Gerhart happy with shift to guard

Garth Gerhart will start at left guard for Arizona State on Saturday, and coach Dennis Erickson knows it might be tough to get him to embrace switching back to center.

"Every center that's moved to another position, it's like, wow, this is easy," coach Dennis Erickson said. "They're like, what do you mean, I don't have to snap the ball, I can just block somebody."

"Obviously guard is a lot easier to move to because everything you do is with the center. He's doing some good things (in practice), but you won't know until Saturday."

Gerhart, a redshirt freshman, is replacing true freshman Zach Schlink, who played well in his first start last week at Washington, only to injured his right knee, requiring microfracture surgery on Tuesday.

Gerhart was pushing Thomas Altieri at center, where he played most of the second half last week due to an Altieri injury. Coaches decided the best option in replacing Schlink was to keep Shawn Lauvao at right tackle, where he made his first start last week after eight starts at left guard, and slide Gerhart next to Altieri to get both in the lineup.

"He's smart, and he understands it," Erickson said. "He's a football player. He just loves playing, he doesn't care where he plays."

Adam Tello, who started the first four games at right tackle, is backing up both guard positions. Walk-on Brent Good is taking snaps at center. The only other scholarship backups are Tom Njunge, who started four games at right tackle, and Mike Marcisz.

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