ASU tight ends coach Juston Wood's brush with Hollywood results in some good advice

Juston Wood was in need of a pep talk and a timely one came courtesy of Adam Sandler. Yes THAT Adam Sandler. The actor.

Wood was serving as a stunt double for the Captain Wilhelm Knauer character in the remake of the movie "The Longest Yard" which starred Sandler. During some downtime, Sandler asked Wood about his background. Wood had been playing for the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League, wondering if his goal of making it to the NFL was just a pipe dream or if he'd be better off getting a "real" job, as they say.

"The next day we were playing catch and he said, 'Hey, I remember what you talked about and I'm just going to tell you, you’re going to be alright, things are going to work out for you. Don’t worry. Doors are going to open.'  He was just a good dude. He was that personable where he’d ask about you, then come back the next day and later just encourage you."

That interaction took place 15 years ago. But Sandler's hunch came to fruition. Wood, now 42, has found a calling as tight ends coach for the Arizona State Sun Devils.  He's in his second year in that role after serving in an "interim" capacity in 2021 after the dismissal of previous position coach Adam Breneman.

The path to Tempe was paved with obstacles, but each has provided a learning experience. He is thrilled at the chance to work under head coach Herm Edwards.

"I am having so much fun being here. I am excited about just coming to work every day," he said. "I want our group here to be the one that people who play against us look at and say, `We want to be them. That’s what we’re supposed to look like.' We want to be the standard that other people are looking at. That’s the goal right now."

Wood appreciates where he is now because of what it took to get here. He was an accomplished quarterback at Portland State, earning first-team All-Big Sky honors in 2001. He signed with the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent but his tenure there lasted just a few months.

He bounced around to a few different arena league teams which played in the summer and he coached under his father Dan at David Douglas High School in his native Portland through the school year.  There were a lot of side hustles. He even sold insurance. While playing with the Avengers he spent a few nights each week checking IDs at the White Lotus, a Hollywood celebrity hot spot.

His first opportunity as a college coach came at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a school with which he was familiar from his days as a player in the Big Sky Conference. He was there for seven years, starting out as wide receivers coach, and adding more responsibilities with his last year there spent as quarterback coach and offensive coordinator.

The college coaching profession is all about contacts and past relationships. When Bryan Cook, with whom Wood worked at Cal Poly, moved on to Georgia Southern as offensive coordinator, he offered Wood a position on his staff there. Across the country he went.

But as often happens, a coaching change at the top, meant a new staff so after two years in Statesboro with a six-figure salary, Wood was again unemployed.

"I remember going home and telling my wife I got let go," Wood recalled. "She was on the floor playing with the kids. We had a 2-year-old and a newborn. She thought I was kidding."

The timing wasn't good. It was just days before an annual coaching convention in San Antonio.  Wood updated his resume and did some homework on potential landing spots. He knew it was going to be difficult because there wasn't a huge market for the particular offense at which he was adept.

Not surprisingly, connections paved the way to Wood's next stop on his coaching sojourn and it was the one that would eventually lead him to Tempe.

Wood had long known Zak Hill, then the offensive coordinator at Boise State. Hill's father was a high school coach not far from where Wood's dad coached. Hill also played in the Big Sky Conference for Central Washington. Since Hill and Wood are the same age, they played against each other both in college and in different football events growing up.

Wood jokingly said when it came time to look for a job he "stalked" Hill, just because their roots together had gone back many years.

Hill doesn't quite remember it that way. He says Steve Pyne, a mutual friend in the coaching industry, gave him a heads-up that Wood was looking for a new landing spot and Hill took it from there. Hill was able to bring Wood on board as an "analyst," a support staff role that doesn't pay much but many younger coaches take, hoping it will lead to a more high-profile position.

"Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward," he said.

It meant moving cross country again, this time for a minuscule $26,000 a year salary. It also meant Wood's wife Lindsay would have to go back to work but the couple agreed it was worth the leap of faith. The couple lives with their children, Avila, now 6, and  Cash, 4, in Chandler.

"That's the difficult part of the profession. It can be tough on families," said Lindsay, who married Juston in 2014, although the two have known each other since high school. "You have to understand that there are sacrifices you have to make, on both ends."

When Hill was appointed offensive coordinator at ASU in January of 2020, he brought Wood with him. Edwards had one of those  "analyst" spots to fill and with Hill about to implement a new offense he thought it was beneficial to bring along someone else who was already well-versed in it.

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Edwards also liked the opportunity to give a coach a chance because he was thankful for one he got when he left his NFL playing days in 1986 and soon got hired to coach defensive backs at San Diego State.

"My former coach hired me," Edwards said. "I had no coaching experience. Zero. Just came out of the NFL and he took a leap of faith and said, `Hey, I want you to coach the secondary. I'll always remember that. I've always tried to do that for other guys when I have been in the position as a head coach, or whatever, to give a guy an opportunity."

Edwards said Hill lobbying for Wood was all he needed.

"If they stand on a table for a guy, you go OK, unless I already have a guy," Edwards said.

Hill had no doubt Wood would be a valuable contributor to a football staff, in whatever capacity.

"We threw a lot at him at Boise," said Hill, who resigned after last season at ASU but has remained in the area teaching and coaching at the high school level. "He's a hard worker and paid his dues. He has put in the time to get where he is. He's very detail-oriented. Even when he first came in, he made great observations, asked all the right questions."

Edwards singles out Wood as a factor in the progress made last season by tight end Curtis Hodges, who signed with the Washington Commanders as a free agent and made the team's 53-man opening game roster.

The current group of tight ends looks promising, with Missouri transfer Messiah Swinson an imposing figure, much like Hodges.

Wood says he doesn't regret any of the experiences he has had, good or bad. They all taught him something about dealing with adversity which is something he has tried to teach his players.

While he is where he wants to be now, he enjoyed his short-lived movie career. He also had a chance at a spot in "Leatherheads," a sports comedy that was filmed in 2008 and starred George Clooney and Renée Zellweger, but was just coming off knee surgery so he had to pass on that.

He also was part of a commercial shoot for the  “Madden NFL 2005” video game.

The most memorable part of the movie was just being on the set with the likes of Terry Crews and football players turned wrestlers in "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Bill Goldberg and Kevin Nash.

Parts were filmed in Sante Fe, New Mexico, with game scenes filmed at a Southern California community college. Most memorable was a collision with Goldberg in the filming of a game sequence that left him a bloody mess.

"You’re working but you have downtime, everything has to be right so they’ll be times there are clouds, got to take a break," Wood said. "And you’re out there with all these guys that were or are athletes. Many of us still trying. We’d compete, tell stories. It's funny because all the actors want to be athletes and all the athletes want to be actors."

Reach the reporter at Michelle.Gardner@gannett.com or 602 444-4783.  Follow her on Twitter @MGardnerSports.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU tight ends coach Juston Wood receives good advice from Hollywood