ASU Football: Inexperienced corners trying to stay out of the fire against Texas Tech’s air raid

ASU football allowed the most passing yards last year while Texas Tech threw the most passing yards. The two will meet in Lubbock Saturday night.

Texas Tech, far and away, threw for more yards than anybody else in college football last year. ASU, by a slimmer margin, allowed the most passing yards in college football.

On Saturday the two teams will meet for the second time in as many years.

What could go wrong, right?

As many expected, when the two teams faced off last year in Tempe things went very wrong for the Sun Devil secondary. Despite getting the 68-55 win, they allowed then Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes II to throw for 540 yards and 5 touchdowns.

This year, however, that ASU defense, and in particular it’s secondary, has had its fair share of turnover. Some fans may take that as a cause for concern, others may see it as a step in the right direction.

Nonetheless, former Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett stepped into the same roll in Tempe — and Joey Bryant and Kobe Williams, two guys that before the season started had never played a down of D1 college football, are now the Devils’ two starting corners.

Bennett knows his young secondary is going to make mistakes, but through two games he likes where they’re at.

“Let’s don’t kid ourselves, I’ll told you it was going to be a journey,” Bennett said of his secondary. “Four guys back there that are extremely, extremely inexperienced, but here’s the good part – they love football, they work hard.

“Our coverage last week, with exception to the [Rashaad Penny 33-yard touchdown catch], was pretty dang good.”

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Bryant and Williams, along with the rest of the ASU defense, allowed 398 passing yards to a pro-style New Mexico State offense in their first game — and albeit San Diego State operates under run-first system, they limited the Aztecs to just 73 passing yards last week.

Those two games will seem like mere warm-ups for Williams and Bryant – on Saturday, the two will be thrown into the fire against TTU’s air raid.

Trying to avoid the mistakes their predecessors made against the Red Raiders, the duo watches film on the 2016 game, looking for areas to focus on.

“Watching the film [from last year’s Texas Tech, ASU game] we were trying to run the cover 2 and we just weren’t aligned well,” Bryant said.

“Alignment is really the key this week and everyone playing smart and knowing what they’re doing.”

Bryant referenced alignment quite often; noting how last year’s team didn’t play their leverage.

“The play could have been stopped if the safety was playing inside, and stayed inside, instead of jumping out,” Bryant said as an example.

Although Bryant and Williams are inexperienced, their coordinator isn’t.

Coming from Baylor, Bennett has seen his fair share of the Texas Tech passing attack.

Facing off against them many times in Big 12 play, Bennett’s expertise will go a long way in the uphill battle of containing Tech.

“We watch film and he’ll [Bennett] show Texas Tech and how they did this, some stuff versus him [at Baylor],” Williams said. “It gives us a great look at how he ran his defense last year, but there are different tweaks to it.”

The one thing Bennett hasn’t seen from the Red Raiders is their first-year starting quarterback Nic Shimonek.

He, and the rest of the ASU defense, is probably pretty happy about that, given how great last year’s starter, Mahomes was during his time in Lubbock.

In his one collegiate start, a Week 1 victory over Eastern Washington, the senior, Shimonek racked up 384 yards on a subtle 30 attempts. On Saturday, those attempts could possibly double.

Williams and Bryant have play solid thus far, forcing far less scoffs and “How was he open?” remarks then was the case at this time last year.

That will probably change against Texas Tech — the Red Raiders will put up some crazy yardage total (as they always do) and a receiver (or two) will probably break free for a long touchdown.

But for Williams, Bryant and the entire ASU defense, timely plays and stops, like the Gump Hayes fourth quarter interception on Mahomes last year, will determine if the Devils fly back to Tempe 2-1 or 1-2.

Next: ASU Football: A chat with Texas Tech expert previewing game

“I’m going to take it one play at a time, and be ready for it and trust my training and technique,” Williams said.