ASU Football: Graham Recaps Wisconsin, Looks to Stanford

Graham was asked if he had read the Pac-12 statement and he said that he had yet to read it, and made it sound like he didn’t have any immediate plans to do so.

“I fully expected that, but it’s one of those things, like I told my coaching staff when we were looking at it, I knew exactly what happened,” Graham said to members of the media.

“There’s a human element to this game. You win, or you lose. We won, you go to the next deal.”

Graham acknowledged that the play was certainly an unusual one, but in the end he believes his Sun Devils deserved to win the game against Wisconsin.

“I firmly believe that the best team won the game,” Graham said.

It was also announced prior to the start of the press conference that none of the players on the team would be commenting any further on Saturday’s contest as their focus has shifted to Stanford.

Aside from the bizarre ending to the game, Graham did have other things to say about his team’s performance vs. the Badgers. He had some very high praise for linebacker Salamo Fiso, saying that he “considers him a starter” and that he will be getting more reps on defense.

Will Sutton limped off the field during the game and appeared to be in a great deal of pain before eventually returning. It was announced that Sutton was dealing with a contusion in his leg, but the ASU coaching staff expects him and everyone else (a select few excluded) to be ready to go for Stanford.

Graham seemed particularly pleased with his team as far as penalties are concerned, especially on defense and special teams where the Sun Devils have yet to get penalized at all through two weeks of play.

Moving on to Stanford, Graham expressed how impressed he is with starting quarterback Kevin Hogan and his receivers. He went on to say that Hogan reminds him a lot of his own quarterback, Taylor Kelly. Graham did acknowledge that the Cardinal are a run-first team and having threats in the passing game like they do makes them that much more dangerous.

“They do have a very pro-style offense, that is very efficient in making you defend from sideline to sideline, and goal line to goal line. But their identity is physical first,” he said.

Graham mentioned that the Stanford offense is similar in some ways to Wisconsin and seemed pleased to have to face those two teams in back-to-back weeks. He commented, “The difference, I think, is the complexities in the passing game.”

ASU’s second-year coach went over a lot in a little over a half-hour on Monday afternoon, and it’s clear that he and his team have put the bizarre ending on Saturday behind them as they go to Palo Alto 2-0 and looking to go 1-0 in the conference.