Jalen Klemm doesn’t sound like a player who takes a single practice rep for granted. He can’t.
Two years ago, his football future was hanging by a thread after a stroke wiped out what should have been his first season with Arizona State. Now he’s back in Camp Tontozona, working as a projected starter at right tackle and serving as the only offensive lineman on the Pat Tillman Leadership Council.
That kind of turnaround gives every rep a different weight.
“Two years ago, I wasn't able to be here at Camp T,” Klemm said after a practice on a Sol Field, beneath towering pine trees that have stood guard for thousands of ASU football players over six-plus decades, few of whom have accomplished something as difficult as Klemm. “I was at home on bed rest for the whole fall camp.
For me, it's just the gratitude being able to be out here every day with the guys. It's a blessing to continue to play and especially to have this role on the team where the guys trust me and my role.”
Klemm lost more than 20 pounds after the stroke, and the effects made his return uncertain. Less than a year later, he was medically cleared and spent the 2025 season as a reserve before finally getting his first career start against Duke in the Sun Bowl, when regular starters, first-round NFL pick Max Iheanachor and his fellow starting tackle, Joshua Atkins, didn't play.
Now, with Atkins and Iheanachor gone, Klemm and junior Champ Westbrooks have taken most of the first-team tackle reps. The two third-year Sun Devils barely saw the field early in their careers, but patience is suddenly looking like a pretty good investment.
“Everybody comes out here and believes they should play,” Westbrooks said. “You definitely have to humble yourself when you get out here and you're not the best. You gotta be able to ground yourself and be able to learn from other people and take that time to get ready for your spot.”
The competition has been real, and it has been constant. Klemm logged 179 snaps last season and Westbrooks had 93, with most of that work coming in the Sun Bowl against Duke. In camp, the two opened with Klemm at left tackle and Westbrooks at right tackle before switching sides.
“It’s been a lot of competition switching back and forth,” Westbrooks said. “[Klemm] started off left, I started out right, but now we're switched, and that competition brings us closer. Not just being friends, but competitors and learning together to get to that spot.”
They’re also playing with smaller frames than the tackles ASU leaned on a year ago. Klemm and Westbrooks both crossed the 300-pound mark before camp, while Iheanachor and Atkins were 330-pound tackles last season. But the size gap hasn’t kept the Sun Devils from moving people on the edge, especially on screen plays.
“The numbers in the weight room and your weight don't matter as much as people think,” Klemm said. “It's more about how you use it. I think that for me and my skill set, it's just understanding what my strengths are and what my weaknesses are and playing off of those, so those weaknesses don't show up as much.”
That lighter-footed approach has shown up in camp. ASU has broken several screen plays for big gains during team periods, and the tackles have been a big reason why. Klemm, in particular, likes getting out in space.
“I think my biggest strength throughout this camp so far is getting out in space on screens,” Klemm said. “When you get guys in our group on the offensive line getting out in space and blocking, that stuff's fun. Obviously you want to be road graders in the run game, but it is a nice change up to be able to go and do those things.”
The tackle room has one more giant in the mix: Jarmaine Mitchell, who stands 6-foot-8 and is the tallest player on the roster. Mitchell arrived after finishing as the No. 1 overall junior college prospect in the 2026 class, and he flipped his commitment from Georgia to ASU in December to bolster the position and compete for a starting job.
“It’s just the way they carry each other,” Mitchell said of his fellow Sun Devils. “When I came to my visit, they were telling me all this, and I wanted to see it for myself.
When I walked through the door on the first day, it was no lies. Everything they said was the truth.”
Mitchell came in with a .8933 grade, making him the highest-ranked junior college recruit head coach Kenny Dillingham has brought in. He passed former offensive tackle and first-round NFL Draft pick Max Iheanachor, who was graded at .8733. Mitchell said ASU offensive line coach Saga Tuitele’s history of developing NFL-level talent was a major part of the appeal.
“That was a big part of me coming here,” Mitchell said. “(Max) hadn't played football as long as I did, and I just saw the stuff coach Tuitele did with him. I just felt like coach T could do something that was even better with me.”
For now, Mitchell appears to be battling senior Luke Baklenko, a senior transfer from Oklahoma who started many games in two earlier seasons at Stanford. Tuitele said Mitchell is moving in the right direction, even if he’s still learning.
“[Mitchell is] not making as many mistakes, but he's not perfect,” Tuitele said. “He's learning our style of coaching and what we want out of a young man.
In the spring, it was, 'My bad,' because he had no clue. Now, he can tell you, 'I should have done this.'
He's going to get stronger, but that's going to take some time.”
Through the first 10 days of preseason camp, ASU has also cleaned up another area that could have been a problem: pre-snap penalties. That stands out because the Sun Devils had issues there ahead of last season, but this camp has featured a much more disciplined front, even with a nearly brand-new group.
“Take away Jalen and [Baklenko], they're all young,” Tuitele said. “They want to do things right.
I think they're doing a great job controlling the things they can control. It boils down to the leadership and what things are important.”