Arizona State head coach Todd Graham is just trying to slap a giant Band-Aid on the rest of the season.
In the back of his mind, he’s hoping he doesn’t need another one to stop the bleeding.
It took a flurry of trick plays, unique formations, a special teams spark and a valiant effort just to bring the mangled Sun Devils (5-3, 2-3 Pac-12) close in a 37-32 loss to Washington State at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday night.
Now, Graham has to find out just who he’ll have left to work with four games left in the regular season.
His team was limited from the start, with a pair of linemen – left guard Sam Jones and center AJ McCollum – out due to injury and free safety Armand Perry unavailable. His quarterback, Manny Wilkins, was banged up but grinding through his second consecutive start.
Redshirt senior receiver Tim White, easily the most explosive option in ASU’s offense, was knocked out with a leg injury on the opening kickoff, missing the remainder of the first quarter before eventually returning and adding a 70-yard punt return touchdown, the first of its kind for the program since 2011.
Wilkins led the Sun Devils out to a promising first possession, completing 5 of 6 pass attempts and hurdling a defender on the way to the end zone. On the hurdle, he got drilled, giving him what was reportedly a right arm stinger that would knock him out for the rest of the game.
“[Manny]’s a warrior,” Graham said. “He got hit and it just wasn’t safe for him to go back in. It was definitely something he couldn’t do. In the end, there, he was telling me, ‘Coach, if you need me to go run a quarterback sneak, I can run a quarterback sneak.’ He got hit, and it was that last hit he took.”
He was replaced by true freshman Dillon Sterling-Cole, he of just three total snaps and one pass attempt – an interception – to his name entering Saturday’s action. He finished 7-for-16 for 86 yards, eventually finding a small rhythm but never really running the ASU offense. Sterling-Cole entered fall camp as the fourth option at quarterback, taking over after the three in front of him have since suffered injuries.
“To have a guy snapping and the guy taking the snap who didn’t even plan on playing tonight, it was pretty amazing what those two were able to do,” Graham said, referring to the performances of Sterling-Cole and walk-on center Tyler McClure.
“I was really proud of Tyler McClure. He’s a winner, a champion, a kid that this program is all about. I’m really proud of him. I thought he played great.”
To supplement Sterling-Cole’s production, the Sun Devils resorted to offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey’s bag of tricks. They relied heavily on the Sparky formation, using it to extend an early lead to 14-3 on Kalen Ballage’s 52-yard score. It worked again for a big play in the third quarter, running a reverse pass that saw Jack Smith, a converted true freshman receiver, connect with White for a 40-yard gain.
“With the issues that we were facing, we needed to figure out a way to get explosive [plays],” Graham said.
Seven players have now completed a pass for ASU this season, including a two-point conversion throw from Fred Gammage, with four doing so for the first time this season Saturday against the Cougars.
But for as much as ASU tried to fool its way into the game, they couldn’t avoid the medical cart. Sophomore corner Kareem Orr, obviously hobbled by a right knee injury he said last week was at 60 percent, got burned early in the fourth quarter for a 52-yard Gabe Marks touchdown from Luke Falk in what was the putaway score.
Moments earlier, redshirt senior Salamo Fiso went down with a left knee injury that saw him on the ground for several minutes. He left with the heavy assistance of trainers and a large bag of ice on the injured knee.
It’s an injury bug previously unseen in Graham’s tenure at ASU.
“Everybody has it. In some years, [injuries are] more difficult. We didn’t have two starting offensive linemen tonight and our starting free safety obviously couldn’t play. Our starting linebacker [gets hurt]. Tim [White] got hit early and was hobbled. He’s a warrior, too. Sometimes with football, that’s what makes football so challenging and what makes it so great. It’s hard.
“Is it frustrating? Yeah, it’s frustrating. It seems like they come about every seven years, you have a year like this with so many guys hurt. It’s been a long time since we’ve had as many injuries as we’ve had at quarterback. That’s part of it.”
Graham is left now to pick up the pieces and stitch together what he can. Should Wilkins miss the next game at Oregon, Sterling-Cole would make it just the sixth time since 1990 that ASU has had three quarterbacks start a game in a season, with the last coming in 2009. The best final record of any of these seasons is a 6-5 mark in 1992. He would also be just the fifth true freshman to ever start a game at ASU.
There remain other issues, as well. If Fiso misses significant time, it adds additional strain to a linebacker corps that is already without the services of Christian Sam. The seriousness of Perry’s injury remains unknown, putting even more of a strain on an already thin and inexperienced secondary. In the place of Jones and McCollum, McClure and right tackle Zach Robertson had to make their first and second career starts, respectively.
Somehow, Arizona State nearly won the game. They’ll have to scrap whatever they can with four games left and bowl eligibility still in reach.
“Obviously, I did not want to lose that game,” Graham said. “The heart. That’s what I’m proud of. I think our fans know that our guys are going to give them everything they’ve got. I’m just disappointed and I wish I could’ve done more to help us win because I thought we were going to win that game.
