(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
Video game numbers are no shock when Mike Leach and the Washington State Cougars (3-2, 0-2 Pac-12) visit town. Through five games this season, Leach’s offense has for the most part picked up where it left off last season – when the Cougars won 11 games behind Gardner Minshew II – scoring 44.8 points per game this season.
But as No. 18 Arizona State gets set for Saturday’s contest with WSU, the Devils do so with both teams coming off a bye week. While the Sun Devils come into play with a fine resumé – including two road wins over ranked opponents Michigan State and California – the Cougars visit Tempe after a 25-point loss to Pac-12 South preseason favorite Utah.
“We’re a very soft team,” Leach told reporters following WSU’s 38-13 loss at Utah. “We get a lot of good press. We like to read it a lot. We like to pat ourselves on the back, and if we get any resistance, we fold.
“Last year’s team was a tough team for us. We have nearly the same guys and all of a sudden, they’re not tough. They’re fat, dumb and happy and entitled.”
Leach isn’t the only one calling out his players. During Wednesday’s availability with the media, Arizona State defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said his defense can’t allow the media to dictate how they play.
“I talk about it all the time,” Gonzales said. “I hate when you guys write good stuff about our guys. Because then they believe it. They believed it before the Colorado game and then look, we go out there and lay an egg. If we want to be who we want to be, get used to it.”
After falling out of the Associated Press poll following a 34-31 loss to Colorado, the Sun Devils have already done something they failed to do in 2018. Return to the AP Top 25 for the second time in a season. Still, head coach Herm Edwards and the Sun Devils have failed to win as a ranked team despite wins over four ranked opponents in Edwards two years at the helm.
With an offense that averages over 44 points and 540 yards per game, the Sun Devil defense will have its hands full this week. After losing Gardner Minshew to the NFL, the Cougars offensive attack is led by senior quarterback Anthony Gordon.
In just five games, Gordon has thrown for 2,146 yards and 22 touchdowns, including a nine-touchdown performance in Washington State’s 67-63 loss to UCLA Sept. 21. Gordon is flanked in the backfield by dual-threat sophomore running back Max Borghi, who has accounted for 376 yards on the ground to go along with 22 receptions for 239 yards receiving.
“If we can get pressure, we can cover them,” said Gonzales, whose defense has managed two sacks per game. “You can’t cover anybody for six seconds. If the quarterback stands back there and has all day, they’re going to pick you apart.”
For Edwards, accepting that the Cougars will move the ball is key.
“I don’t know if you keep them under control,” Edwards told the media on Monday. “They’re going to move the ball. You can’t worry about yards.”
Coming out of its bye week, Arizona State is averaging 22 points per game, a mark Edwards said he’d like to improve upon during the back half of the season. The Sun Devil offense will face a Cougar defense that is without former defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys after he resigned following WSU’s loss to Utah.
“They will come in here and be at their best,” Edwards said. “We better be prepared for that when we play them.”
In the last matchup between ASU and WSU, the Sun Devils fell, 37-32, in 2016. On Saturday, the Sun Devils and Cougars matchup will kick off at 12:30 p.m. Since 2012, Arizona State has won nine straight games at Sun Devil Stadium in which kickoff was before 4 p.m.
“It’s going to be 90 degrees on Saturday,” Gonzales said. “I hope [Washington State] feels like they’ve walked into hell and I hope our boys come out tenacious and we’re violent and nasty and they limp out of this place because we whooped them.”
