ASAP PAC-12 Feature: Arizona State Football Strength Coach Joe Connolly Podcast

Written by

Tempe, Arizona

I had to go all the way out to the desert to track down Coach Joe Connolly, Arizona State’s Director of Sports Performance. I’d last seen Joe at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan when the Michigan State Spartans hosted the ASU Sun Devils. In the end, MSU couldn’t find a way to catch the shifty Sun Devil freshman QB Jayden Daniels as the capacity crowd of over 77,000, mostly in green & white, and their Sparty mascot left the stadium in shock with an upset loss. Head Coach Herm Edwards, Joe Connolly and the Sun Devil mascot, Sparky boarded their motor coaches and headed to the airport, off to PHX with the W.

Coach Connolly, a Massachusetts dude, now in his fourth year in Tempe, has settled in to Arizona living, abundant cacti, and his PAC-12 team. We’d first met back in 2008 at the University of Louisville, where Joe was an assistant with then UL Cardinals’ Head Strength Coach Joe Kenn.

Joe also spent some great years at the University of South Carolina as head strength coach for the Gamecocks and their legendary Hall of Fame Head Football Coach Steve Spurrier. In fact, they ran off three straight seasons of 11 win teams! Following that, he spent a few very enjoyable years with UMass Football. But now, he’s preparing the Arizona State Sun Devils for the week to week challenges of a competitive PAC-12 Conference. Things can be really good out west when you’ve had some nice season victories versus UCLA, USC and Washington.
Connolly is working in tandem with Coach Edwards, where they have assembled an improving squad built with a punishing, powerful running back in Rachaad White, the evasive QB Jayden Daniels and a very impactful Defense that seems to get stronger toward the end of games. Coach Connolly also has a dedicated staff to help ensure that the player development program works to maximum efficiency. Sun Devil Football Assistant Sports Performance Directors Clayton Kirven and Colbert Calhoun, as well as Graduate Assistant Weston Gadient are making certain that Sun Devils definitely have a bright future.
Arizona State will face the Wisconsin Badgers in the Las Vegas Bowl at Allegiant Stadium on Dec. 30.

In this ASAP~Athletic Strength And Power Podcast, we discuss:

Coach Joe Connolly’s career path that led him to working with Herm Edwards at ASU
‘Developmental Fridays’
the extensive in-season training program
what Sun Devil legend Pat Tillman means to ASU and all of Arizona