ASU Football: Sun Devils beginning to find identity after upset win

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

After its week two loss to San Diego State earlier this season, Arizona State coach Todd Graham bemoaned his team’s lack of identity. The Sun Devils couldn’t stop the run. Or consistently move the ball. Or play a clean game on special teams.

“We’re just not doing a very good job executing,” Graham said after the September 9 defeat. “We need to go to work, get better and find what our identity is.”

In last Saturday’s 13-7 win against No. 5 Washington, everything about ASU was different.

The Sun Devils are starting to figure out who they are.

“Last Saturday was awesome,” Graham said Tuesday, referring to his team’s upset of the previously unbeaten Huskies.

“Especially the way our guys prepared and the way we executed the plan.”

The biggest change for the Sun Devils has come on defense, where a rollercoaster unit came up with its best performance of the season to limit the high-powered Huskies to only one touchdown.

Graham is a defense-first coach. Yet, under his tutelage, ASU has regressed each year of his tenure, slipping from the No. 27 nationally ranked defense in 2012 – Graham’s first year – to the second worst unit in the nation last year. Early in this season, ASU was gashed by opposing running back and was averaging 190 rushing yards against per game in its first five contests.

That changed last Saturday.

Against a Huskies rushing game that registered at least 160 yards four times in its first six games, the Sun Devils retooled defensive line dominated. AJ Latu moved from the interior of the line to the edge, allowing Renell Wren and George Lea to tag teamed at defensive tackle. It led to what Graham called one of the best single defensive performances of his ASU career.

“We showed blitz and then we would rush three and then we sometimes would rush a different three. It was masterful,” Graham said Saturday night. “Coach [Phil] Bennett and the staff did a great job and made great adjustments. We had 42 plays in the first half on offense. That was exactly our plan. They ran 20.”

On Tuesday, three days after the upset, an optimistic Graham wasn’t ready to declare his team fully developed. With a 3-3 record, there is still plenty of room left to grow even after the Top 5 upset.

“We are not anywhere close to where we need to be to accomplish our goals,” he said.

As of right now, achieving those goals – specifically a Pac-12 Title – is still a lofty target. But, aside from a few fatal missed tackles at Stanford two weeks ago, he has seen his team improve week-by-week since the setback against SDSU.

“I think one of the turnings points was the second half of the [Texas] Tech game,” Graham said.

“We really started finding our identity in the first conference game (a 37-35 win over Oregon) and then it’s evolved and we are playing our best football right now.”

Offensively, ASU bounced back last week after a sloppy performance against the Cardinal. Though they scored just 13 points on Washington, the Sun Devils orchestrated three drives of 11-plus plays, wearing down the Huskies defense and controlling the clock. ASU won the time of possession battle

“I think we are doing a really good job of managing the football game,” quarterback Manny Wilkins said. “That starts with defense getting off the field, then with us running the ball and getting first downs. Then their offense is like, ‘Damn, when are we going to get back on the field again,’ and then they are antsy and their defense begins to get tired.

“On the first drive, they were subbing their two (defensive) linemen in, like they are gassed already. That’s when I knew; I came on the sideline after the first drive and said, ‘They don’t want to be here.’”

Even the oft-maligned special teams unit came up aces, blocking a punt and tacking on two field goals. Washington on the other missed two kicks of less than 30 yards.

Despite being an 18-point underdog, the Sun Devils pieced together a well-executed puzzle. After two inconsistent seasons, ASU looked like a team capable of being a legitimate Pac-12 contender, dominating the conference’s last unbeaten team from start to finish.

“We won. Our guys wanted it and we outplayed [Washington],” Graham said. “I’m not being arrogant by that. I’m just saying that is a fact.”

The Sun Devils had shown glimpses of their potential earlier this season. They knocked off No. 24 Oregon and mounted a second half comeback against Texas Tech. But flaws still permeated through those bright spots. There were issues on the offensive line and in an inexperienced secondary. It took the team time to adjust to new coordinators on both sides of the ball as well.

“You can’t totally change the system, but with new (coaches) it’s a challenge,” Graham said. “We were just sluggish. I knew we had the potential to have a good team. We were trying to, but we weren’t adapting to our players the way we needed to.”

But at the season’s halfway mark, things seem to be clicking into gear. It isn’t surprising anyone inside the locker room.

“We expected to win this game,” linebacker J’Marcus Rhodes said after Saturday’s win. “It’s not a shock to us. This game is what’s going to turn the ship around.”

The next challenge for ASU will be winning a road game. A trip to Utah looms this weekend, providing a chance for an impressive encore to last Saturday’s unexpected triumph. The school has yet to win a road game this year and has lost 12 straight conference games away from home dating back to 2015.

But Graham isn’t looking at years past anymore. He said he is only focusing on this season’s road woes – first half struggles at Texas Tech and poor tackling at Stanford – as the problems that need fixing. Those areas looked much sharper in their most recent win.

What happened in the last two seasons isn’t weighing down his program anymore. This year’s team is starting to find its identity. It laid out a reliable formula for success this past week that hinted at how could the team can become.

As junior receiver Jalen Harvey put it: “Every other team might say, ‘Look at our record. We are just going to play for a bowl game.’ No. We are still fighting for a Pac-12 Championship. That’s how we are looking at things.”