Off week welcome break for Sun Devils
Arizona State isn’t particularly banged up at the moment. The ankle injury suffered by wide receiver Jaelen Strong’s in Saturday’s 5324 win over No. 20 Washington makes him the only key contributor on the injury report.
But, entering their off week before an Oct. 31 road date against Washington State, Sun Devils coach Todd Graham is looking to recuperate — mentally as much as physically.
“We’ve played a gauntlet,” Graham said. “We need to heal up and continue to get better. That’s the key. We’re going to have a chance in every game we play. We’re just going to take them one at a time.”
ASU is likely to reappear in the Associated Press rankings after its demolition of Washington and will have done so despite a grueling first half of its schedule.
Sure, there were a couple cupcake wins over Sacramento State and Colorado. But there was also a fourweek span in which the Sun Devils faced No. 25 Wisconsin, No. 13 Stanford, USC and Notre Dame. To reach the off week at 5-2 is no mean feat.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize this schedule we’ve played,” Graham said. “We’ve played two offensive lines (Washington and Stanford) as good as I’ve ever gone against. We have a very, very good football team.”
The final five games aren’t nearly as difficult. The next two games are on the road, where the Sun Devils have struggled, but Washington State and Utah are not Notre Dame and Stanford. ASU will face a strong Oregon State team, but that game is at Sun Devil Stadium, where the Sun Devils are 9-2 under Graham and 5-0 in 2013.
The biggest test will be a Nov. 23 road game against UCLA, which suffered its first loss of the season Saturday against Stanford. ASU then closes against unranked Arizona.
Of course, Graham isn’t looking that far.
“The next two games are on the road,” Graham said. “They’re huge.”
Graham has always said that the road map to winning the Pac-12 South is to beat every other team in the division. The Sun Devils are two-fifths of the way there with wins over USC and Colorado, and as owners of a 3-1 conference record, they are in the driver’s seat.
ASU was in a similar position last year, opening Pac-12 play with three wins. But the Sun Devils dropped four in a row to begin the back half of their schedule, the last of which knocked them out of division-title contention.
ASU might feel pretty good about itself right now, but the players know there’s no slacking off this year.
“We’ve just got to get better so we can prepare to win the whole South,” defensive end Gannon Conway said.
It’s an enviable position to be in. If they need a reminder of that, the Sun Devils just have to look to the opposing locker room, where the Huskies are dealing with their third consecutive conference loss.
“They were backed against the wall because obviously you go 0-3 in conference and you’re just about done,” Graham said. “We still control our own destiny, and I kind of like being able to control your own destiny.”