Arizona Western Community College tight end Darwin Rogers was not Arizona State's recruiting radar until the arrival of head coach Todd Graham last week.

The Sun Devils under offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone rarely used tight ends and thus the position was not heavily recruited.

Upon the arrival of Graham and his offensive assistants Mike Norvell and Chris Thomsen, the process of evaluating and recruiting the positions heated up. Wednesday ASUDevils.com reported that Nate Ingram has been offered a scholarship by ASU.

Rogers was also offered and originally but had intended to wait a few more days before making a decision but Wednesday night he decided that signing with the Sun Devils was the best option for him.

"I committed tonight," Rogers said. "I just got off with the coaches and let know how I excited I was to be part of the program and they were pretty excite about it too.

"I am going to sign and fax over my letter intent Thursday morning. I will probably going to take a visit first to check things out but I am all set to enroll for the spring. I was qualified out of high school and I have my AA degree already. The next step for me is just figuring out my classes and where I am going to live but I wanted to commit now so I could get all of that set up."

The 6-foot-4, 245-pounder was a full qualifier out of high school, where he played quarterback, when he signed with Illinois, but because of a misunderstanding with his paperwork he was denied admission to the school. He decided to attend Arizona Western because he had a prior relationship with the head coach there.

Rogers was also being recruited by Eastern Michigan, Indiana, Mississippi, Texas Tech, Washington, Oregon State and Utah State.

"Coach Thomsen had been mainly recruiting me but I also talked to Coach Norvell and to Coach Graham. Its just all pretty exciting and a great feeling for me and my family. I had not heard from these coaches before they got to ASU. I felt comfortable with them right away and they called me every day to see how I was doing and what I was thinking.

"They talked to me about how they will utilize me and it will be different ways. They said that like how I can move around. They said that I am athletic and quick and they like I how I block and hit people. They will use me as tight end, a little at wide receiver and even use me as a H-Back."


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