Home games may determine whether ASU’s season is mediocre or good
Oct 18, 2016, 6:19 PM
Arizona State's Armand Perry (13) and Maurice Chandler (8) celebrate a safety against Texas Tech as Texas Tech's Baylen Brown (65) and Justin Murphy (73) walk off the field during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State has been a poor road team this season but it is undefeated at Sun Devil Stadium. If the Devils are to exceed expectations this season with such a young team, that trend must continue.
“You have to be undefeated at home to have a chance,” coach Todd Graham said Tuesday. “We’re 4-0 right now. So far, so good. It’s something we take a great deal of pride in.”
In Graham’s four and a half seasons in Tempe, the Sun Devils are 25-6 at home and have averaged 41.1 points per game compared to a 14-15 record combined on the road, in neutral site games and bowl games. The latter stat will have to change if the Sun Devils ever hope to compete for a Pac-12 title or a national championship, but the former record is critical in the short-term, i.e. this season.
Not much was expected of ASU (5-2) with a new, redshirt sophomore quarterback, four new starters on the offensive line, a rebuilt secondary and five new assistant coaches. While ASU struggled to beat Texas San Antonio, 32-28 on the road, and then got blown out at USC (41-20) and Colorado (40-16), the Sun Devils have defeated Northern Arizona (44-13), Texas Tech (68-55), Cal (51-41) and UCLA (23-20) at Sun Devil Stadium.
Eight wins would be a remarkable accomplishment for such a young team — and far more than anybody predicted when the media preseason poll tabbed ASU to finish fifth in the Pac-12 South.
To get to eight wins, ASU may have to beat two quality opponents at home in Washington State (fourth among teams receiving votes outside the AP Top 25) and No. 19 Utah, then find a way to get at least one road win at Oregon, Washington or Arizona. The Huskies are the nation’s No. 5 team so that seems unlikely, but the other parts of the path seem doable.
“We can still reach our goals,” linebacker/safety Laiu Moeakiola said, “We’re just going to attack every day.”
On the flip side, the Devils have never gone unbeaten at home under Graham. They went 7-0 in the 2013 regular season, but lost the Pac-12 title game to Stanford at Sun Devil Stadium. In 2014, they went 5-1 at home, falling to UCLA, 62-27, which was the worst loss in Graham’s Tempe tenure.
They are two wins away from achieving a perfect home record this season and QB Manny Wilkins noted how resilient this bunch has been after losses or poor efforts, like last week’s loss in Boulder. After UTSA, ASU turned in its best offensive performance against Texas Tech. After the USC loss, ASU turned in its best defensive effort in a win over UCLA.
“I really think it’s just our mindset,” Wilkins said. “There’s a lot of things that could go wrong where a team could just fall and kind of just break down and not want to bounce back from it and say, ‘Oh, because we lost this game our season is over.’
“We don’t think like that.”
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