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ASU football faces first road test at UTSA

The Sun Devils head to San Antonio for their first ever showdown with the Roadrunners.

Freshman wide receiver N'Keal Harry celebrates with senior tight-end Kody Kohl after scoring a touchdown in the first quarter against Texas Tech on Sept. 10, 2016 at Sun Devil Stadium,  in Tempe, Arizona.
Freshman wide receiver N'Keal Harry celebrates with senior tight-end Kody Kohl after scoring a touchdown in the first quarter against Texas Tech on Sept. 10, 2016 at Sun Devil Stadium, in Tempe, Arizona.

Who: Arizona State at UTSA

Where: The Alamodome, San Antonio

When: 6:30 p.m. PT on ESPN2

Series: First meeting

UTSA last season: 3-9, (3-5 Conference USA)

Don't mistake ASU football's confidence for arrogance after an impressive showing against Texas Tech last week.

Both head coach Todd Graham and defensive coordinator Keith Patterson have been dissecting the game film from the shootout with the Red Raiders, and what they saw on some occasions wasn't pretty. 

"It's almost like there was no in between," Patterson said. "We'd play really, really, good, and then 'oh my goodness,' they'd punch us right in the face.

“What you can’t prepare for is the speed in which it comes at you ... It’s a very difficult system.”

Junior linebacker Christian Sam did not participate fully in Wednesday's practice, indicating he is unlikely to play Friday at UTSA.

Redshirt senior Tim White is expected to play, after offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey said Tuesday that the Sun Devils were being "cautious" about easing him back into the flow of practice. White was limited and did drills with other injured players. 

Graham said Thursday that White would play, but is unsure how much. White sat out the fourth quarter against Texas Tech last Saturday. 

On to San Antonio 

As ASU prepares for its first road test of the season, it finds itself in a much better position than many had expected after an explosive 68-55 dispatching of Texas Tech that many figured could have gone either way.

UTSA is far from intimidating, though the Roadrunners (1-1) played then-No. 22 Arizona relatively close in Tucson last season, falling 42-32 in its season opener despite racking up a single-game season high 525 yards of offense.

Patterson said that after facing NAU and Texas Tech, switching gears to face UTSA will bring an entirely different set of challenges.

“It’s like you’ve gone back in time 10 years,” Patterson said. “It’s a little bit more methodical — pro-style, pro-formation, twins formation, two-back structures. And then they’ll spread the field.”

In UTSA’s first two games of 2016, the Roadrunners beat Alabama State 26-13 and fell 23-14 on the road at Colorado State.

First-year UTSA head coach Frank Wilson brings extensive experience as an assistant, most recently as a running backs coach at LSU in 2015 before he was hired to replace Larry Coker when he resigned in January. When ASU offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey was coaching high school football in Atlanta in 2008, Wilson was an assistant at Southern Miss, though the two never had the opportunity to work on staff together.

The Roadrunners have 10 first-year starters playing on both sides of the ball this season. Unlike last week’s pass-happy Texas Tech squad, UTSA’s strength is its defense. The Roadrunners have the second best pass defense in C-USA and its opponents have only converted on 24.1 percent of third-down attempts thus far.

"They're really sound," Lindsey said. "I worked with (UTSA defensive coordinator Pete Golding) at Southern Miss, he's one of the best young defensive coordinators in the country. He's a passionate guy, the players will play very hard for him." 

The Sun Devils and their revamped offensive line will likely exploit UTSA’s relatively porous run defense.

“We were knocking (Texas Tech) off of the football,” Graham said. “(With) four new starters up front, the potential of that group is extremely high.”

UTSA junior quarterback Dalton Sturm underwent scrutiny after fighting to keep his starting job this offseason, and all signs point to him being the right choice so far — Sturm has completed four pass plays that went for 30 yards or more and completed 62 percent of his career attempts.

UTSA’s two biggest weapons are senior running back Jarveon Williams, who became the program’s first 1,000 yard rusher last season, and junior wide receiver Kerry Thomas, who led the Roadrunners with 541 receiving yards in 2015.

An ASU victory would be Graham's second 3-0 start with the Sun Devils and his third consecutive victory in a road opener. 


Reach the reporter at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.

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