties in addition to his coordinator duties, said Lee’s return “has been huge” for him in particular.
Having spent some of his time as a defensive back in Ward’s systems at nickel while playing for Nevada (2020-21) and Washington State (2022), Lee could prove invaluable with perspective from playing within and coaching Ward’s defense.
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