Last Saturday’s loss at now No. 12 Utah was far and away ASU’s worst display of playing more emotionally than passionately that we’ve seen in all of 2019. Now, the No. 24 Sun Devils (5-2 overall) will have to bounce back when they march into Pasadena to play the UCLA Bruins (2-5, 2-2 Pac-12), who are tied with ASU and Arizona for second in the South division.

While a plethora of current Sun Devils are originally from southern California, this Saturday’s game holds some significance for ASU’s football program as a whole.

It has not played a conference game in the golden state while ranked in the AP poll since November 10, 2007, when Keegan Herring, Chris McGaha and Rudy Carpenter led then No. 9 ASU to a 24-20 win over an unranked Bruins squad at The Rose Bowl.

The last time the Sun Devils even played the Bruins as a ranked team was September 25, 2014, when the likes of Brett Hundley, Paul Perkins, and Jordan Payton- not to mention names on defense like Eric Kendricks, Kenny Clark, and Myles Jack- led then No. 11 UCLA to a 62-27 rout of then No. 15 ASU.

In a game with such historical and current significance, being played in arguably the most historic venue in college football, the Sun Devils understand the importance of putting on a much better display of football than they did last week.

“Coach Herm (Edwards) was really disappointed with the way we played,” starting sophomore defensive end Jermayne Lole explained. “Not like the way we played, but how we went about it, and just everything after the whistle, and all the extra stuff really. I felt like our defense played real well though, it’s just the extra stuff after the whistle that hurt us a lot.”

Lole continued about how- as many within the program have said too- the coaching staff knew the Utes would try to get the Sun Devils, especially their defense, out of their element and doing things they normally don’t, and it was a message they preached all week leading up to the game.

While the players on his side of the ball especially didn’t do a good job of avoiding careless penalties, albeit some were tough calls that were mixed in with some egregious non-calls in Utah’s favor, it hardly came as a surprise.

What was surprising to Lole though was some of the reaction on social media to that contest- particularly targeted at his unit, seemingly by angry Utes fans.

“(Edwards) showed us clips of how they get to their opponent’s heads, how they do a good job of just riling up the defense,” Lole said. “Getting them to do uncharacteristic stuff like that.

“I saw on Twitter a lot of people calling us dirty and stuff. Before Utah, nobody was calling us dirty, everybody called us a real physical and fast defense. So, I feel like we still didn’t play as dirty as people think we did, we were just playing more physical.”

Nevertheless, nothing takes away from the sloppiness displayed by the Sun Devils in last Saturday’s rain game, one in which Utah earned a first-place tie with USC atop the division with a 3-1 conference record, for now. However, the whole situation that played out in Salt Lake City deserves some more context. Of the 12 penalties called on ASU, for a total of 122 yards, 80 of those penalty yards came at the expense of the defense.

More than half of those 80 penalty yards charged to the Sun Devil defense came on one touchdown drive in the second quarter, in fact, as sophomore linebackers Darien Butler then Merlin Robertson got called for roughing the passer, on a third and then fourth-down play, respectively.

Those weren’t even the worst penalties against ASU on that Utes offensive drive, which would be their second touchdown of the quarter and ultimately prove to be the turning point, as it was too steep a deficit for ASU to overcome. Junior Tillman safety Evan Fields was ejected for a targeting penalty, upheld by video review, on a 3rd & 14 play.

“I get it, targeting, you’re trying to take the malicious hits out of the game,” defensive backs coach Tony White said. “Anyone who knows Evan and has seen Evan, he’s not a malicious guy, and him apologizing like that right in the locker room, that shows you right there, that wasn’t full intent, that was not him.

“The thing is, we can’t slow him down. He’s been a good football player, he’s put himself in position to make a lot of plays because he is aggressive and because he’s physical, we’re not going to slow him down. We’re just going to correct him fundamentally, but not slowing down.”

Prior to the last game, ASU was the team penalized the fewest in the Pac-12, averaging five penalties per game, which also was tied for 13th nationally. Granted, they were more middle of the pack in penalty yardage at 54.83 yards per game, at the time fifth in the conference and 63rd nationally.

Now, the Sun Devils average a full penalty per game higher at six, which ranks third in the conference and tied for 49th in the FBS. Meanwhile, their new average of 64.43 penalty yards per game ranks better than only three teams in the conference- Utah being one of them, ironically, worst in the conference at 72.29 per game- while the Sun Devils average ranks 98th in the FBS.

Yikes, talk about an off week.

“It’s one of those games,” White commented. “Sure enough, we got into the (mental and emotional) battle. So, you lose your cool here and there, and you give them penalties- especially the ones on third down, or the personal fouls where they’re moving down the field.

“We’re stopping them, getting them into 3rd & 15 and you get a personal foul, you know, a couple of times a series…”

On paper, UCLA will come into this weekend’s contest looking like a comparably penalized team, even if it’s a skewed reflection of how the season has truly played out as a whole.

The Bruins average 56 penalty yards per game, fifth in the conference and 65th nationally, while they average 6.71 penalties per game, which is tied with UA for sixth in the conference and 79th in the FBS.

But considering the bounce-back effort the defense needs to have discipline-wise, given how steady the unit has performed since the Colorado debacle and the unit’s aspirations to be elite, the ball is in ASU’s field- metaphorically speaking- to play as clean of a game as possible.

“That’s not the way we play, that’s not the way we coach,” White said of the defense’s careless penalties last week, “it’s a good learning experience especially for a lot of those young guys.”

As is true for any college football team in contention for any kind of championship at this time of year, each new game and the corresponding result steers the course of the season down a new path, or just does that much more to solidify the one you’re one.

The extent to which ASU, particularly on defense, can clean up the messy penalties will be arguably the largest determining factor in righting the ship this weekend as a team.

This will be a crucial game in setting them up to take advantage of playing three of their final four regular season contests in Tempe, something that may have little value if the Sun Devils can’t turn things around immediately.

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