Freshman Demario Richard happy to be the ‘sixth man’ for Arizona State Sun Devils

TEMPE, Ariz. — A funny thing happened to Arizona State playing the Pac-12’s second-best run defense last Saturday.

The team rediscovered its rushing attack, a phase that had deserted them in the three games prior.

The Sun Devils went from averaging a combined 2.2 yards per attempt against USC, Stanford and Washington to 5.5 yards per attempt against Utah.

Even more surprising was the individual who was mainly responsible for the production.

It wasn’t junior D.J. Foster, who leads the team in rushing, and it wasn’t senior Taylor Kelly, who ranked second entering the game.

It was Demario Richard, a true freshman out of Palmdale, Calif.

“It was a fun game, obviously, but I was just happy to be on the field, playing, accomplishing goals and just being a Sun Devil,” he said, surrounded by reporters after practice on Tuesday.

Richard accounted for 116 of ASU’s 239 rushing yards in the 19-16 overtime victory.

It was ASU’s best output since a 223-yard showing at Colorado on Sept. 13.

“Demario had a tremendous performance; ran the ball extremely hard,” said offensive coordinator and deputy head coach Mike Norvell, who praised the efforts of the offensive line. “That was a good run defense that we went against and to have the success that we had was really impressive.”

With Richard’s breakout performance and the inability of Foster to recapture his early-season running success, it’s fair to ask if we might see more of Richard in the backfield and less of Foster.

Foster actually has more receiving yards (313) than rushing yards (191) in the past five games.

“Definitely,” Norvell said when asked if Foster may be used more as a receiver. “Demario, obviously Deantre Lewis, Kalen Ballage, you’re seeing all of them having really quality outings. As those guys continue to come in and perform that gives us a lot of flexibility in what we’re able to do.”

Richard is listed at 5-foot-10, 210 pounds — big enough to absorb the pounding, yet quick enough to avoid the big hits and stretch a short gain into a long gain.

His 6.7 yards per rush is tops on the team.

“My dad tells me all the time to just be patient,” he said. “I’ll be the James Harden of the team. I’ll be the sixth man. If they need me to come off the bench and spark the offense, I’ll do that. That’s fine.”

Against Utah, Richard needed only 14 carries to top the century mark, becoming the first ASU running back to do so since Foster’s run of three straight 100-yard games to open the season.

So, does Richard expect more reps, perhaps as soon as this week against eighth-ranked Notre Dame?

“You’ll have to ask my coaches that. I can’t call it,” he said. “I’m still, just like I said, coming off the bench, sparking the offense. If that’s what they need me to do, that’s what I’ll do. Come off the bench, spark the offense and keep the ball rolling so we can get in the end zone and score and win these games.”

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