(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Over the course of the last two years, Arizona State had been dragged down a spiraling path to mediocrity. A seven-win season in 2015. A sub-.500 five-win record last year. A 1-2 non-conference start to this fall’s campaign.
Over the course of the last two weeks, the Sun Devils have soared out of the abyss of irrelevancy and straight into the thick of the Pac-12 title race after upset wins over Washington and Utah.
How they’ve turned around an initially troubled season is a multifaceted answer. But the catalyst behind the Sun Devils’ recovery has a simple foundation.
“We’ve got a feel for each other,” said guard Steven Miller.
“I think the chemistry is a lot better than where it was,” echoed receiver Ryan Newsome.
After seven games this season, the Sun Devils claim to be a more cohesive group than they were back in August. It’s allowed them to unlock a winning capability, even against some of the conference’s best teams.
Coming into this season there was plenty of “new” for ASU to adjust to. New coordinators. New position coaches. New players in some key areas, especially on defense. The challenge for coach Todd Graham’s staff was finding a way to make all the new pieces of the puzzle fit together.
“You want your team to have personality and play the way it’s designed to be played,” he said.
“That’s what I think we’re doing a good job of. We’re evolving, we’re adapting. How you do that is you stay focused and you stay humble.”
When building this year’s team, Graham had some specific targets in mind he wanted his team to accomplish each week.
“Our formula for winning is 100 percent ball security, win the turnover ratio and then the big thing is snaps,” he said. “What impacts snaps is being able to play the game with a physicality, being able to run the ball, stop the run.”
Since the team’s bye week three weeks ago, the Sun Devils have checked all of those boxes.
In the last two games, ASU has a plus-three turnover ratio and has run 27 more snaps than its opponents. A once-failing run defense has kept its last two opponents to only 3.6 yards per carry combined. Tackling has improved, penetration into the backfield has been consistent and a young secondary has begun to find its way in coverage.
Even the losses of starting linebackers Koron Crump and Alani Latu to injury have been inconsequential. Time really has cured all – or most – ills.
“We’ve been through the hard times and I think it builds character and I think it builds toughness,” Graham said. “I think you get to a point where you realize what it takes sacrifice-wise to get there. These guys have done it. Behind the scenes I think there’s a lot of confidence building with our guys because we just kept our head down, just kept plugging, kept getting better and whether it be coaches, players, whatever and we got a good football team we’re confident in that.”
Graham has pointed out the potential of his team before. He raved in the preseason about the veteran presence in his starting lineup. He praised offensive coordinator Billy Napier as a “players-coach” on Monday, crediting his first-year hire with helping mold the offense into a yard- and clock-guzzling unit. Defensively, new coordinator Phil Bennett’s message is also starting to get through.
“Just between me and Phil, we have 70 years coaching defense,” Graham said. “If we just put our heads together and really adapt to our players and do this and stay true to what we know we should do, then eventually we just keep getting better.”
Graham’s vision for this team is finally starting to be realized, though he’s not ready to start patting himself on the back yet.
“I don’t think we have validated anything, I don’t think we have done anything,” he said. “We go win the next eight games then yeah, we have validated ourselves. I am not really thinking about that, I just love to compete and I’m having fun. It’s just a fun deal to be associated with, especially when you have been through kind of the muck.”
The way the Sun Devils have played in the last two games matched their personal expectations of themselves. This is exactly where they think they should have been all along.
“We know what we wanted to do, we knew what goals we had, we knew who we are,” Miller said. “The first few games, we didn’t really play to our potential, our expectations. We know what we need to do, we know how we need to go about every single day and we didn’t do that at the beginning of the season.”
Another ranked opponent will visit Sun Devil Stadium this Saturday, with No. 21 USC being the next team favored to end the Sun Devils return to relevancy. ASU has proved how good they can be and did so just in time to keep a division title hope alive; they know they need to prove they can stay this way the rest of the year.
“Moving forward that’s the key,” Graham said. “The key is continuity and keeping those things in place.”
Or as Miller put it, the next test is, “just handling our business.”
