Demario Richard could give ASU the identity it’s looking for

As indicated by yet another up-and-down performance on Friday against the University of New Mexico, the Arizona State Sun Devils are a team struggling to find their identity. Plagued by sluggish starts in their last two home starts against inferior competition, the Sun Devils aren’t exactly in a spot that one would like to find themselves heading into a tilt against a very tough University of Southern California squad, let alone one coming off as disappointing a loss as the Trojans experienced over the weekend.

ASU has struggled to put away each of their last two opponents since their opening week loss to Texas A&M. They needed a pair of late touchdowns to fend off the likes of Cal Poly in the home opener, with a 24-point second half necessary to dispatch of the Lobos. Obviously, there are a number of factors that go into each of those individual tilts, but that hasn’t stopped the questions from swirling around the Arizona State offense.

It certainly hasn’t been easy for the Devils to gain the upper hand on offense when they’ve been beaten handily in the time of possession department. The triple option, in itself, is a difficult scheme to defend and it lends itself to longer drives for the offense. As a result, Cal Poly was able to maintain a 32:22 to 22:02 possession advantage, while New Mexico held the ball for 36:21, against 23:39 for ASU. So at least in that respect, it’s a rather simple example of why the offense has been so stagnant at times, as the Devils haven’t had the ball for the amount of time necessary to develop that rhythm.

Even with time of possession forming one potential piece of the puzzle for the Devils, it certainly doesn’t provide the entire picture. Most of what plagues the Devils go back to their offensive scheme, which hasn’t seemed to fit with Mike Bercovici, who inherited the keys to the offense from the now-departed Taylor Kelly. Arizona Sports’ Craig Morgan has a nice writeup of how the relationship between the scheme and the personnel has ultimately led to the struggles of the ASU offense to this point. Long story short: Bercovici is a strong-armed quarterback playing in a system designed for the mobile Kelly.

As a result, the Sun Devils have really failed to discover an identity on the offensive side of the ball. While Berco has already attempted 113 passes on the season, he’s been relatively restricted in his ability to utilize that arm strength. His yards per attempt were at just 4.85 for the A&M game, while he was at 7.07 against the Lobos on Friday night. Of course, as Morgan points out, it’s not as if Bercovici has the receivers to sling it downfield in the way that he’s capable of.

So Berco has obviously been restricted, but at least there’s some rationale for it. Which is why Demario Richard could hold the key to the offensive puzzle for the Sun Devils.

Richard was the catalyst for the ASU offense on Friday night, providing 104 yards on the ground, across 15 carries, to go along with 151 yards and a pair of scores through the air on four receptions. His 259 yards from scrimmage accounted for well over half of the total Arizona State production against New Mexico, to the tune of 56.8%. That’s coming off a game in which he accrued 121 yards on the ground on 25 carries, two of which resulted in Richard reaching paydirt.

We’re obviously talking about a small sample size, but Richard has averaged 4.6, 4.8, and 6.9 yards per carry through the first three games, respectively. While he only has eight receptions on the year, Friday night showed that he can be a weapon through the air as well, particularly in the screen game where Richard caught passes that went for scores of 33 and 93 yards. He showed great breakaway speed in both, while his 33-yard run (his longest of the night) demonstrated his vision and physicality. He’s become a well-rounded back and proving why the offense should probably run through him.

As this young ASU offense comes more into its own, we’ll probably see these receivers begin to reach a point in their development where they become more consistent weapons for Mike Bercovici, which should allow him to play to his strengths more in getting the ball down the field, rather than restricting him. But until that point is visible on anything resembling a regular basis, the Sun Devils may have to look to Demario Richard in order to find their identity. And if he can continue to bring what he did on Friday against New Mexico, and in the Saturday before that, they should be just fine.

Randy Holt is the managing editor for Devils in Detail. You can follow him on Twitter @RandallPnkFloyd.