(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Arizona State football returned to the practice field and the podium on Tuesday, coming of its 34-24 loss to Stanford. This week will be the Sun Devils’ only off week of the regular season and the team touched on a few of the areas it will focus on will its temporary free time.
FUNDAMENTALLY DISCIPLNED
Days removed from last week’s loss at Stanford, coach Todd Graham made clear his team will be focused on being more “fundamentally disciplined” as it heads into the back half of its schedule.
The biggest area for improvement:
“Missed tackles,” Graham said.
ASU had a couple key ones in allowing Cardinal running back Bryce Love to devour over 300 yards last Saturday. Safety Chad Adams twice missed last ditch efforts trying to prevent two of Love’s three touchdowns; Demonte King and Abraham Thompson both let Love slip through their arms on a single play. Nobody on the Sun Devils defense came away blameless.
“It was five big plays. But you don’t get to take those out,” Graham said, specifically highlighting Love’s five 30-plus-yard carries against his defense. “There are things we could have done. You have got to go get him. We talked about rugby tackling, not breaking down and giving him space.”
Graham also noted that he wants his defense to produce more takeaways. Linebacker J’Marcus Rhodes made a one-man effort to force and recover a fumble in the first quarter against the Cardinal, but the Sun Devils still lost the turnover battle thanks to quarterback Manny Wilkins’ first two interceptions of the year.
“Eliminating the big play. Getting takeaways. That’s been a big focus on our defense in practice,” Graham said.
ASU’s sixth-year head coach thought his team played well enough to win if not for a handful of plays that undid the squad’s otherwise scrapy effort.
“They got cheap touchdowns, one play touchdowns,” he said. “We didn’t.”
GETTING HEALTHY
The Sun Devils already began the off week with recovery in mind. During this week’s set of practices, ASU veterans will be put through shorter sessions than the normal game-week preparations.
Few will benefit more from the rest than Wilkins. The redshirt junior has been impressive in the season’s first five games, despite facing abundant pressure and consistent hits.
Twenty-two times already this season Wilkins has been dragged down for a sack. That’s 4.4 sack per game – the 3rd worst rate in the country. The cumulative beating finally showed last Saturday, when Wilkins suffered an apparent left foot injury in the third quarter.
“(A Stanford player) just rolled me up a little bit; felt awkward,” Wilkins said after the game. “I’m all good. Nothing but a little bit of, just run it off and stuff.”
Injuries derailed the quarterback’s promising start to the 2016 season and played a big role in the school’s six-game losing streak to end the campaign. When pressed on Tuesday about how this issue might impact him this year, Wilkins was quick to kill the notion he is in any sort of long-term trouble.
“I felt completely fine. You are going to have nicks here and there that are going to ail you and ache you,” he said. “If I wasn’t able to play to the level that I need to perform at to win football games, then I would let the staff know I wasn’t the man to be on the field. But I 100 percent thought I could do everything. I still think I made the right decision.”
In addition to Wilkins, Graham said he wanted to get players like Evan Fields, Dasmond Tautalatasi and John Humphrey back to health as well. Humphrey in particular would be a boon to a passing offense that gained just 180 yards last week in Palo Alto.
While that trio could be ready to return to action in two weeks against No. 6 Washington, Graham confirmed last Saturday that defensive starters Koron Crump and Joey Bryant will both miss the remainder of the season with knee injuries.
HARRY DOING IT ALL
ASU sophomore receiver N’Keal Harry blistering start to the season received an extra boost last week when he threw his first career touchdown pass thanks a trick play against Stanford.
Harry admitted he was “a little bit” surprised by how well executed the play was, which saw him switch places with Wilkins in the backfield, take a direct snap, fake a rush and then deliver a 14-yard throw to tight end Ceejhay French-Love.
“The coaches do a great job all week getting us prepared for that,” Harry said. “It just worked out perfectly in the game.”
Harry said he had no doubt he could handle the wrinkled call when offensive coordinator Billy Napier presented it to him leading up to last week’s game. In just his second year, Harry has grown to be able to handle most things thrown at him, the least of which being a football.
“I want to be a guy that is real versatile, and somebody who can do whatever a coach wants me to do,” he said. “Whether it is special teams, playing running back out of the Sparky package, or just anything. I want to be that guy they can depend on to put in any situation and be able to handle it very well.”
In addition to the scoring toss, Harry had three carries and three catches for 57 total yards. He didn’t compile as many yards as past weeks, but the receiver’s multi-dimension abilities were on full display at Stanford.
His newfound responsibilities are helping grow his role on the team and his own personal affection for football.
“I’m really enjoying playing,” Harry said, showing off his ever-present grin. “These coaches have done a great job with helping me have fun with the game I really love to play.”
