(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Marquee matchups will dot the college football landscape this weekend.
Top five ranked powers Alabama and Florida State meet in Atlanta. Traditional programs Michigan and Florida face off in North Texas. Ex-ACC foes West Virginia and Virginia Tech renew their rivalry in the nation’s capital.
Arizona State’s opening night contest against the New Mexico State Aggies is just the opposite of those games. Instead, the annual tune up against a small conference foe is slated, again, as their week one opposition.
Though Thursday night’s matchup will lack the flare of other openers around the country, it might be just the start a new-look Sun Devil team needs to settle into a long season.
“It’s a good game for us, with the new coaching staff. I feel like we need this kind of game so we can see where we are at,” senior defensive lineman Alani Latu said. “We will see it like a tune-up game, but we still need to take this game just like we are playing Texas A&M, Notre Dame.”
Offensively, new coordinator Billy Napier will be one of five coaches on ASU’s staff to be making their school debut on Thursday. While he said he enjoys the experience of the headline season opener—Napier coached in plenty during his tenure with Alabama—he also sees the Aggies as a perfect opponent for this year’s squad to begin with.
“With this team, in our current situation, (New Mexico State) played Kentucky to a barn-burner last year, so they have our respect,” he said. “We know that they are capable. For us, we really need to take a step forward in terms of our process and how we prepare. That’s our focus. You’ve got to go one week at a time, and I know that sounds cliché but it’s so true. You start over every week, and you restart your process.”
Head coach Todd Graham said that while he likes the toughness required to play big-time, neutral site openers, such as the school’s 2015 kick-off against Texas A&M, that’s not his concern this week. In facing NMSU, his focus will be less on the quality of the opponent, and more on the quality of his team’s play.
“It’s all about us. You watch these games every first (week) of the year and it’s all about teams not really beating other teams, but teams beating themselves,” he said. “There’s pros and cons. If you have a young team, I like to start off with a little bit easier opener and maybe have a more difficult game in week three. But all games are difficult, there aren’t any that are going to be easy for us.”
Last year, ASU came close to beating themselves on opening night against Northern Arizona. Two Sun Devil turnovers and more than 350 conceded passing yards meant NAU was only down four points midway through the third quarter. Though ASU pulled away late that night, this year’s team is banking on its leaders to kick the season off with a much smoother start.
“The whole deal is being prepared, making sure you don’t have any surprises,” Graham said. “The most important thing is to focus on us. We are a veteran team; we’ve got some newcomers in spots, but we are for the most part a veteran team, and I can tell that right now by how they are preparing.”
Latu is one of those veterans who is leading the preparations for Thursday. In his fifth and final year in the program, he has seen his share of opening nights at Sun Devil Stadium. Now, he is making sure his younger teammates will be ready for their first tastes of top-level college football.
“Just trying to get everybody hyped up. Everybody is excited and you can tell now everybody is more focused now and dialed in,” he said. “Now that I’m a senior I’m just trying to take the role of being a leader out there on the field, just trying to do what the coaches ask me to do.”
Latu sees the raw talent his less experienced teammates bring to the table. But he has also watched them get a little too caught up with the specifics of the game during preseason camp. With real football on the horizon, he has one piece of advice he hopes to get through to them.
“You can tell in practice (the young guys) are still learning little things,” he said. “I’m telling them most of the time, just go out there and play. They brought you here for a reason.
“They think about things too much, and (worry about) ‘I got to do this right, I got to do this.’ (I tell them) just do the first two steps right and just go. Chase the ball.”
Even if NMSU doesn’t provide the most pomp and circumstance for opening night, it still signals the end of a tedious training camp, and the chance to make plays that matter for the first time since last November.
Latu could sense the difference in his team’s demeanor this week, saying Thursday night’s game has taken the Sun Devils’ intensity to new a level, one befitting of the start of the year.
“When it’s game week, it’s a whole different atmosphere out there.”
