ASU Football: Preparing for the Utah Rushing Attack
By Mike Slifer
This Saturday, the ASU football team squares off against Utah, who are 6-1 and ranked #18 in the country. Utah’s got a new look, bringing more Bang and less Flash. ASU, like always must take the “every week is a season” approach in preparing for this game.
The first order of business is stopping the running game, specifically, new junior college transfer running back, Devontae Booker. Booker is a classic “north/south” type runner that has a punishing style and plenty of durability. He has been likened to the recently departed Arizona running back Ka’Deem Carey. The ASU defense will have to gang-tackle Booker all night in order to keep the Utah offense bottled up.
Hand in hand with that effort will be dealing with Utah’s offensive line. Recently, Devils in Detail described Utah’s defense as “this year’s Stanford”. This moniker also applies to the big men up front for Utah’s offense. As with any team, the success of the running back greatly depends on the talent and skill of the offensive line. And though Booker is an elite running back, he’s getting a head start with a great offensive line. Utah’s offensive linemen are playing really well this season. They play “downhill”, getting great forward shin angles, and they sustain blocks as well as anyone in the PAC-12.
The specific challenge for the ASU defensive tackles (Cherry, Latu) will be to take on double teams from Utah without getting pushed backwards. They need to either split that double team or take both offensive linemen down to create a pile. But they absolutely cannot get pushed backwards and they cannot let the double-team turn into a single block, allowing one of the offensive linemen to climb to a linebacker.
Next, as always, any front-line defender that is only getting a single block must not get pushed out of his gap. This applies mainly to the two defensive ends and the linebackers. They’ve got to put a foot in the ground, take on the block with the correct shoulder, hold their ground and then use their hands to get free. It’s these “little battles” occurring on every snap that will win or lose the war for the ASU defense.
Lastly, the secondary has to do their part. Safety run support will be huge in this game. While the cornerbacks have to do their part running with receivers and setting the edge on outside run plays, it’s the safeties (Simone, Randall) that have to come up and be the “cap” when defending the run. And they’ve got to come quick and come violent. They have to meet Booker as he clears the box and drop him for a five yard gain, as opposed to tippy-toeing up and letting Booker make a move after already gaining 8 yards.
In the end, for ASU, it’s actually the same story: hold your ground, defend your gap, maintain leverage, pursue to the ball. The ASU defense knows that story quite well. But Utah’s offense is good at making it difficult. This ASU defense has to be as physical and as mentally determined as they’ve ever been to limit this “churn and burn” offense from Salt Lake City.