Before his first game at quarterback of the Arizona State Sun Devils, true freshman Jayden Daniels received a warning from head coach Herm Edwards.

The warning was simple.

The freshman would have a game or moment during the season in which he played like a freshman no matter how hard he tried to avoid it.

After completing just four of his 18 pass attempts for 25 yards against No. 12 Utah, it’s safe to say that Daniels has had his freshman game. A game the true freshman admitted he was glad is now behind him.

“On offense we’ve just got to be better,” Daniels admitted. “Move the ball more efficiently, we’ve got to learn to take away the mental mistakes like penalties and all that. I’ve got to play better, just the whole offense has to play better. The defense played lights out.”

The performance against the Utes was one that made it difficult to swallow for the young ASU squad. Even the team’s ever going optimist and hype man even found it hard to carry a sense of positivity following the loss.

Wide receiver Frank Darby admitted following the matchup it was hard to keep his constant energy during the cold and rainy loss to Utah.

“Yeah, it’s hard,” Darby said. “I just try to be myself all of the time. Bring that energy because they look at me as the energy dude. Just try to keep everyone going. I’m not going to say it’s cool that we lost, but it’s over now. Let’s get to the next week.”

The main struggles stemmed from a pass rush that was able to force Daniels to get rid of the ball at an extremely fast rate or to take off and run which led to a total of 16 rush attempts by the freshman.

Utah’s pressure got to Daniels so early and often that it caused Daniels to begin to feel a sense of phantom pressure or pressure in the pocket even when there wasn’t any at all.

For a quarterback who has been described as calm and collected all season long, Darby admitted that Daniels appeared a little rattled after the early hits by Utah.

“I tell Jayden don’t worry about,” Darby stated. “It’s how you respond to it, how you finish. I know that he felt like he had a bad game ─ he could do nothing. He was like ‘Frank man, they were blitzing everybody. I don’t know how I got up on the middle blitz.’ I was like ‘because you’re tough.’”

Despite the rough outing for an offense that totaled a mere 136 yards in the matchup, Darby and the offense are looking forward to this week’s matchup against 2-5 UCLA.

After the beating at the hands of Utah, a matchup against the Bruins gives the Sun Devils a chance to have a sense of positivity and optimism.

This positive attitude is based off learning from what went so wrong against Utah and correcting it for another Pac-12 matchup this week.

“I woke today like I’ve got to get better,” Darby admitted. “It’s time to bounce back. Let’s see how everybody’s about to respond at this first practice. I thought we did a really good job today. Everybody came back making plays, we’re all blocking better.”

Fellow wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk echoed a similar sentiment as Darby as he too is looking to move on after hauling in one catch for seven yards a week ago.

Aiyuk compared the Sun Devils position and record this year to one last year and how the team can finish on a hot streak like a year ago.

“It was a tough game to play in,” Aiyuk said. “Our main thing is going back out here and not letting that game carry on (to future games). Coach Herm talked about it, last year at this time we were 3-4 now we’re 5-2. Last year we made a decision we weren’t going to go out the way we were playing early, and we ended up winning three of the last four final games. That’s kind of the same thing we’re looking to do.”

The key to moving forward for the team will be a focus on a team-first aspect and much less of one on personal stats.

While some players may be disappointed in their lack of production a week ago, Darby says the team needs to focus on their record as a whole as the stats will follow close behind.

“I know everybody thinks about their personal goals,” Darby admitted. “What they want to see at the end of the season, but you’ve got to put that aside and it’s all about the team sport. You’re going to have another opportunity coming next week. It’s how you’re going to come to practice and prepare for that game.”

On paper, this week’s matchup will feature a much easier matchup on the offensive side of the ball as the team faces a weak UCLA defense.

Last week’s opponent, Utah, allows an average of 11.7 points per game compared to UCLA’s 34.6 points per game.

The Bruins are especially weak in the secondary as they allow 312 yards per game through the air compared to 147 yards on the ground.

A secondary that earlier this season allowed a whopping 570 yards passing and 9 touchdowns by Washington State’s Anthony Gordon.

For the ASU offense, this game offers a chance to get back on track and resume to their previous form where they scored 30 points in two of the previous three weeks before the matchup against Utah.

In a matchup that the Sun Devils expect to dominate.

“It ain’t going to be a hard game to me,” Darby admitted. “I felt like I’m going to get them over the top and I feel like none of them are going to be able to cover (Brandon Aiyuk). It’s going to be a fun game ─ we’ve just got to have protection. As long as we got the protection, I don’t want to say too much, but it should be a dominant win game.”

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