ASU football head coach Todd Graham: Winning Pac-12 the minimal expectation

TEMPE, Ariz. — Talk is cheap.

And there has been a lot of talk surrounding the Arizona State Sun Devil football team as it heads into 2015, the fourth year under head coach Todd Graham.

With 15 starters returning, including nine on defense, there are several reasons to be optimistic about a team that last season won 10 games, including a 36-31 victory over Duke in the Sun Bowl.

“What gives me confidence right now is I think we’re mentally mature enough right now to handle (the expectations),” Graham said Saturday at media day. “There’s not a program in the country that can compete for a national championship that doesn’t have the same problem. There’s not a team in the Pac-12 that can win the Pac-12 that doesn’t have to learn how to handle success. And the reality is everything that is being said right now doesn’t matter. The great thing, you get to play the games.

“But on the same hand, I tell people, we embrace the distractions that we have with the media. Are you kidding me? You’re the extension to the Sun Devil nation, to our fans.”

A year ago, ASU finished 12th in the AP poll, the highest ranking to end a season since 1996.

The writers’ preseason predictions for this year will be released Aug. 23.

The Coaches’ Poll is already out and ranked the Sun Devils 16th.

Meanwhile, media members who regularly cover the Pac-12 picked Graham’s club to finish second in the South Division with three choosing ASU to win the conference championship game, the third-most votes behind only USC (21) and Oregon (17).

“Our players understand that being the Pac-12 Champions is the minimal expectation; and that’s exactly the way I want it,” Graham said. “We haven’t won it yet. We’ve won the South and we’ve competed every year, but to me, how you win it is expecting to win it. I think our guys believed they could win up to until this point. I think there’s an expectation now.

“To get to where we want to go, we’ve got to take it to a different level, and that requires fuel, passion. You’re just never going to win a championship if your expectations aren’t that, so it’s fun. I like it.”

In just four more Saturdays, the Sun Devils open one of their more highly-anticipated seasons with a game against Texas A&M, an SEC opponent, in the 2015 Advocare Texas Kickoff.

It’s the first of 12 scheduled games, though Graham has his eyes on three more: the Pac-12 Championship game and College Football Playoff.

“The worst thing that we can do is stay the same, and man, that’s what so hard. What’s so hard about winning 10 (game) is — Coach (Tim) Cassidy was with me every day,” Graham said, referring to the senior associate athletic director of football, “he’ll tell you that I was miserable to win 10 games last year. So was everybody around here because our expectations were a lot higher than that and so was our potential.”

Graham doesn’t mean to dismiss last season nor diminish any of his accomplishments since arriving on campus; his 28 wins in his first three years as head coach are a school record.

“Well, that’s great,” he said, “but we want to win championships.”

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