ASU Football: Takeaways from Game One

As ASU prepares to make the trip to Albuquerque this weekend to play the University of New Mexico, there are two ways of preparing.  First, there is the grading, critiquing and teaching/learning from last week’s game versus Weber State.  Secondly, there is the scouting, game planning and scheming for the upcoming game with the Lobos.

Coach Graham said that after watching film of the Weber State game that he was encouraged because most of the mistakes that were made were correctible.  What that translates to is that the mistakes being made were not because of players inability to grasp  the scheme or physically incapable to perform at a certain position.

In essence, what coach Graham is saying is that they just need to clean things up and get sharper at what they do.  This is typical.  First games always expose some sloppiness or shortcomings.

There were some misreads by Taylor Kelly.  This may just be a case of rust or the confidence to just throw the ball to Jaelon Strong.  The offensive line had some miscommunication on a few alert calls on blitzes.  And of course there were some technique lapses.  This is the “cleaning up” and the “getting into game shape” that all coaches deal with after game one.

There were only two glaring issues that hard-core ASU Football fans probably noticed.  First, the slow start by the offense.  They wasted their first possession and only scored a field goal on the second.  Most ASU folks expected them to move the ball down the field and punch it in immediately.

Secondly was the special teams.  For a program that was killed by special teams play last year, everybody, (including the coaches) expected more proficiency in the kicking game.  We didn’t quite see the new look/new attitude special teams that was promised.  But the season is young and time will tell if those special teams issues are “correctible”.

In the meantime, the learning continues, the growth of the young players continues, and the game planning process is in full swing.  Expect better execution for game two in New Mexico.