After the season’s first three games, the Washington State Cougars were sitting at No. 19 in the AP Poll, an unblemished 3-0 record after dominating a pair of “warm-up” games at home and defeating Houston 31-24- a nationally televised, Friday night “neutral-site” game played at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, home of the Texans.
Fast forward about another three weeks and the Cougars (3-2, 0-2 Pac-12) find themselves a disaster, needing to play in desperation mode Saturday afternoon after consecutive losses to UCLA, a game in which they blew a 32-point lead, and at Utah- falling 38-13- to open conference play. If they want to retain any chance of winning a competitive Pac-12 North, they need to win Saturday afternoon, and that is only one of the reasons why the No. 18 Sun Devils (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) have their work cut out for them in week seven, hosting another opponent coming off a bye.
Here are some of the key things true freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels and senior starting center Cohl Cabral discussed ASU’s upcoming opponent, plus some special teams comments in the wake of the news about junior kicker Brandon Ruiz transferring, as he plans to redshirt this season then use his two remaining years of eligibility following his graduation at another school.
Daniels looks forward to the challenge of continuing to improve against Cougars, possibly having to win a high-scoring affair
Daniels has as much belief in himself and his team as you could probably find anywhere in the nation right now for a true freshman quarterback. Yet, he projects a humble, even-keeled demeanor about how the offense must continue to get better- starting with himself- ahead of a potential shootout (think Colorado game on steroids) against Washington State’s notorious air-raid offense.
“We need to be more efficient on third downs, give the defense a little longer break once they get a stop and get off the field,” Daniels commented. “Really, just keep playing our game. Complete a couple of deeper shots, connect on those big plays, and then just getting the running game going again. But the big thing that I want as an offense- that we want to focus on is being more efficient on third down.”
He added that ASU knows it must prepare for having to score a lot of points to get their best possible result out of this game, and that you want to stay even or ahead of them because playing catch-up is a dangerous thing to do against such a potent offense.
However, Daniels believes if he can hit more downfield plays, and take advantage of some of the Cougars weaknesses, the Sun Devils will be able to go toe-for-toe with their offense on Saturday.
“We could hit a lot of big plays, and get the guys in space a lot,” Daniels said about where he believes he can take advantage of WSU’s defense. “I mean, we just got to complete them and execute as an offense.”
There were several occasions at Cal when Daniels missed receivers streaking wide open down the field, or simply just missed tough throws that could’ve gone for good yardage. However, if the true freshman uses the bye week as a stepping stone for Saturday’s game, this could be his chance to break out as a passer.
Cabral notes the challenges Washington State presents to their offense, how own unit has and must continue to get better
The Cougars may have had their struggles this season on defense, currently ranking third-to-last in the Pac-12 in scoring defense (30.6 points per game allowed), and second from the bottom in rushing defense (178.6 yards per game). This probably helps explain the sudden resignation of their defensive coordinator, Tracy Claeys, just a week before Saturday afternoon’s showdown.
But one lesson Cabral has learned far too many times from the Sun Devil teams he’s been a part of is that overlooking an opponent is the first step to having a letdown game. As he noted, you must treat every team like it is of championship-caliber when playing in the Pac-12.
“Just their movement, because it is very late and they do a lot of slanting just to get you out of your reads or make you second-guess your calls,” Cabral said about what challenges WSU presents. “They are a little smaller, size wise, just so now they have the ability to move around, slant, and things like that. It’ll be interesting to see how they’re going to play us with everything that’s going on up there.”
On that note, Cabral noted there’s not much the Cougars can do to change things up in the week-and-a-half before the game, following the departure of Claeys. They still will have new coaches calling plays though, which means ASU must anticipate some things they haven’t previously seen.
“I’m not expecting a whole lot to change because you’re not going to go in and put a whole new defense in a week-and-a-half,” Cabral noted, “but I wouldn’t be shocked if they have a couple of different looks that we haven’t seen, a couple different exotic blitzes, just because it is- they’re throwing something out there and hoping it works, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get some different looks from them.”
Just as importantly, he noted things- some similar, some different from Daniels- that the offense must work on in the second half of the season to improve as a unit.
“We got to take care of the ball,” Cabral said. “Can’t put it on the ground, can’t turn it over. We got to keep the ball moving, we can’t be caught in third-and-long situations where they can dial up some exotic blitzes, just stay ahead of the sticks, keep the ball on the ground and continue moving the ball down the field.
“I mean, your best defense is your offense. In the case with them, they’re going to want to score every time they get the ball as fast as they can. So, the longer our offense can hold onto the ball, the better off we’re going to be.”
Special teams comments on areas for improvement, as well as potential new roles in the aftermath of the Ruiz transfer
There was little to say about the transfer of kicker Brandon Ruiz, but you can read that whole, wild backstory here. That’s not to say this subject doesn’t bring up other questions, specifically about the role of sophomore kicker Cristian Zendejas and true freshman kickoff specialist (at least so far this season) Josh Plaster.
“I don’t think anything changed,” Zendejas said. “We went into today’s practice like nothing happened, truly.”
Since Zendejas’s struggles with longer field goals, beyond about 45 yards, have been exposed over the past few games, the question has arose as to whether Plaster could come in to kick longer field goals. After all, special teams coordinator and associate head coach Shawn Slocum did not that Plaster’s distance is improving when asked a question about kickoffs, albeit a slightly different realm than field goal kicking.
“I think that’s part of (Plaster’s) growth as a young player,” Slocum said. “You know, it’s different in the college game, so I think he’s getting better, his distance is starting to improve- not unlike a lot of young kickers.”
This is an opportunity for which Plaster noted he would be ready for, as he expanded on what he’s been trying to improve over the bye week.
“I just had a couple problems with my plant foot and my hip movement,” Plaster commented, “and I figured that out last practice, and I’ll be ready to go versus Washington State.
“I feel very confident, I keep the same swing…I have the leg strength to make it…just pretend like it’s practice if you think about anything else other than that, it’s going to get in your head, just can’t let that happen. Just swing through, trust yourself, trust your holder, trust your center.”
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