- Slug: Sports-ASU Tuesday,615
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By BILL SLANE
Cronkite News
TEMPE – With four days remaining before the Arizona State Sun Devils open their season against Texas A&M, the team’s offense is still looking to knock off some of the rust from the offseason.
LIMITING THE EARLY MISTAKES: The players and coaches are clearly eager to get the season underway. It showed early, during the portion of the practice open to the media, with a couple of penalties called on the offense, resulting in a failed drive. During the tempo portion, with 12 seconds left in the two-minute drill, a false start was called on the offense, resulting in a 10-second runoff. The offense turned to their Hail Mary play, which resulted in a couple of laterals that ended back in the hands of QB Mike Bercovici.
Bercovici threw it across the field to redshirt junior Gump Hayes. It looked for a moment that he might have a chance to take it down the sideline but was forced out of bounds.
“The team that makes the least amount of mistakes, that plays the most disciplined football, is usually the one that comes out on top,” Graham said after practice. “Especially when you have two teams that are pretty evenly matched.”
DIFFERENT GROUP, SAME MENTALITY: Senior wide receiver and former running back D.J. Foster is now one of the most important leaders on the Sun Devil offense with the departure of some key players after last season.
It’s an offense that will look very different from a year ago at this time. One of the biggest changes – Foster is now lined up on the outside instead of in the backfield. Also, Bercovici is now the definitive number one quarterback to start the year.
“It’s exciting. I mean it’s a new group of guys but I’ve never been so confident in a group of guys and it’s how we’ve been preparing all offseason,” Foster said. “It’s been great with our intensity.”
FOSTER’S SIGNATURE MOMENT: Coach Graham has talked several times since the USC game last season about how he thought Mike Bercovici was going to transfer before last season and how he would have missed out on his game-winning Hail Mary to Jaelen Strong in the LA Coliseum. Before this season, D.J. Foster had a similar decision to make, as the call of professional football forced him to decide whether or not to forgo his senior year and declare for the NFL Draft or return to ASU for his senior year.
Foster decided to stick around for one more year, and now remains focused on enjoying his last year as a Sun Devil.
“I’m looking to just win,” Foster said. “I’m looking to enjoy every single day with my teammates. It goes by so quick. I can’t believe I’m almost done so I just want to enjoy every single moment out here with my brothers.”
HAPPY HOMECOMING?: Linebacker Laiu Moeakiola is a native of Texas and went to high school in Euless, a four-hour drive from NRG Stadium in Houston, the site of his team’s game this weekend.
“I try to keep it cool and collected but it’s exciting just to go back. To be on the soil that I was born and raised,” Moeakiola said. “Also remembering that it’s a business trip, we have bigger things in mind and that’s coming out with a ‘W.’”
Moeakiola is hoping to have plenty of friends and family at the game on Saturday but he may have to turn some away.
“I’m struggling right now to get tickets,” Moeakiola said. “That’s the hardest part. I don’t want to tell family they can’t come to the game. Hopefully someone is loving and caring enough to give me their tickets.”
