Arizona State WR Malik McClain to redshirt, plans to remain with team in 2025

Arizona State wide receiver Malik McClain will reportedly redshirt the remainder of the season, but remain with the school in 2025, per Chris Karpman.

“He has a year left,” head coach Kenny Dillingham said, via Karpman. “He’s a great player but he’s still learning the system. …for the future, it’s a win-win.”

McClain previously played at Florida State and Penn State before transferring to Arizona State. McClain’s credited with four games this season, but has not logged any catches.

Over the course of his college career (two years at FSU, one at PSU), he has 39 catches, 467 yards, six touchdowns and 12 yards per catch.

As a member of the Class of 2021, McClain was a four-star recruit out of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 29 overall prospect in the state, the No. 32 wide receiver in the class and the No. 204 overall prospect in the class.

Malik McClain to remain with Arizona State after redshirt

Bringing back a veteran wide receiver in 2025 should definitely aid Arizona State next fall. McClain has reps under his belt, but wasn’t quite worked in this season.

The Sun Devils are 4-1 this season with their most recent victory coming over Kansas, 35-31. But the schedule only gets more difficult with Utah on the docket this week.

McClain will only be available to watch and prepare for next season.

“This was a tough game,” Dillingham said postgame. “I’ve got to see how we feel. I’m also not stubborn, so I’ve got to see how our guys feel. Unfortunately, we play a Friday night game, and Utah’s off a bye. So I don’t know how we got a schedule where we have six days, and they have a bye week, but it’s possibly the worst scenario you could ever have is having a short week when another team has a bye. So I don’t know how that happened, but we’re going to have to be as fresh as physically possible. It’s all about being fresh for this football game because they’re going to be fresh. The schemes and all that are obsolete to how our bodies feel and us playing this game really hard.

“And like I said, there’s a lot of things that we didn’t play well this week, but we played so hard. We played hard. I think everybody who watched the game can see how hard we played, and it wins. It’s amazing how just playing hard with passion and caring, you find ways to win. We found a way, and we’re going to play again, and we’ve got to find another way, and it’s going to be a different way. You don’t know how. Just got to keep finding a way.”