Arizona State Sun Devils ‘just keep coming’ at defenses with running game

TEMPE, Ariz. — Running the football is paramount.

It doesn’t guarantee success, of course, but it does greatly contribute to it.

Through the season’s first three games, only Oregon has averaged more rushing yards per game than the Arizona State Sun Devils among Pac-12 teams.

Nationally, ASU’s ground game ranks 16^th.

“I told you all it was only a matter of time before you all get to see everything we’re doing,” junior running back Demario Richard said Wednesday. “Of course I’m happy with it. We’re winning games. We’re 3-0.”

In each of their three victories, the Sun Devils have topped 200 rushing yards, with a high of 309 against Texas Tech. Overall, they are averaging 260.7 yards on the ground.

Only once in Todd Graham’s previous four years has ASU finished a season with better than 200 rushing yards per game.

It’s early, yes, but thus far, the running game has been the strength of the Sun Devils’ offense. And that was to be expected with the returning Richard and Kalen Ballage, also a junior.

The only question heading into the season was whether or not the offensive line, with four new starters, would be able to provide the pair adequate running lanes. The answer has been an emphatic yes.

“A lot of people haven’t seen the offensive line, but as you guys start to see, they’re working, they’re moving, they’re moving people, they’re blocking, they’re running out on screens,” Richard said, referring to left tackle Evan Goodman, left guard Sam Jones, center A.J. McCollum, right guard Stephon McCray and right tackle Quinn Bailey.

“It’s a young and it’s an athletic offensive line.”

ASU has so much confidence in its ground game right now that offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey called 11 straight running plays despite trailing by two scores midway through the third quarter against University of Texas at San Antonio last Friday.

And that was even with an extra defender or two, at times, crowding the line of scrimmage.

“Obviously, when you look at our team and what we have coming back I think the running backs stick out,” Lindsey said. “We’ve got enough wideouts to make plays so I’m still confident in our guys making plays down the field and we just got to continue to work and do that.”

At this point, because of their success running the football, Ballage expects more teams, like Cal on Saturday, to load the box in an attempt to make the Sun Devils one dimensional.

“I’m not really worried about it. Honestly, they can do what they want,” he said. “You load the box and that means we have something else; maybe somebody over the top or something in the middle.”

Added Richard, “We know that coming up people are going to have to start loading the box against us. You’re still going to have to stop us no matter what.”

Richard leads ASU with 287 rushing yards. Ballage is not that far behind with 255. And don’t sleep on quarterback Manny Wilkins who has 191, 89 of which came in the season opener.

Richard and Ballage form a dynamic 1-2 punch that just wears defenses down, according to Richard.

“We break defenses down,” he said. “Once you get a bulk of me, you’ve got to go get a bulk of him, too.”

Richard is listed at 5-foot-10 and 219 pounds. Ballage checks in at 6-foot-2 and 227 pounds. Together, they compliment one another very well with Richard preferring to run between the tackles — “I feed off physicality,” he said — and Ballage able to turn any run into a long run thanks to his breakaway speed.

“It’s just being able to have a fresh running back at all times,” Ballage said. “He goes in there and he gets four or five carries and then they pop him out. I haven’t gotten any carries yet and they put me in and I’m fresh. We just rotate back-and-forth to the point where we just keep coming at the defense and I know they have to be thinking like, ‘Geez, this is kind of ridiculous, running backs coming in with fresh legs every time.’ That helps us out a lot.”

Look for the Sun Devils to highlight their rushing attack even more this week.

Stopping the run is a weakness of Cal. They are the worst team in the Pac-12 and third-worst in the nation against the run, allowing nearly 300 yards a game.

“We just getting started I feel like,” Richard said. “We’ve still got a lot more football ahead of us. We’ve got a lot more stuff we still can run that we haven’t shown. We’re just getting started. We’re just showing what we can do. Obviously, we know that me and Kalen and Nick Ralston and Manny can do a lot of stuff with the ball in our hand.”

Follow Craig Grialou on Twitter

Related

Graham Rossini says there was ‘no London hangover’ in ASU’s blowout loss to BaylorCardinals-Lions opposing coaches Nick Rallis, Drew Petzing have ‘a lot of familiarity’‘It was a disaster’: Sean Miller reflects on his viral sweaty shirt moment from 2016Dan Campbell says former Sun Devil Keith Abney will play more against CardinalsCardinals-Lions Week 5 injury report: Jeremiyah Love good to go, Walter Nolen III questionableDiamondbacks bringing back hitting coach Joe Mather