(Photo via Joseph Plishka/WCSN)
Throughout the offseason, the most prominent theme for ASU Football has been change. With 43 new players and a new offensive coordinator, the new-look Sun Devils hoped to prove that the 2022 season would be chock full of improvement when they took the field against Northern Arizona Thursday night.
However, despite a multitude of unanswered questions about this ASU team, few fans were in attendance to see their questions answered firsthand.
And while the limited number of spectators had to wait to see if the changes paid off, once the Sun Devils settled in, it was clear that the new players had found their groove. The Sun Devils grooved all the way to a 40-3 blowout victory over NAU starting the season off on a high note.
“I kinda think everybody had that little feeling, so we were a little amped up a little antsy on our feet, but I feel like we definitely settled down,” redshirt junior quarterback Emory Jones said. “The whole team, honestly, just settled down and we came to play, and we executed.”
With the defense putting a quick stop to the Lumberjacks’ offense to start the game, the revamped offense stepped onto the field just 1:32 into the game.
Jones wasted no time getting the offense going, starting the drive with a 16-yard pass to redshirt junior receiver Andre Johnson. After a few short yardage plays, Jones again helped the Sun Devils pick up yardage in chunks with a 13-yard and a 19-yard pass, both to redshirt junior tight end Messiah Swinson.
“That’s why we brought him here,” head coach Herm Edwards said about Swinson. “He didn’t catch a lot of balls in the system he was in. I told him, ‘You’re going to catch balls. Now if we throw it to you, you’ve got to catch it,’ and he’s a big target…I’m glad we’re using tight ends in our offense. It’s fun to watch him because [he’s] hard to defend especially when we get him in certain formations.”
Despite good offensive production to move down the field, the Sun Devils stalled once they hit the red zone. Nonetheless, ASU was able to put the first points on the board with a 27-yard field goal by freshman kicker Carter Brown.
Defensively, ASU saw its fair share of opportunities with players like fifth-year linebacker Merlin Robertson and redshirt junior defensive end Anthonie Cooper making plays early on. Despite a pick 6 negated by an offsides penalty near the end of the first quarter, the Sun Devils’ defense looked solid, keeping NAU scoreless up until the final five seconds of the first half.
“I thought the front [seven] played pretty good,” Edwards said. “They got after the quarterback stopped the run. That’s what we needed to do…[The] linebackers played fairly well. The corners, that’s what I wanted to see. They didn’t give up any vertical balls…They were in good coverage. You know, you get two interceptions, that’s pretty good.”
With both sides of the ball performing well early on, it’s no wonder the Sun Devils finished the first half with a 21-point lead.
Following, a slow first quarter, ASU was finally able to punch one into the endzone in its third offensive drive. Once again the Sun Devils were able to pick up big pieces of yardage at a time with senior wide receiver Charles Hall IV, senior wide receiver Giovanni Sanders and redshirt sophomore wide receiver Elijhah Badger all executing plays that went for 15 yards or more in the series.
The touchdown was added on by Jones who, although came up short on the previous third down play, easily made his way into the endzone on fourth down for the one-yard score.
To round out the rest of the scoring for the half, graduate running back Xazavian Valladay found his way into the end zone on a four-yard run. Valladay’s elusive quickness was also key, on the following drive.
After an interception by redshirt fifth-year linebacker Kyle Soelle gave the Sun Devils a short field, Valladay made it even shorter with an impressive 28-yard run. Jones, once again, took ASU all the way, punctuating the drive with a 17-yard rush into the end zone.
“I told y’all there were some playmakers out there,” Jones said. “I mean I’ve been waiting for this moment to see those guys go out there and perform, and they did what they were supposed to do like they usually do every single day…X [Valladay], he’s just crazy dynamic. He can break out and go score at any time, so I’m just really excited…They put in all the work, and it’s showing.”
Despite being new to Pac-12 football, Jones, Valladay and Swinson stood out on the field with all three being amongst the top Sun Devils in offensive production.
Swinson and Valladay led receivers and rushers in yards respectively with the tight end hauling in three receptions for 50 yards and Valladay picking up 116 yards on the ground en route to two touchdowns after a bit of a slow start.
“I thought [Swinson] caught some balls for us. That was good to see,” Edwards said. “And the runners ran. I challenged them. I challenged the runners there, especially one. I told [Valladay], ‘In this eight-man box, no one blocks the eighth guy. You’ve got to make the guy miss.’ I think he got mad at me, which was good, and then he really started running.”
“I definitely got more in the tank,” Valladay said. “Just got some things to clean up. Got to go back these next couple of days and get in the film room, see what we did wrong and try to clean it up and come back better and stronger next week.”
Jones in his Sun Devil debut was 13-18 totaling 152 yards. His capabilities in the ground game helped substantially as well adding on an additional 48 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.
Jones’s success through the air and on the ground was aided by an offensive line that performed well despite missing pieces and some in-game changes. Even after redshirt junior Joey Ramos went down with an ankle injury in the last minute of the first half, ASU’s big guys up front managed to keep the Lumberjacks’ pass rush in check.
“We came in with a pretty good group of offensive linemen. Some guys have gotten nicked, but we’ll get some guys back next week, and I think their ability to play multiple positions has helped us. Coach [Cavanaugh] has done that…We had to do some shuffling, but I thought, for the most part, they did a good job.”
One of the biggest changes the Sun Devils hoped for was improved discipline and execution. Last season, ASU committed 13 penalties in the season opener on their way to being the third most penalized team in the FBS in terms of yardage. Thursday night, the Sun Devils improved upon that mark, with just four penalties accepted for a total of 35 yards.
“[The execution] wasn’t that bad,” Edwards said. “…Look, you’re going to get a foul or two. If you average four fouls, five fouls a game, you’re okay. You’re going to be pretty good during the season. You just don’t want them to be ones that really hurt you.”
With several new transfers showing out, ASU picked up its 23rd straight home opener victory, excluding the odd 2020 season, which didn’t allow the Sun Devils to play their first home game until December. Now that the Lumberjacks are out of the way, the Sun Devils look ahead to a more challenging matchup when they travel to Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys on September 10.
“I’m excited. I like real, big hostile games,” Jones said. “I feel like that’s when we all raise up to the occasion for that, but the game will be won next week. We’re just going to get in the lab, watch film and scheme up for those guys.”
