ASU Football: Taylor Kelly prepares to take back the starting job

(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)

With both bye weeks now in the books, the Arizona State football team realizes the increased importance of each individual practice.

Blessed with 13 days to recuperate from the USC contest and prepare for the powerhouse Stanford Cardinal, the Sun Devils now have a quick, six-day turnaround before they travel to Seattle to face Washington. Thus, while fundamentals and groundwork procedures were being hammered home during the off weeks, constant improvement will be the focus for the remainder of the season.

The improvement from Tuesday’s practice: Taylor Kelly shed the green, no-contact jersey in favor of a white one and took the majority of the reps with the first team offense.

“He looked good,” head coach Todd Graham said. “I think that we did the right thing not playing him. I thought he looked good today, moved around good. I haven’t talked to him so I’ll see how he felt, but everything looks fine. Obviously, both he and Mike took reps—I think Taylor took the majority of them.”

Gaining reps at practice and engaging in drills at full-speed with no limitations is of utmost importance to both Kelly and the coaching staff. In fact, it was not Kelly’s game time health that cost him an opportunity to register his first start since September 13. Rather, it was Kelly’s lack of practice participation and explosiveness in the week leading up to the Stanford contest that caused the coaching staff to give Mike Bercovici his third consecutive start.

“I just don’t feel comfortable if a guy can’t take the reps in practice,” Graham said. “You can’t play at this level and not take the reps in practice.”

Graham still noncommittal regarding the future role of Mike Bercovici

Graham has hounded the message home: Taylor Kelly will regain status as the Sun Devils’ starting quarterback once he is fully healthy. Yet in each of these many instances, he has proceeded to hint at the fact that Bercovici will have a larger role going forward.

“We have a lot of confidence in Mike,” Graham said. “I’m not telling you he’s not going to play because I think he will play. But I’ve won 21, 22 games with Taylor Kelly. And, at the end of the day, it’s my job to put the best player on the field who gives us the best chance to win a championship, and he’s the guy. I think Mike would also tell you that he respects that.”

Quantifying Bercovici’s actual role will be difficult to predict, and it is clear that even offensive coordinator Mike Norvell has not thought that far in advance.

“As we’re moving forward, I’m not worried about how Mike will respond when he takes the field. We look at the game plan and both of those guys are preparing to play every single snap because that’s what you have to do,” Norvell said. “Whether you’re the one or the two, you have to have that mental approach. My job is how we want to figure that together and how we’re going to mix and match that.”

Graham’s updated philosophy regarding his defense, specifically the defensive line:

“We’ve just been trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and we really don’t have a Devil(backer) that has the skills like Carl (Bradford) had. Carl could play a seven, a nine, a standup, blitz, inside backer, outside backer, and so I’m basically subbing to get that. If I’m going to sub to get it, why don’t I put a 6-6, 305-pound guy there that’s going to set the edge?” Graham said.

With that in mind, the first team defense on Tuesday appeared as follows:

Defensive Line: Marcus Hardison (End), Jaxon Hood (Nose Tackle), Mo Latu (Tiger), Demetrius Cherry (End)

Linebackers: Antonio Longino (WILL), Salamo Fiso (SAM), Laiu Moeakiola (SPUR)

Cornerbacks: Kweishi Brown (Boundary), Lloyd Carrington (Field)

Safeties: Jordan Simone (Bandit), Damarious Randall (Field)

 

Essentially, evolving his defensive formations with the talent he has, Graham has converted the Sun Devils defense from a highly-specialized 3-4 defense that adheres to the versatility of a Devilbacker, to a 4-3 defense that is somewhat straightforward.

Looks can be deceiving, however, as Graham’s in-game substitutions of Tashon Smallwood and Ami Latu reveal that his creativity still plays a heavy role in the scheme of his defense.

“We’re having to be a little more creative than that to create a pass rush,” Graham said. “I like the diversity between [Tashon] Smallwood and Mo [Latu] in their talents, they really complement each other. It’s the same complement between Ami [Latu] and Jaxon [Hood].”

 

Practice Notes

• Graham said that Bercovici’s play and development has made the Sun Devils better than they were before. Yet he also lauded the stability of his team for trusting in Taylor Kelly as their starting quarterback:“There’s nobody on our team that’s wondering who the quarterback’s going to be.”

• Since Antonio Longino has taken the WILL linebacker position and run with it, Graham addressed the subsequent role of former first-team WILL linebacker DJ Calhoun and backup Christian Sam: “The biggest thing, him (Calhoun) and Christian (Sam) both, is them learning what they’re doing, where they can be efficient and not be disruptive. I think DJ came off his best game against USC. DJ’s a guy that needs to be on the field, and Christian is too, but they have to learn what they’re doing. We can’t have the mental errors. How much they play is up to their progression.”

• The ASU coaching staff praised Stanford incessantly for its discipline, intelligence and fundamentally-sound execution in the weeks leading up to the contest. Yet in many ways, the Sun Devils were the more disciplined, intelligent and fundamentally sound team on Saturday night. Norvell commented on this: “I think it shows where we can go to. Those guys have done what we want to do. They’re back-to-back Pac-12 champs and that’s what we’re working towards. We’re going to continue to progress on and know that that’s the key. We have to play more disciplined, we have to be efficient, obviously have a toughness and physicality that we bring every play. It shows the signs that we’re pointing in the right direction.”

 

Follow Jacob Garcia on Twitter @Jake_M_Garcia or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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