It wasn’t the prettiest win ASU coach Todd Graham has had in his coaching tenure, but he’ll take it nonetheless. Not only because of the end result, but also because of the demonstrated growth the Sun Devils exhibited.

ASU’s defense struggled against Texas Tech, giving up 612 yards and 55 points. Graham, though, doesn’t care about the number if yards his team allows.

Instead, he only cares about the final score and the team’s record. And Monday, Graham said he felt the Sun Devils should have won by more.

“Out of respect I thought we did what we needed to do,” he said. “Their quarterback was never in rhythm…we gave up 28 uncontested points where we blew coverages and things like that.”

Some of that was due to the defense missing key players. Junior linebacker Christian Sam didn’t play and redshirt senior Laiu Moeakiola only played sparingly. Redshirt senior linebacker Salamo Fiso, still suspended due to disciplinary reasons, didn’t play either and Graham said he won’t play this week against UTSA.

Missing Moeakiola and Fiso were particularly impactful because, Graham said, the two are the best communicators on the defense and that some of the busted coverages that led to Texas Tech scores were due to misalignments caused by communications lapses.

“Salamo Fiso is really really important to our system,” Graham said. We had critical errors that had to do with miscommunications and that’s been tough. Not having him and not having Laiu at full strength, that’s our two most experienced communicators but there were guys that stepped up and did a great job.”

Moeakiola, who has played both safety and Spur during his time at ASU, controls the back end of the defense and not having him at full strength hurt the Sun Devils in the secondary.

Although Moeakiola continues to improve every day, Graham said he wants to make sure he’s at full strength when the conference slate starts.

“Laiu s a guy who…he’s almost silent in his personality, in his way but he’s very well respected,” Graham said. “He is a great communicator on game day and he understands what we’re doing.

“We’re hoping to have him back in there full force but we’re also trying to be very smart, too because all of these games are important but conference play is the most important thing. We want to make sure we’re smart and we get him back healthy before we put too much on him but I expect him to be back, I expect him to play more.”

Although last week the Sun Devils struggled defensively, Graham noted several players as being improved and critical including junior linebacker DJ Calhoun, redshirt senior safety Armand Perry, sophomore Kareem Orr and redshirt junior AJ Latu who did a bit of everything against the Red Raiders.

“One of the guys I wanted to point out that to me epitomizes what we’re all about is AJ Latu,” Graham said. “AJ played nose tackle in our nickel package, played devil backer in base (formation) and then on run downs played Sam linebacker,”

But it wasn’t just defensive players that Graham singled out. Offensively, Graham said he was impressed with the way redshirt sophomore quarterback Manny Wilkins dramatically improved.

“Obviously, I thought Manny had an outstanding game,” Graham said. “I thought he did a great job distributing the football and made a huge improvement from week one to week two.”

The key to the Sun Devils’ offense, Graham said is the concept of 100 percent ball security and limiting turnovers. Graham said in two of the three games offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey has coached, ASU has had zero turnovers.

The other two keys Graham mentioned were the lack of negative rushing plays and limiting sacks.

“I think we’ve had one turnover in three games,” Graham said. “If we accomplish those three things with the system that we have and the players that we have…we’re going to score points. We had a lot of growth from week one to week two. Obviously, we probably had a bit more of a dynamic plan than we had in week one (but) it’s just one game.”

Of all of the players, one stood out above the rest from Saturday’s game. Junior running back Kalen Ballage was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week after his eight-touchdown performance.

Graham said the most impressive thing he noticed from Ballage wasn’t just his play on the field but the way he conducted himself in the press conference after the game, bringing in the entire offensive line with him.

“I think that’s what’s unique abut this team is the synergy that they have,” Graham said. “I was really proud of him and how he handled that and showed class and character.

“The reality is what he said. We’re 2-0, nice win, go to the next one.”