Arizona State Football: 5 reasons why Sun Devils will struggle in 2017

4. Beyond the secondary, the whole defense is terrible

The flaws on defense cannot, however, be laid completely at the feet of the secondary. Arizona State’s defense was subpar in every way in 2016. They gave up 163 rushing yards per game. When combined with the passing production of opponents, the Sun Devils ranked 127th in the country after allowing more than 520 yards per game.

Opponents translated those yards into nearly 40 yards per game, putting Arizona State in the bottom five nationally in scoring defense. They gave up points on nearly 92 percent of opponents’ red zone chances. They also gave up first downs on more than half of the fourth-down tries foes took last season.

Returning eight starters, then, might be a curse in disguise. While the returning group brings valuable experience to the table, that only means so much if their experiences are ones of failure. Bennett and the position coaches have a tall task of trying to recondition the defensive units. There will likely be inevitable growing pains as the Sun Devils adjust to the new training.

All that means that ASU probably will be pretty terrible on defense once again in 2017. There is only so much development that can take place in a single offseason. After forcing their fan base to endure several shootouts in 2016 with mixed results, the Sun Devils defense will make everyone sweat once again this year.