Demario Richard: A great week of practice contributed to ASU’s success at UCLA
Oct 8, 2015, 7:03 AM | Updated: 9:29 am
Arizona State running back Demario Richard (4) runs past the New Mexico bench for a 93 yard touchdown during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Friday, Sept. 18, 2015, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
(AP Photo/Matt York)
When a team loses 42-14 at home to the No. 19 team in the country, then defeats the No. 7 team on the road the following week, there are going to be a lot of questions.
Arizona State running back Demario Richard answered some of those questions Wednesday on the Burns and Gambo show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. Namely, what changed in the days between that crushing defeat and possible season-changing upset?
“We just knew what we were capable of doing,” the 5-foot-10, 220-pound Richard said. “Being coachable, trusting in our teammates and that’s what we did. That week of practice was a great week of practice, an elite week of practice as Coach Graham would say, before UCLA and that got us a W.”
Richard, who has 508 yards and four touchdowns this season, said that the team chose to look inward after the loss to the USC Trojans in Tempe.
“We’re not worrying about anybody else, we’re just worrying about us,” he said. “We knew we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds against SC but you know we just stayed true to ourselves. We knew what we really could do. We knew who we really were and we stayed true to ourselves and stayed motivated and we had to come up with a must-win against UCLA and that’s exactly what we did.”
While Richard feels every practice is important to the Sun Devils, that first practice after the loss really set the tone for the week to come.
“We knew what we had done the week before that,” Richard said. “We knew we had to come in with our toolboxes and hard hats, come in ready to work. Once we got through that first day of practice and I saw how crisp our offense and defense were working, I knew it was going to be a great game in Pasadena.”
With what he’s seen from his teammates and coaches at practice and at UCLA, Richard has high aspirations for what his team can to when all the switches are on.
“We stayed disciplined to ourselves and were coachable and didn’t operate out of our system. Once we operate inside our system, I think we could be one of the best teams in the nation.”
