After suffering three straight losses for the first time in his tenure at Arizona State, head coach Herm Edwards summed it up in five words.
“The Sun Devils are beating the Sun Devils.”
Edwards then proceeded to point to all the ways ASU has made it difficult on themselves to stay competitive in the last three games.
These include falling behind early on in the game as they did in last week’s loss to USC as they fell behind 28-7 in the first quarter while picking up one yard compared to the Trojans 315 in the quarter.
The Sun Devils also once again fell victim to committing penalties for the third straight week as they have totaled 30 in the last three games with 12 against Utah and 9 against UCLA and USC.
Dropped passes, five by the count of Edwards, against USC also hurt Arizona State’s chances as they looked to mount a comeback after falling behind early on.
All of these factors alongside a true freshman backup Joey Yellen starting at quarterback a week ago were simply too much for the Sun Devils to overcome.
Heading into a matchup in Corvallis against Oregon State, Edwards addressed these issues along with the team’s ground attack that has also seemingly gone away the last three games.
Edwards comfortable with Yellen before and after USC performance
After learning early in the week that he would most likely be starting, Joey Yellen delivered a stellar debut with four total touchdown passes.
Yellen threw the ball a total of 44 times as he completed 28 of his attempts for 292 total yards while almost mounting a late comeback before throwing a fate sealing interception.
Despite having his backup true freshman start at quarterback, Edwards was confident in Yellen heading into the matchup given the large number of freshmen on his team already.
“For me, it was no different than the other 20 guys that play,” Edwards admitted. “(Except) he’s playing quarterback. I didn’t bother him all week. I waited until game day. I went up to him in the locker room and I say ‘Hey, I’ll tell you one thing.’ He looks at me and he was waiting for this big speech like I was going to tell him, and I said ‘Hey, have fun man. Go sling that thing around.’ He smiled.”
Yellen was aggressive from the beginning of the matchup as he opened the game with a deep pass down the left sideline that fell incomplete.
The freshman’s aggressiveness paid off at points but also ended the game with two interceptions with the first coming after he eyed down his receiver leading to an interception by USC’s safety.
“He wasn’t perfect, but we weren’t perfect as a team,” Edwards admitted. “To be put into that situation, first time playing, against a very talented defense, four touchdown passes. You can’t ask a kid to do more than that. I think the team rallied around him ─ he really did a good job.”
Not only was Edwards confident along with his quarterback, Yellen’s teammates were confident during his debut as well.
Yellen’s command of the huddle came as no surprise to Edwards who sees a lot of hall of famer Peyton Manning in his young quarterback.
“The players are very confident in Joey,” Edwards said. “Joey, you don’t see it a lot, but he has a really good personality. Peyton Manning is his idol. He has mannerisms like Peyton Manning, he really does. If you watch Peyton Manning and you watch Joey, he’s been to all his clinics and all that stuff.”
Edwards details how the team continues to get off to bad starts, cost themselves chances at winning games
At this point in the season, it’s no secret that the first quarter of football games has been the Sun Devils kryptonite since Pac-12 play began.
“When you look at the four games that we have lost, the score in the first quarter’s been 56-14,” Edwards commented. “We haven’t scored a lot of points in the first quarter…so we’ve gotten down early in some games and we’ve had to fight our way back…it was just the same pattern.”
Given what some players said in the week leading up to this contest about how guys came out against UCLA as they expected to win just for showing up, it makes Saturday’s 28-7 deficit after 15 minutes against the Trojans all the more interesting.
Edwards was asked if he thinks ASU’s opening frame struggles are a product of effort or poor game planning, and he deflected both ideas to offer his own thoughts.
“I don’t know if it’s effort or game-planning, I just think it’s a lack of focus at times because we didn’t change the game plan after the first quarter,” Edwards said, laughing after he finished that last part of the sentence.
“When you play cover-two, that’s about as basic as it gets. It’s like two-deep, and it’s like ok, just don’t give up a deep ball. We might have set a college record; we give up a 95-yard pass versus cover-two. I’m like, that’s cover-two! You stay deepest as the deepest, and you got two guys running deep, they got a guy running right down the middle, I’m going, ‘ok, intercept…the…ball…no…it’s a…touchdown.’”
While he didn’t call out any individual players, it can be implied to some extent who he may be talking about, or at least which specific positions those players play on the defense.
The blown assignments by young guys, coupled with careless penalties by players young and older (one could even argue more so older players) have led to the maddening starts for ASU throughout the Pac-12 season, and it’s caught up to them in the past three games.
“I said it after the game, and now the more that I look at it, it holds true: the Sun Devils are beating the Sun Devils,” Edwards said. “I just think it’s maybe guys trying to do too much, or trying to make a play rather than just play the defense that’s called, and fundamentally play it correctly. If you do that, then you’ve got a chance to be successful. If not, errors happen, that’s my opinion.”
Edwards says ASU is looking to get older and most experienced with grad transfers
Some coaches don’t like to speak about the transfer portal. It’s like the black market to some -- sure it goes on, but just don’t say anything about it.
Edwards isn’t one of those people.
“We need some guys that have played,” he said. “So here we go, and I hate to say it, Mr. portal -- or grad transfers. Are we looking for guys? We’re looking for guys. I’ll say it right now. We’re looking for guys.”
Edwards said at the beginning of the season, he had a conversation with running back Eno Benjamin, alerting the junior tailback to the fact that he was probably going to see a heavy dose of defenses loading the box against him. They were going to make the freshman quarterback beat them, Edwards explained.
Then ASU started a freshman left tackle and right guard. It’s now a rarity if Benjamin doesn’t see a stacked box.
The Devils have offensive youth. That may be good in the future when LaDarius Henderson and Dohnovan West are juniors and seniors with years of experience. But, right now, it’s a bit of a burden for the Devils.
Edwards thought back to last year when ASU brought in grad transfer Casey Tucker from Stanford and Roy Hemsley from USC.
“We had an experienced offensive line (last year),” Edwards said. “Now we don’t have that same experience. You’ve got two younger players playing. That puts a burden on everything. That’s part of the process and you know it.”
Well, it’s not just the offensive line where Edwards wants some help.
“I said it on the field during the game to some reporter who asked me, ‘You have no pass rush?’ I’m looking for a pass rusher too. Yeah, if you find one send them here. I ain’t kidding. You guys watch us play,” he said.
“I’m not making excuses. I’m just telling you where we’re at. And they don’t just appear, you don’t just find them … If you find a pass rusher, give him my number.”
Edwards updates Jayden Daniels injury status
Offensive coordinator Rob Likens confirmed after the USC game that Daniels’ injury was sustained by the hit that left Daniels’ on the ground at UCLA. It turned out to be a knee injury that kept getting tighter and tighter up until last week, when Likens handed the reigns to Yellen.
Here’s what Edwards had to say about Daniels’ availability for Oregon State:
“I’m hoping he can get through practice. Last week, he practiced a little bit but couldn’t quite get through. We’ll see this week where he’s at. Hopefully, he can make it through a practice, and if he can, that’s a good sign for us and he’ll have an opportunity to play.”
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