BEHIND THE PAC
Edwards knows he must catch up to Pac-12 veterans
Arizona State's Herm Edwards acknowledges he's at a disadvantage going into the meat of the Pac-12 season coaching against those with longer tenure at their schools.
On Saturday, it's Mike MacIntyre, now in his sixth year at Colorado. After that, Edwards will be matching up against Stanford's David Shaw (eighth year), USC's Clay Helton (fourth) and Utah's Kyle Whittingham (14th) before he hits another first-year coach in UCLA's Chip Kelly, who was at Oregon from 2009-12 before taking a shot at the NFL.
"I'm just learning this. It's my first run through the conference," Edwards said Monday. "But I'm a pretty quick study. I'll do my homework when the season is over and know more about the conference and the players and the coaches and as far as recruiting. I'm learning something every time I play a game. It's how you process information.
"When you know other people's personnel and have played against them, that's a big factor. You kind of know who they are. It's like in the NFL. We're playing Buffalo, here's what they do, how are we going to attack them?"
But there's a certain advantage in the unknown, too, although after five games ASU (3-2, 1-1 Pac-12) is pretty much a known commodity now.
"What are they?" Edwards said opponents are asking. "Are they this run team now, what are they on
defense? When you're the new coach, you're trying to learn them, but they're also trying to learn you. When the game starts, how does he coach the game? Coach MacIntyre like to go fast once in a while. What are we going to do to stop that? You don't know until you play them then you get a pretty good feel and you learn."
Edwards continues to emphasize that ASU's offense is run-first as it has shown the past two weeks and that it's his job to keep offensive coordinator Rob Likens from overthinking and trying to do too much.
"Most coordinators want to score," Edwards said. "You worry about college games because you feel like you can't score enough.
"But how do you win games? That seems more important to me than anything. That's all I care about. If you have to throw it 50 times then throw it 50 times if they allow you to do it. But I do know this. If you can run the ball, you flat control the game because the other team has to sit there and wait until you give them the ball back. It puts the burden on them."
ASU had 396 yards rushing last week against Oregon State including Eno Benjamin's school-record 312. On Sept. 22, the Sun Devils had 164 rushing and just 104 passing vs. No. 11 Washington.
"I just like running, it's fun to watch," Edwards said. "Some people don't like it because it's boring. They want to see the ball fly in the air. It doesn't take a whole lot to turn around and give it to the guy. It's really hard to mess that one up. And the ball's not heavy so the guy can carry it, and if we can block them then the guy is going to run and everything else opens up."
Benjamin honors
Benjamin was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week and Rose Bowl Game Pac-12 Player of the Week on Monday for his history-making performance.
His 312 rushing yards were eighthmost in Pac-12 history and best in major college football this season. He had 10 double-digit carries out of 30 total against Oregon State and 27 yards receiving for 339 all-purpose yards, second-best in school history behind 350 by J.R. Redmond in 1998.
"It was magnificent," Edwards said. "When you watched the tape, he did a great job of making yards once he was hit. Everything wasn't clean, but he made yards after contact and that's what good backs do. He had tremendous balance. He just ran at a different level. The offensive line blocked well. They had the whole thing going."
French-Love to redshirt
Edwards said senior tight end Ceejhay French-Love is going to redshirt but offered no details as to why.
French-Love played in the first four games, the maximum allowed to still redshirt, but not against Oregon State. He started seven games in 2017, his first at ASU out of junior college.
Tommy Hudson is the starting tight end although French-Love made a start against San Diego State. Other tight ends include Jared Bubak, Jarick Caldwell and Curtis Hodges, who was recently moved to the position from wide receiver.
– ASU was without three starters last week – offensive lineman Casey Tucker (ankle), linebacker Jay Jay Wilson (ankle) and safety Dasmond Tautalatasi (knee) – due to injury. All have a chance to play at Colorado, Edwards said.
– Edwards said he won't talk to his team about the difficulty playing at altitude in Boulder. "Just go play football," he said. "Nothing different. I played up there numerous times, it never was an issue. Everybody else makes it an issue. Camp Tontozona is pretty elevated. We're going to be play the (No. 22) Buffaloes, they're 4-0 (for the first time since 1998)."