ASU Football: Sun Devils Preparing for Duke
By Mike Slifer
The ASU Football team plays Duke on Dec. 27 in the Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
For the Sun Devils, this bowl game will require the typical preparation. They’ll have 15 practices to prepare. There will be film work, scouting and weight lifting sessions. The coaching staff and the players will no doubt have to do their due diligence with these on-field preparations.
But the reality is that the biggest challenge for head coach Todd Graham will be getting his team mentally prepared to play their best. This is no mystery. Typically, bowl games feature two teams with differing attitudes. One team is honored and quite happy to be there. The other team, (usually the favorite) is disappointed that they are not playing in a bigger bowl. It happens all the time. (See USC two years ago) Last year, that was the case for ASU when they played Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl.
ASU had just lost the PAC-12 championship game to Stanford. It was a game which ASU seriously thought they would win and then go on to play in the Rose Bowl. It was not to be. The result was that ASU appeared to reluctantly accept the bowl bid to the Holiday Bowl. It showed, as they played without passion. That lack of passion led to lack of execution and Texas Tech rolled to victory. It was a bitter ending to a great season.
So, Todd Graham and his staff, along with the leadership amongst the players, must shake off this disappointing ending to their season and focus on Duke. It’s the mental game, more than any X’s and O’s or game planning, that will bring a victory or a loss in this bowl game.
There is a small wrinkle for this bowl game. Devils in Detail believes that the Duke Blue Devils are essentially in the same boat as ASU. They were also 9-3 this season. Their losses were to quality football teams. They were in contention to win their division late in the year. They also lost to their in-state rivals. (UNC) So, for David Cutcliffe and the Duke Blue Devils, they will also have to collect themselves and prepare for a “lesser bowl” than they were hoping for.
So, it will be interesting to see how coach Graham manages this. He will never allow a haphazard attitude in practice or the workouts or the film sessions. But it’s extremely difficult to get a bunch of 20 year olds to get excited about something if they are not. Graham has to do everything in his power to not allow this team to simply get their gift bags in El Paso and then mentally check out.
More to follow on this game.