The high expectations no. 25 Arizona State opened the season with were seldom thought about as the Sun Devils began the year with the sloppiest performance of the Herm Edwards era. The first-half flag fest saw the Sun Devils rack up 13 infractions for 135 yards – the most penalty yardage in a game for an ASU team since 2007.

Edwards opened his postgame press conference by talking about the undisciplined nature of the Sun Devils as they returned to play with fans in the stands. As expected, Edwards was about as disappointed as one could be following a 27-point victory.

“I told the team after the game, ‘the Sun Devils actually played the Sun Devils tonight,’” Edwards said following a 41-14 win over Southern Utah. “It was bad football. It was sloppy football. It was embarrassing football, to be quite honest.”

The penalties came in a variety of ways. Senior defensive end Tyler Johnson was ejected late in the first quarter for targeting. Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Andre Johnson followed up a three-and-out from the ASU defense by granting Southern Utah a first down following a roughing the punter penalty. At times, wide receiver Johnny Wilson and tight end Curtis Hodges were too physical with Thunderbird defensive backs and were whistled for penalties on blocks.

“All around, we have to clean things up if we want to fulfill our dreams and win the Pac-12 Championship,” said junior quarterback Jayden Daniels, who completed 10 of his 12 passes for 132 yards. The Sun Devil signal-caller added six carries for 40 yards before leaving the game with a cramp in the third quarter. “That’s killing drives and giving other teams drives and more momentum.”

The atrocious 11 penalties called against Arizona State in the first half were cleaned up slightly during the second half as the Sun Devils were only called for two penalties in the final 30 minutes.

“Finally, we got to 11, and they stopped because of halftime,” Edwards said of the penalties. “They had to.”

In a game that wound up with ASU edging Southern Utah comfortably, the Sun Devils will come away with plenty of things to improve.

Still, what was expected to be a strong suit for Arizona State during the preseason proved to be the case early and often. After graduate student safety Deandre Pierce picked off Southern Utah quarterback Justin Miller for the first of three ASU interceptions on the night, Arizona State promptly punched in the first offensive play of the year on a three-yard touchdown run from Deamonte Trayanum.

“They did what we expected them to do on the offensive line up front,” said redshirt senior running back Rachaad White, who scored two touchdowns on the ground en route to 64 yards rushing and an 8.3 yard per carry mark. “You know they’re going to come out every week and compete.

“We executed to the best we can, but overall, with the rushing offense, we’re just not getting complacent, and we’re gonna keep working.”

Nearly every opportunity to run the ball was taken advantage of by offensive coordinator Zak Hill. The second-year ASU play-caller dialed up plays for a rushing attack that saw four Sun Devil ball-carriers rush for a gain of 20-plus yards. Even wide receiver Ricky Pearsall got involved in the ASU run-game, scoring a touchdown on a 26-yard end-around.

The Daniels-led passing attack had question marks entering the season as ASU looked for answers regarding who would be the go-to target. One week in, those questions persist.

“You learn a lot in your first game, and I think the guys get that transition of practice reps and what it feels like in practice to game time,” said Hill. Arizona State totaled 421 yards of offense and ran 58 plays, 12 short of Hill’s stated goal of 70-plus per game. “You always learn from that first game.”

On Daniels's performance, Hill seemed to be unworried by the totals.

“I thought he did a good job. Obviously, he was limited in throws,” said Hill. “I think we only had 22 plays in the first half… It was choppy for us offensively, and we couldn’t get into a good flow.”

After completing a 19-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver LV Bunkley-Shelton in the middle of the third quarter, Daniels came up hobbling and went down near the Thunderbirds sideline. The third-year starter stayed down on the turf and was stretched out before heading to the locker room to receive an IV. He returned to the sideline early in the fourth quarter, but junior quarterback Trenton Bourguet took the remaining snaps for the Sun Devils.

On defense, a slimmed-down senior Darien Butler provided Sun Devil fans with excitement at the linebacker position. Butler was remarkably quick tackling in space while also providing great coverage, snagging two interceptions on the night.

“I think we did all right on defense,” said Butler, who also had five tackles and one tackle for loss in the win. “I believe the communication can get a lot better and can improve, but just working on flying around more with communication.”

“I saw speed, and I saw confidence in those guys,” added Edwards on what he saw from ASU’s secondary. “They caught some balls on us, but they covered them… I like what I saw a little bit defensively.”

Special teams were less than special for most of the night as kicker Logan Tyler missed two of his extra-point attempts. Edwards told reporters one of the misses was the result of a rushed kick due to a poor substitution pattern, while another banged off the right upright. Tyler also pulled the opening kickoff out of bounds.

“I told him ‘you’re hitting the wedge, Just hit a wedge and kick the ball,’” said Edwards, who used a golf analogy to describe Tyler’s failed opening kickoff. “He took his driver up, hit the driver, and hit it out of bounds.”

Next week, Arizona State welcomes UNLV to Tempe. The Runnin’ Rebels also played Thursday night, losing to FCS powerhouse Eastern Washington, 35-33, in double overtime. After going through an array of questions from the media, Edwards was asked once again about the penalties.

“Not to beat the penalty thing into the ground,” the question began before Edwards interrupted.

“Go ahead. Beat it up, man,” Edwards said. “That’s bad football. We’ve got to fix that. If we’re gonna win games, the games that we want to win, you can’t do that. Hopefully, it’s a learned lesson.”

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