By no means is Arizona State grasping for clues as to what’s to come Saturday night. With four games worth of tape available for viewing, the Sun Devils have a great understanding of what the Chip Kelly-led UCLA Bruins plan to do in Tempe this weekend.
On the offensive side of the ball, offensive coordinator Zak Hill spoke Tuesday about the disadvantages of not having physical reps as they implement his new scheme. While those physical challenges remain, the Sun Devils’ defense can lean on its success against USC in the season-opener and a wealth of knowledge about the Bruins for success in their second game.
“I think we have a lot of film on tape. We played 95 plays in that first game,” co-defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce joked Wednesday. “That was a lot of plays. They’ve got enough to look at. But in all honesty, they know what to expect. You see it from what you watched against us and USC of who we want to be and how we want to play defense and get after people.”
Whether it is based on a 60-minute stretch or four different game plans, Pierce believes both the ASU defense and UCLA offense have shown their hand and made clear how they want to do things.
“I think the good part for us is we do have four games on them, and they’ve kind of established who they are and what they want to be,” Pierce said as the Sun Devils prepare for a UCLA offense, which has scored 34.5 points per game. “They want to be a physical up-front team that wants to run the ball and play smashmouth football and play keep away.”
Given what the Sun Devils were able to put on tape was impressive – the Sun Devils held a ranked USC to 14 points for 56 minutes – Pierce said there are positives for the unit heading into the return to action. After ranking as a top-10 team in the country in forcing turnovers in 2019, Arizona State turned over the undefeated Trojans four times and were also able to stop them on downs multiple times.
“There were some bright spots for us,” Pierce commented of the Nov. 7 performance from the Sun Devils, their first game with Pierce and Marvin Lewis in charge of the defense. “When you lose, all the negative plays weigh on you a little more. There’s a lot of things we did well.”
UCLA’s offensive attack is predicated on a great rushing attack. High praise from head coach Herm Edwards toward Bruins’ senior running back Demetric Felton continued Wednesday with Pierce.
“They are pretty fast,” Pierce said of the UCLA offensive attack, which has seen Felton rush for 537 yards and four touchdowns on the ground this season. “Impressive group. You can see after the Colorado game they made up their mind that they were going to run the ball… and [Felton] is kind of special. He’s made up his mind that he wants to be an elite running back, he’s hard to tackle in space, has elite speed, and Chip Kelly is moving him all around.
“We’re going to have our hands full. He’s going to be a guy that we have to rally around, 11 hats on the ball, and you can’t ask one defender to bring him down.”
The conditioning aspect remains key for ASU in its first game action in almost a month. Pierce and the Sun Devils are calling it “training camp round three.” The proverbial reset button has been hit once again in a topsy-turvy 2020 year.
“Get back to fundamentals, get back to technique,” Pierce said of the keys to success in ASU’s second game against a Pac-12 South opponent. “Kind of like what you do in spring ball and in training camp.”
Unknown remains. The Sun Devils know how they want to play. With an extended break from physical practice and shutdown of the facility; they can only hope their bodies comply with the demands set forth for them when they match up with the 2-2 Bruins.
“You’re not going to know what we look like, and we’re not going to know what kind of shape we are in until Saturday night. But I can tell you we’ve had two really good practices with guys running around. The energy has been there, and guys are excited to play football again.”
Arizona State has been one of the hardest hit teams in the country when it comes to cancellations due to positive coronavirus tests and contact tracing, leaving Pierce and his unit with a special kind of motivation.
“The motivation is they’re still on scholarship, and I’m still employed,” said Pierce, whose defense forced four turnovers in the Sun Devils’ lone game in 2020. “We’ve got a job to do. We’ve got an obligation to do because they signed a national letter of intent to be a student-athlete and to be a coach. You just go about your business. Things happen, you move on. We live in a world of adversity every day, and this has been one that’s lasted a little longer than expected, but the good part about it is come Saturday night, we get to play football again.”
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Pierce, who serves as Arizona State’s recruiting coordinator, noted the free agency-esque off-season to come in college football. Earlier in the week, Travez Moore announced his intention to transfer from LSU to Arizona State ahead of next season.
“You have to be prepared,” Pierce said of the NFL-like recruiting of transfers. “In the NFL they call it cap space and the salary cap; here it’s initials and scholarships. The more you have in your pocket, the more flexibility that you have.
“It’s just one of those years that is difficult. Not seeing a lot of prospects in person, on-campus, away from campus. Not being able to have them, touch them, feel them, and see them, it’s been a different year. So, sometimes you have to pause, take a step back, and re-calculate how you’re recruiting and what you want to go about yourself in the 2021 class, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
It’s clear what Pierce, Edwards, and the staff want: options.
“You’ll see on signing day what we decide to do with those scholarships moving forward,” Pierce explained. “I think it is critical for us to keep some in our back pocket for what we’re calling college free agency.”
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