(Photo: Nicholas Badders)
A week ago, Arizona State was riding high, fighting for a place atop the Pac-12 South Standings.
This week, the Sun Devils coaching staff has been left to explain their team’s regression against USC.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of coaching and teaching,” coach Todd Graham said. “I think the reason we’ve been so good [before last week] is because we work hard educating our players.”
Plenty of ASU’s players slipped up in the homecoming night loss to the Trojans, but the coaching staff has not shied away from criticism either. Immediately after the defeat, Graham claimed ASU had been “out-coached.”
On Tuesday, that message was echoed by others on the Sun Devils staff.
“It’s really this simple: when you lose a game, and you lose by the points that we did, you probably did [get out-coached],” co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Rob Likens said. “A lot of it is mental. A lot of people don’t understand the mental side of it, so I think that’s probably what coach (Graham) was referring to a little bit.”
ASU suffered from familiar woes against USC. Run defense was poor, downfield missed tackling led to an avalanche of big plays from the Trojans and ASU’s lackluster offense never clicked into a rhythm to match scores.
But an unexpected issue also flared up on Saturday: penalties.
Prior to the game, the Sun Devils had been third in the country in penalty yards against per game. But untimely and consequential flags turned ASU’s uphill battle into a sheer-cliff climb.
Graham wasn’t in much of a mood to discuss the increased infractions called on his usually-disciplined teams. He said penalties are the first thing the staff looks at on Sundays. They address the calls with their penalized player and move on. The strategy has worked most of Graham’s tenure in Tempe.
Likens pointed to the heightened emotions of the standings-shifting game as a factor to his team’s lapse of concentration.
“I think [our guys] got caught up and let their emotions dictate a little bit some things that we haven’t done in the past,” he said. “Those are the types of things as a coach that you look and you evaluate going, ‘Oh man. Should we have maybe not got them that hyped? Should we have done something different in the mental preparation?’”
But not all of ASU’s mistakes happened inside their Sparky-adorned helmets on Saturday night. There were plenty of physical mistakes by the Sun Devils that let USC’s offensive duo of quarterback Sam Darnold and running back Ronald Jones II go wild. Even the Trojans’ banged-up defense succeeded, smothering a Sun Devils’ offense that suffered its third straight sub-400-yard outing.
“When you go against a team like USC, they tackle better and they recover better,” Likens said. “Things that could have been open and holes that are open and routes that would are open, they close a lot faster against a team that has significant talent like that. I think that’s what you saw.”
Among the biggest trouble spots was the offensive line. Though solid in wins over Washington and Utah this month, the five up front reappeared as a deficient unit against USC. They looked eerily reminiscent to the group that provided little protection or push in this season’s non-conference slate or to the one that let Colorado – this week’s opponent – sack Manny Wilkins five times last year.
“[Being] able to run the ball with success, we did that the last couple games. This past game we struggled to run it, then had to throw it a little bit,” offensive line coach Rob Sale said. “When we drop back pass, we are not at our best. We have to stay out of those situations.”
Add that all up and it’s no surprise the Sun Devils mixed up personnel during the media viewing session of its practices this week.
Defensively, linebacker Khaylan Thomas and defensive lineman Shannon Forman saw snaps with the first-team on Tuesday, before George Lea slotted back in with the starters on Wednesday.
Along the offensive line, current starting right tackle Zach Robertson split reps with Quinn Bailey, the team’s week one starter as the right-side bookend.
The moves seem less motivated by panic, but made in an effort to reignite a spark that led to ASU’s impressively unexpected 3-1 start to conference play.
“I feel good about our football team. We are the same team that has beat two top 25 teams, one top five team,” Graham said during his Monday press conference. “We have great character on our team. I think pretty healthy for this time of the year, that helps us, even though we lost three starters earlier in the year. You have got to be healthy going into November, you have to have the right frame of mind. You have to bring it every week.”
According to wide receiver Ryan Newsome, the message from the coaching staff was simple during the team’s Sunday film sessions:
“Put it in the past. Bounce back.”
The Sun Devils have been here before. They followed a bumpy non-conference campaign with an upset win over then-ranked Oregon. After Stanford running back Bryce Love shredded the Sun Devil defense in week five, ASU won its next two games over Washington and Utah, stifling the Huskies’ and Utes’ ground games in the process.
“You find out what kind of team you are in these moments,” Newsome said. “[Those moments] have helped us in the long run. I feel like they will help us down the stretch.”
Graham feels the same way. He, like his team, may have been outclassed by USC last week. But there is still a month of football to go. A month to prove exactly what kind of team this year’s Sun Devil squad is.
“What will make teams be consistent: I personally believe it is their mental maturity, their mental mindset,” Graham said. “It has to do with your values. Life is the same way. If you don’t have focus in your life, you’re not grounded by what you believe and you’re not invested, you are going to give up pretty easily.”
