The ASU football team had enjoyed a relatively healthy season, at least until now.
Saturday's 55-38 proved not only to hurt emotionally but physically as well, as the team lost a number of players including their third-leading tackler, sophomore strong safety Riccardo Stewart.
During the game, Stewart re-aggravated an injury to his shoulder that had bothered him all season.
Upon meeting with doctors and trainers, it was determined that Stewart had two injuries to his shoulder including a hurt rotator cuff and a shoulder subluxation, or a partial dislocation of the shoulder joint.
"[After the Cal game] it was probably the worst pain I've ever been in," Stewart said. "It hurt pretty much all season but nothing too serious. Then after the Washington State game, that Sunday morning it was dying. I didn't really have any contact all last week [in practice].
"The first hit of the [Cal] game it was like 'boom.' Every hit, every tackle, I was just getting up slow. It hurt the whole game."
After meeting with his family, Stewart decided to have surgery to repair the injury and then undergo four to six months of rehabilitation. The surgery is scheduled for Friday.
"He could have continued on, but if you could see how much pain he was in after that game, no one wants to see a guy like that," ASU head coach Dirk Koetter said.
Stewart had 83 tackles, three sacks and an interception this season. Sophomore Joey Smith will take over Stewart's spot in the starting lineup.
Howard done for year: Senior offensive lineman Phil Howard will see his Sun Devil career end prematurely after having his injured knee scoped on Monday due to meniscus cartilage damage.
"It was more than they expected when they got in there with the scope," Koetter said. "There was bone chips and bone fragments in there so they had to drill some holes to get the blood flowing in there. He'll be on crutches for four to six weeks."
Some return, some leave: Koetter said he expects senior linebacker Josh Amobi to return to the lineup after missing the Cal game with a sprained medial collateral ligament. Amobi warmed up on Saturday but didn't enter the game. Freshman linebacker Jamar Williams is expected to be available this week after being out of the lineup with back spasms. Freshman wide receiver Matt Miller is day-to-day with an injured hamstring and wrist.
Freshman tailback Cornell Canidate is doubtful for Saturday's game against USC due to a high ankle sprain. The injury is worse than trainers originally thought although Canidate walked without the aid of crutches on Tuesday.
Koetter hopes that true freshman Matt Fawley can return to action this week after missing five games with a broken arm. Fawley was medically cleared to play against Cal, but Koetter said he wasn't fully comfortable putting him back on the field.
"Here you have a true freshman that's just never really been hurt before," Koetter said. "He's coming off having a plate put in his arm and has had to ease himself into contact. He's been running around doing drills, but when you actually have to throw that arm out there and hit somebody with it, we just didn't feel he was quite ready for full speed contact yet."
Deadly turnovers, mistakes: In 10 of the Sun Devils' 11 games this season, the team that won the turnover battle has won the game. Koetter believes that turnovers are what largely lead to the team's downfall against the Golden Bears. Many of the turnovers led directly to points for Cal. The Sun Devils lost four fumbles and threw one interception.
"We're just killing ourselves with turnovers," Koetter said.
One play Koetter pointed out was sophomore quarterback Andrew Walter's fumble with 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter with the game tied at 38. ASU was then outscored 17-0 in the fourth quarter.
"Andrew's fumble right before the end of the quarter, what happened on that, we were in a seven-man protection. When [junior fullback] Mike [Karney] blocked the defensive end, the guy covering him slipped through and hit Andrew in the back. That's who knocked the ball out. We were expecting a different coverage than what they gave us."
The Sun Devils also had a punt blocked that was returned for a touchdown with 10:03 remaining in the third quarter.
"They showed an extra guy in the box so we had to recount our protection because that changes our assignments because they have one more guy than we do. When they add that extra guy off your gunner, right on the snap you'll see somebody jump out of the pile and go cover your gunner. So you have to be able to recount that in just a couple of seconds and we had a blown assignment. [One of our best players] missed his assignment and a guy came free and blocked the punt."
Koetter added that the Sun Devils had six alignment penalties called on ASU wide receivers and three procedural penalties called on offensive linemen.
Tired Defense: Koetter said that ASU's defense performed better than the final score would indicate, particularly early on.
"Our defense came out and held the first three series and gave us decent field position in which to work, but we had three straight three-and-outs by our offense," he said. "Most of the damage when our defense didn't do so well came in the fourth quarter when I think they were just worn out."
Koetter added that senior linebacker Mason Unck, sophomore safety Jason Shivers and sophomore cornerback R.J. Oliver played every one of the 77 snaps that the Sun Devils' defense was on the field. Senior linebacker Solomon Bates played 76.
Reach the reporter at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
