ASU football notes: Mike Bercovici feeds his line In-N-Out

The best way to motivate offensive linemen?

Feed them.

Arizona State senior quarterback Mike Bercovici figured this out over the summer, bringing the linemen In-N-Out after Friday workouts. Bercovici explains:

"Fridays are obviously our hardest days,'' he said. "We call them 'Grinder Fridays'. One day a tradition started, where it was just one of those days, I knew how hard of a workout it was earlier in the day, so around 2:15 p.m., I went to In-N-Out and grabbed about 10 double-doubles. And the best part about O-linemen is they're not picky, so you don't have to get no tomatoes or anything like that. So I ordered a whole bunch of them and right when I got to (the Verde Dickey Dome) their heads started turning and it got them motivated to finish the workout."

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For now, Bercovici said the bill only comes to about $40, but he realizes that soon could change.

"O-linemen, they get a little needy sometimes, so I'm probably going to have to get animal (style) fries and pink lemonades for them and what not,'' said Bercovici, approaching his first full season of starting. "I figured right now I would set the ground rules at just double-doubles until my mom starts filtering some money to me so I can pay for all this."

Since he started doing this near the end of the summer conditioning session, Bercovici fed the linemen only twice, but he expects it to continue during preseason camp, which starts Wednesday.

"During camp we only get our camp food, so I'm going to have to send maybe my girlfriend to In-N-Out,'' he said. "She said she'd do it, so we'll have to figure that out."

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SIMONE'S RAPID CLIMB

A year ago at this time, Jordan Simone wasn't even on scholarship. This week, the senior -- expected to be one of the Pac-12's top safeties -- represented ASU at Pac-12 Media Days.

"Just checking off some goals," Simone said. "Write your goals down and your dreams become reality, I guess."

Simone wouldn't disclose his future goals, but he discussed some that he already had reached.

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"Earn a scholarship was on that list for a long time and when I checked that one off, that was one of the biggest accomplishments in my life," he said.

Graham said Simone can accomplish anything he wants.

"Jordan Simone is a guy that's exceeded every expectation I've ever had for him, a guy that's going to play in the NFL,'' Graham said. "The NFL's high on him. He's going to get drafted. His goal is to be the Jim Thorpe winner and the Defensive Player of the Year in our conference, all those are realistic goals for him."

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UNIFORM EXCITEMENT

How excited was Graham about ASU's new Adidas uniforms?

"I'm thinking about running out of the tunnel the first week,'' he said, jokingly. "I'm thinking about suiting up. I don't know if (defensive tackle Viliami Latu) would let me wear my 41 jersey. That'd be pretty cool. ... No, but I think they look pretty good."

Graham knows the importance of uniforms, both inside and outside the locker room. During his playing days, one of the last things he did before taking the field was check himself out in the mirror. He said he'll let the players pick the uniform combinations provided they win.

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"We represent Sun Devil nation,'' Graham said. "They need to like the uniforms. They need to like what we're doing. Just because I'm some old guy that wore a mesh jersey my whole career, that doesn't mean I should pick the uniforms. I don't worry about it. I let (the players) do that. That's part of the reward for the sacrifice they have to make for not wearing earrings and (saying) 'Yes, sir' and 'No, sir' and all that stuff."

Graham said there's more to come.

"Adidas has been a great deal for us,'' he said. "They've allowed us to really be creative. We're just getting started on that deal. We're doing a lot of neat stuff."

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IMPROVED SPECIAL TEAMS

An area in which coach Graham expects to see improvement: special teams.

Of course, he has said this before with few results, but this time Graham feels differently. Why? Shawn Slocum. Graham added Slocum -- who had spent the previous eight seasons running special teams with the Green Bay Packers -- before spring practice.

"Shawn feels really confident in our kickers,'' Graham said, referring to junior kicker Zane Gonzalez and junior punter Matt Haack. "We feel really confident in what we're doing schematically. To have a guy that's done it and won a Super Bowl and been in the league for the last 10 years, it does two things. One, it gives us a guy that I have a 25-year relationship with, a guy that I trust and he will totally run that, which will be awesome for me. Two, this is a guy that's spent 10 years in the NFL. This is what every one of these kids want to do, and they listen differently to him."

EXTRA POINTS

-A player Graham said is overlooked: Senior center Nick Kelly, a two-year starter and 2014 second-team All-Pac-12 selection: "(He's) the least talked about guy on our team and one of the most impactful,'' Graham said. "He's a big-time leader."

-Bercovici on junior-college transfer Tim White, a 5-10, 170-pound receiver and former track standout: "Tim is a (California) kid. He went to Hart High School, so we immediately had that California connection. He's probably, I would say, the most impressive transfer that we have on our entire team. He came in here -- he had a great relationship with (freshman quarterback Brady White), he went to high school with him -- he didn't necessarily learn one receiver position, he knows them all and he hasn't been here more than three months."

-A freshman who has caught Bercovici's eye: Jay Jay Wilson: "He's a tough kid, someone you love to have on your team,'' Bercovici said. "He came in here and was supposed to be a tight end, and as a quarterback I would love to have him as a tight end, but Coach Graham might take him on defense. He's just going to be a guy that's going to find a niche, wherever it may be, and he's going to be put in a position to help this football team. I know he's going to play right away as a true freshman." Wilson (6-3, 230 pounds) is listed on ASU's roster as a tight end, but he also played linebacker and defensive back in high school.

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-Simone on freshman quarterback Brady White: "He's a great kid. I have a little sister and she's going to go to ASU, and I don't let anyone talk to her, but I would let Brady date her, so that says a lot."

-ASU this season will play on Thursday (Oregon) and Friday (New Mexico), but Graham said he prefers to kick off on Saturdays. "I come from Tulsa, when we played whatever day they'd put us on TV -- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever -- and that was hard," he said. "I like Saturday games. I like routine, but those Thursday night games are pretty special, too."

-Always accommodating, Bercovici did a lot of media interviews over the summer, but as the Sun Devils got closer to the start of practice, Graham told his quarterback to back off a little. "We got a lot of stuff with the media -- and obviously we're going to talk to the media and all that -- but we need to get focused as we approach camp," Graham said.

Contact Doug Haller at 602-444-4949 or at doug.haller@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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