Pac-12 play, when the season ‘starts counting’ for ASU

TEMPE, Ariz. – It hasn’t always been easy. Head coach Todd Graham admitted as much.

It hasn’t always been pretty. Cue the tape of missed tackles.

Yet, here the Arizona State Sun Devils sit with a perfect record, having gone 3-0 through the nonconference portion of their 2016 schedule.

How they have achieved the mark certainly can be scrutinized, but aren’t those questions better answered, and hopefully corrected, following three consecutive wins? Of course, it is.

ASU is one of 37 Football Bowl Subdivision teams that are 3-0. That, however, is now in the past.

“We’re pleased to be 3-0. Now it all starts over,” Graham said during his weekly Monday press conference. “We kind of break the season up into nonconference and then obviously, you got nine conference games to see if you get to play a 10th one (the Pac-12 Championship Game).

“This is where it starts counting.”

ASU opens conference play at home Saturday night against Cal, a team that just upset No. 11 Texas, 50-43, to improve to 2-1.

For the Sun Devils to continue the roll that they’re on, Graham pointed to improvement in two areas: tackling and turnovers.

Let’s address the tackling to start.

“Especially in space,” Graham said. “A lot of that is just kind of controlling our energy and just really working on our fundamentals; our tracking type stuff.”

ASU has not tackled well thus far. Last Friday, they missed an alarming number of tackles against University of Texas at San Antonio.

As far as turnovers go, the Sun Devils have forced two. Their opponents, meanwhile, have taken the football away five times. Being minus-3 in turnover margin does not sit well with Graham, who preaches ball security, and has since Day 1.

“It’s our No. 1 focus right now and it’s been our No. 1 focus. We got to get takeaways,” he said. “That’s the big, big focus that we have to work on. The whole deal, when we talk about Sun Devil football, is you got to take care of the football.”

Defensively, each of the above problems should become better with a better roster.

ASU has been without several key players in the first three games:

— Senior linebacker Salamo Fiso, who had his name included on several preseason award watch lists, has yet to play this season due to a violation of team standards. His suspension ends this week, according to Graham.

— Junior linebacker Christian Sam has missed two straight games after suffering a foot injury in the season opener.

— Redshirt freshman George Lea did not play last week because of an ankle issue.

In addition, Graham indicated Monday, senior Laiu Moeakiola will remain at linebacker after starting the season at safety.

“It stabilizes us, I think,” he said. “We’re still talking about that. Obviously, he’ll do whatever we need him to do. Pretty good likelihood that’s probably what will happen.”

Offensively, the Sun Devils rank among the nation’s top teams by scoring 48 points per game (9th), averaging 260.7 rushing yards per game (16th) and rolling up 525.7 yards of total offense (17th). And no team is better than ASU inside the red zone, where they have scored in each of their 13 trips inside the 20-yard line, including 10 touchdowns.

It helps to have two of the more dynamic running backs in the country.

Junior Kalen Ballage’s nine touchdown runs is tops in the Pac-12, while junior Demario Richard is third-best at running the football, both in terms of total yards (282) and yards per game (94.0).

“Our attitude is great,” said Graham, who has ASU at 3-0 for the second time in three seasons. “I think our guys know, and they know what’s fixing to start. They know that every single game in this league is going to be a battle, and we got a heck of a team coming in here. One of the top offenses in the country, and our guys are going to get ready for the challenge.”

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