Five games into the 2023 season, the biggest hindrance to the Arizona State football team has been the constant battle with the injury bug. ASU has started three different quarterbacks, rotated around ten offensive linemen, and has been without key members of the defense in multiple games.
While the defense had been arguably the healthiest, it had been all year heading into Cal with only one starter, senior defensive back Jordan Clark missing the game, coming out of Berkley, the Sun Devils are now dealing with a significant depth problem at linebacker.
Graduate linebacker Travion Brown went down against Cal and will at least miss the upcoming game against Colorado and could miss additional contests following the bye week. Additionally, junior linebacker Will Shaffer elected to use his redshirt year and enter the transfer portal. Therefore, ASU is now down two of its top three linebackers.
With Brown and Shaffer both now out, Ward will look to junior linebacker Caleb McCullough to pair up with starter and redshirt freshman Tate Romney. Junior James Djonkam and true freshman K’Vion Thunderbird round out the two-deep.
“All those guys, they come to work every day, and they just do the right things,” defensive coordinator Brian Ward said about the linebacker room. “They follow the process, and they continually get better, and eventually, they’re going to be better than the guy that they line up across. That’s what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to be completely prepared, and those are the type of guys just foundationally that you want to build your program on.”.
McCullough is coming off his best game of the season. Against the Golden Bears, the California native had seven tackles, including three solo tackles and a sack. After having just three solo tackles through the first four games combined, McCullough stepped up for the team when Brown went down.
“When you prepare for things, you feel more comfortable,” McCullough said. “I felt like last week I was preparing well, and I’m a guy if I prepare well, I feel like I am going to play well, so that’s the main thing.”
While he has been out on the sideline with an injury, Brown has still made his presence felt at practice. Nearly every play, he can be heard screaming out his checks and what he sees so that he can help the linebackers on that rep. Whenever they come off the field, Brown makes sure to give them a word of advice and what he might have done differently in each play.
Brown has especially taken an interest in helping the freshman Thunderbird before he potentially makes his college debut this Saturday against Colorado. On Tuesday’s practice, Brown took Thunderbird aside and fielded all of the questions that he understood about his assignment on every play and how each assignment changes, given the different situations on the field.
Brown has quickly become one of the biggest leaders of the defense and an important voice in the locker room, regardless of whether he is on the field or not.
“He’s set such a great example the nine months that he’s been here, just in terms of how to carry yourself on and off the field,” Ward said about Brown. “His leadership on the field, getting guys lined up, being able to close our defenses and our coverages and our fronts, and being able to communicate adjustments has been invaluable for us.”
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After having hired Deion Sanders in the offseason, the Colorado Buffaloes have become the biggest story in college football. Then, after starting, the Colorado hype grew to an extreme level, and Coach Prime was on every sports channel you could find. The last two weeks have seen Prime lose to two Pac-12 powerhouses in Oregon and USC.
Every week, it seems there has been some sort of trash talk or drama story surrounding Colorado and their opponent, but Dillingham has no desire to get involved in anything like that.
“I’m focused on our football team, and that’s always going to be the answer,” Dillingham said in his Monday press conference. “We’re going to show back up that we showed back up today. We’re going back to work. We’re finding out what we need to get better at, and we’re going to go get better.”
One area that ASU clearly needs improvement is the turnover department. Currently, the Sun Devils sit dead last in the country in forced turnovers, with just one over the first five games. On the offensive side, ASU ranks near the top of the country in total turnovers. While the eight-turnover game against Fresno State certainly skews the stats for the offense, the lack of forced turnovers is a problem that ASU was expected to find under Ward.
“I keep talking to our guys about consistently good and occasionally great,” Ward mentioned. “Sometimes things take time, and football is just really a good metaphor for life. I mean, you can have everything and do everything possible to be successful; you can take all the right steps and do all the right things during the week, and things may not work out. You got to just keep pushing.”
“It really starts with the D line, chaos up front,” Dillingham said. Everything starts with chaos. So if you create chaos in front of you, get pressure on the quarterback, sack the quarterback, try to get strip fumbles, put the quarterback in duress, and make him throw bad throws, right. That’s what really starts the beginning of turnovers.”
This weekend, forcing turnovers will still be tough as Colorado is one of the best teams in the country at not turning the ball over. Junior quarterback Shadeur Sanders, who Dillingham recruited coming out of high school, has been intercepted just two times this year.
“This quarterback doesn’t turn the ball over very much,” Dillingham noted about Sanders. “He does a really good job. He’s willing to take sacks, similar to Joe Burrow. Two years ago, (Burrow) led the NFL in sacks taken the year they went to the Super Bowl. And I attest to what (Sanders) doing to that. I mean, when the OLine breaks down, he says, ‘one more play’ in his mind. He takes a sack or extends the play and doesn’t put the ball in jeopardy. Then he’s a really good quarterback, so he tries to make the play the next time.”
Sanders leads one of the most dangerous passing attacks in the conference so far this season. Colorado has the fewest yards per game on the ground, so most of their offense comes through the air. The Buffaloes rank fourth in the conference in both passing yards per game (356.8) and total passing touchdowns (15). They have a bunch of dangerous skill position players that can hurt the Sun Devils if they get into open space.
“I think they have an average of like seven or eight plays inside the 25 a game. So when you only have seven or eight plays inside 25, Again, they’re a good offense. What does that tell you? They’re scoring from far,” Dillingham commented about the Colorado offense. “They do that because two of their top wideouts have only missed 30 snaps in the entire season. So they’re playing. They’re in shape. And they’re playing almost every single snap with their top dudes, and those guys are explosive.”
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