ASU Football: Preparing for UW

The 5-1 ASU Football team is preparing for Saturday night’s contest in Seattle against the University of Washington.  As they prepare, they need to get ready for two things:  Noise and a tough defense.

Washington is 5-2.  Their two losses are to Stanford and Oregon.  Their wins were against unranked opponents.  The Huskies started off slowly under new coach Chris Petersen (Boise St.)  But they have rebounded and are playing good football, especially on defense.

Washington started out the season looking unimpressive in wins against Hawaii and Eastern Washington.  They had some quarterback issues early on with Cyler Miles being suspended for the first game.  Miles has managed to engineer a respectable offensive attack, especially with receiver John Ross.  Ross is an absolute burner with the ability to outrun anybody on the field.  Miles is rumored to have sustained a concussion last week and is questionable for this game with ASU.  If he’s out, that could be a problem for UW.

But the defense is what Washington hangs their hat on.  This front four is tough and they average about 4 sacks per game.  Devils in Detail mentioned in an earlier post that this game might be the perfect time to re-integrate Taylor Kelly back in at quarterback.  The best way to slow down a pass rush is to have a good running game.  With Kelly running the zone-read option, the defense will have to pay attention to him and DJ Foster on every snap.  Plus, Kelly’s mobility can cause problems if the pass protection falls apart.  A true pocket passer like Bercovici would make life a little easier and more predictable for the UW defense.

Finally, Husky Stadium is LOUD. Real loud.  It’ll be a new experience for many on this young ASU team.  It’s hard to replicate in practice.  Hand signals for plays and audibles on both sides of the ball will be necessary.  Silent snap counts will be required.  In fact, ASU should probably plan to be unable to talk to each other at all.

The stadium seating is close to the field and is constructed at a high angle, so the noise comes right down on top of the players.  And UW always pulls a good crowd.  They’ll be especially fired up this Saturday night for a ranked ASU team.

So, there will be no quarter given, and no reverence for beating Stanford.  The Huskies will be rabid this weekend to beat ASU.  The Sun Devils had better be mentally prepared for an adverse environment.