ASU football hopes to have season back on track after UCLA upset

by Paola Boivin
  • Slug: Sports-ASU Monday,730

By REBECCA WINN
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Arizona State football returned from Pasadena with a defining upset over No. 7 UCLA. The 38-23 victory over the Bruins gave new life to the Sun Devils, who entered the game in a must-win situation to stay alive in the Pac-12 South.

“Obviously our backs were against the wall, and your character gets exposed when you face great adversity and I think our guys showed what they’re made of,” ASU head coach Todd Graham said Monday. “You have to go win the next one, to win the next one, it was a huge huge win for us, but we have seven more steps until we get to the game we want to be playing in. The next one is Colorado.”

The Sun Devils showed improvement across the board on Saturday. Offensively, Graham stressed that inside runs, direct runs and blocking looked much better. Quarterback Mike Bercovici said he thinks the offense played fast and explosive, factors that were absent in the first four games.

“I was pretty sick and tired of not playing to our potential,” Graham said. “When I look at the film I think we can get better fundamentally. (UCLA) only had 62 yards rushing, but half of them came in one play. We made vast improvement last week but we need to double that this week. There’s a sense of urgency about getting better.”

While ASU will look to capitalize on the big win moving forward, Berocvici said there was definitely a different feeling for the team before the UCLA game.

“From the time we stepped off the airplane in Burbank, it was our night,” Bercovici said. “The message was clear that we were going to get back on the airplane three and two, and we did it.”

NEWS & NOTES:

  • ASU Punter Matt Haack was announced as the winner of both the Ray Guy Award Player of the Week and the Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week. Haack averaged 43 yards on eight punts. He placed five of them inside the 20 and a punt late in the game landed on the 1-yard line. “He is a tremendous talent,” Graham said. “He can be a weapon, just getting that technique down. He was a game ball guy.”
  • Mike Bercovici was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week. He threw for two touchdowns, ran 34 yards for another score, and compiled 310 total yards. He was 27-for-44 passing, hitting seven different receivers.
  • Mike Norvell, ASU’s deputy head coach and offensive coordinator, returned to the sideline this past week after calling the offensive plays the four previous weeks from up in the box. Graham gave Norvell credit for calling a masterful game.“That was a huge difference for us, in our players, everyone was pretty focused on the job at hand,” Graham said. “I think Mike is an inspirational leader, so I liked having him back down on the field.”
  • Graham was as impressed as everyone else by Kalen Ballages’ 23-yard touchdown that sealed the game for the Sun Devils. Ballage took the ball up the middle on 3rd-and-6 late in the fourth quarter and the entire ASU offense carried him through the UCLA defense and into the end zone. “He wasn’t going to go down,” said Graham. “But it was every guy on offense carrying him to the end zone and that’s what the night was about.”
  • Graham gave Tashon Smallwood the jersey number 90 in the hopes that he would play like the number 90 who came before him, Will Sutton, who was an All Pac-12 player for ASU and now plays for the Chicago Bears. “He’s just scratching the surface on how good he is going to be,” Graham said. “He’s getting there, but he still has a ways to go before he’s at (Sutton’s level of play).”
  • The Sun Devils take on Colorado Saturday at 7 p.m. in Sun Devil Stadium. Fans are encouraged to wear black, to “Blackout out the Buffs.” It was also announced today that ASU’s game against Utah on October 17 will be a 8:15 p.m. kickoff and will be on either ESPN or ESPN2.
  • Bercovici said Kim Kardashian gave him a call after the game. His father had met and worked with Kardashian previously and that they are both Calabasas, California, natives and neighbors. “Hopefully my girlfriend isn’t listening, I don’t want to get in trouble here, but I did hear from Kim Kardashian,” Bercovici said, laughing. “Calabasas natives are a strong knit group.”