Following a decisive win over the Stanford Cardinal last Friday, No. 18 Arizona State is determined to reset and reload against another formidable Pac-12 foe in Utah on Saturday. The last time Arizona State traversed up north, they faced off against then-No. 23 BYU and were stifled due to penalties and miscues primarily credited to the raucous BYU faithful.
The Utah crowd is known to be one of the most ravenous in all of the college football landscape, particularly the Pac-12. Coming off a massive win over Pac-12 South opponent USC, the Utes are hot with the Sun Devils coming to play in cold conditions in Salt Lake City. The Utes have the highest fan attendance per game in the Pac-12, thus Arizona State was today practicing its team segments with loudspeakers blaring out crowd noise.
“Personally, Utah’s got the craziest fans in the Pac-12, straight up, I’ll say that,” redshirt junior fullback Case Hatch shared. “Their fanbase is just insane; that’s going to play a big factor, just like the BYU game. It was hard to hear the cadence (at BYU) with (junior quarterback) Jayden (Daniels), so we switched some things up to a silent cadence, and we’ve practiced that every day. It’s a big play this week staying on top of it, so we have to do that and minimize our penalties as much as possible and play our way.”
“We all have to be on the same page, communicate and understand that we are going into a loud environment,” graduate student left tackle Kellen Diesch offered. “There are ways we’ve been practicing combatting the noise, and we have to fix our mistake from the BYU game. We can’t let the noise affect us this game.”
In an eerie twist of fate, Arizona State was also 5-1 heading up to Salt Lake City in 2019, with big wins over Michigan State and a shootout victory over Washington State. When they faced off against the Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the Sun Devils were not so lucky. Daniels had an abysmal game, going 4-for-18 with 25 passing yards and an interception. Long gone are the likes of Utah’s Tyler Huntley and Zack Moss, but history always has a funny way of taking inspiration from the past. Both teams remain undefeated in Pac-12 play in 2021.
“If you think about it, two years ago, I believe we were in the same situation,” Hatch remembered. “We were 5-1 and went up there, almost the exact same weather… It’s going to be different for us as we haven’t played in the rain this year, or even in the cold. If we can handle that adversity and the atmosphere itself and understand it’s play-by-play, drive-by-drive, that’s how we’re going to take care of the ball and get it done.”
“We have to keep our poise, not get too emotional during the game,” graduate student defensive end Tyler Johnson explained. “Going off of (2019 vs. Utah), we can’t let that happen again for our guys that were there. The weather doesn’t matter much as we played Oregon State last year (in the same conditions) … We have to stick to what we are doing, continue to pound the ground, and leave it at that.”
Looking inwards at the ASU roster, a big point of discussion has been the quality of play from younger players stepping up due to injuries. Against UCLA, a myriad of underclassmen was thrown into the mix and stepped up to the challenge. Freshman linebacker Eric Gentry, who made the massive goal-line stop of UCLA senior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, also played the entire first half against Stanford, was a perfect example of the team’s “next man up” mentality.
“We try to learn as much as we can from the older guys as well as (linebackers coach Chris) Claiborne,” redshirt freshman linebacker Will Shaffer proclaimed. “They do a great job explaining what we have to do in certain concepts in practice as well as the games. He always says he’s not afraid to throw us in there, and that’s credit to him and us as well as what we can get done during the week. It translates to Saturday.”
“We all have to step up,” graduate student safety DeAndre Pierce said. “It’s always a next man-up mentality. Whoever it is that has the challenge this week has to step up, and the rest of the team has to always do their part and stay prepared.”
“It’s a match of preparation meets opportunity. We prepare for the opportunity, and when it shows up, you do what you’re supposed to do, you’ll have success. If you don’t, the next man up will do it.”
The Arizona State defense is increasingly becoming one of the most formidable in the country, asides from dominating the Pac-12 this season. One particular perk of the unit is its ability to make teams very one-dimensional. With teams containing dynamic rushers and passing threats such as UCLA with DTR and redshirt junior wide receiver Kyle Philips, it wasn’t always so easy.
But last week, the Sun Devils completely stifled the rushing game of the Stanford Cardinal, holding the overall running effort to just eight yards across the entire contest. According to Pierce, it’s a constant goal of the defensive effort to cut off at least one aspect of an opponent’s attack.
“It’s great making teams one-dimensional,” Pierce added. “We now know what they’re trying to do, so we start really worrying about what we are trying to do to (stop that one aspect). It allows us to pressure, disguise more coverages and do some things more freely when we disguise things. When we make it one-dimensional, it really helps us.”
Sticking to defense, Johnson was voted as the Pac-12’s Defensive Lineman of the Week, as well as the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week. The local player out of Gilbert racked up two sacks, five tackles, and 3.5 tackles for loss on Saturday night, garnering both local and national attention.
“Something like that, for me to be able to accomplish and achieve is special,” Johnson mentioned. “There are a lot of defensive linemen in the world, so it’s awesome. I try not to let it get to my head too much. (I credit a lot of my success) to the scheme and what (defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez and defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce) calls, I try to play to the best of my ability and keep doing what I’m doing.”
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