TEMPE — Clayton Smith returned to his Arizona State defensive end group on Tuesday after he spent the majority of spring camp working with the receivers.
Smith was in his old white practice jersey to indicate defense for the first time this spring, and head coach Kenny Dillingham said, “he may bounce over for some certain situations on offense,” but will otherwise remain on defense for the rest of camp.
“I think he knows the offense enough that if we threw him in there in, like, small packages throughout the year, he would understand the vernacular enough that it wouldn’t be foreign to him,” Dillingham said. “But we need him back on the D-line. His edge on the D-line is something we need.”
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The 6-foot-4, 255-pound Smith had 13 sacks and 18 tackles for loss as a defensive end over the past three years.
He looked every bit the part of the athlete who landed on Bruce Feldman’s Freaks List for The Athletic a year ago, moving much smoother than one might imagine from a defensive end working on offense. His hands were also better than expected.
Smith already had some receiving chops from his high school days from when he was a top-10 overall prospect. Given his knowledge of the defensive scheme while there are newcomers in the rotation paved the road to his opportunity to learn on offense.
Providing another big-bodied receiving option in addition to 6-foot-5 Reed Harris could help ASU get right after a 2025 season where it struggled mightily in the red zone (15th among Big 12 teams in touchdown percentage).
Smith officially has an “ATH” (or “athlete”) position designation for 2026 after he was granted a sixth season of eligibility because of injuries that limited his redshirt freshman season at Oklahoma to four games.
Clayton Smith rejoins DE room that includes some new faces
Smith is ASU’s only defensive end who regularly played in 2025 and is back for 2026, getting back to a group that includes a few young returning players, such as Albert Smith III, Joshua Shanklin and Salesi Manu. The room also includes a couple Power Four veteran transfers who have looked the part.
Jalen Thompson (Michigan State) and Emar’rion Winston (Baylor) combined for 5.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss on their respective teams (1,125 snaps), and they’ve been among ASU’s most disruptive defenders throughout camp.
Dillingham on Tuesday said Thompson has done a “great job.”
“He’s physically smart. His play recognition is high,” the coach said. “He was a kid who was super high academic, super intelligent kid, super savvy, played a lot of snaps, so he has really high play recognition and you can see that he’s a vet.”
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