Sting Factor: Charles Armstrong decommits from Arizona State
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
CLASS OF 2022 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
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THE SITUATION
When Charles Armstrong committed to Arizona State in June, the three-star offensive lineman said his mother loved the coaches, he loved the coaches and it was a perfect situation for him.
It was also a major commitment for the Sun Devils because they had dipped into the talent pool in Florida since Armstrong plays at Bradenton Manatee. Arizona State is trying to recruit that state just like every other school and this could have been a big recruiting win.
But Armstrong backed off his pledge in recent days that could deal a blow to Arizona State, which was one of three finalists for his first commitment with Iowa State and Pittsburgh.
Armstrong, who never visited Arizona State, said he came to a “mutual understanding” with the Sun Devils’ staff about his decision. That could mean ASU has its sights set on something bigger, or it could mean something completely different as both sides move forward.
LOCAL REACTION
“When the Florida offensive lineman committed to the Sun Devils back in June it was just another example of how wide of a reach ASU had in their national recruiting efforts. On Friday, though, Armstrong announced via Twitter that after ‘a mutual understanding with the staff at ASU’ that he and the Sun Devils were parting ways and he was reopening his recruitment.
“In some regards the writing may have been on the wall here for a while as the Sun Devils have extended several offers to 2021 offensive linemen in the last few months. Armon Bethea, Sione Veikoso, Harlan Obioha and junior college prospect Jordan Moko are the more notable prospects which Arizona State has been pursuing in earnest as of late. Those moves in and of itself prove that ASU believes it can and will upgrade the quality of its offensive lineman commits.
“Like many other programs, ASU has very tight numbers to work with when it comes to its 2021 class, so they have to ensure that they are being very careful with the specific prospects they wish to ink to a letter-of-intent in December or beyond.
“With the prospects of finalizing a second straight top 25 class, this ASU coaching staff should be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to this decommitment. The staff will prove that it will land a better offensive lineman prospect, which has been an extremely high priority for this group of future Sun Devil newcomers.” - Hod Rabino, ASUDevils.com
Sting factor: 5
NATIONAL REACTION
“This appears to be ASU moving on to bigger and better things and cutting some commits loose because of tight numbers, so this isn’t a bad loss. The Sun Devils will be fine.” — Mike Farrell, National Recruiting Director
Sting factor: 3