The trip to Southern California is a trip back home for a lot of the ASU football team’s roster.
Forty-nine players hail from California, with many from the Southern California area.
“We are excited to go and play in the Coliseum,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “[We have] a lot of kids from Southern California, so it is going to be interesting to see what happens.”
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a historic venue that has not only hosted many great college football games, but also has been the home of Pro Bowls, Super Bowls, Olympic Games, Major League Baseball games, National Football League games and even the XFL.
Playing at night adds a unique flavor to the historic venue.
“It’s a pretty good setting, playing at the Coliseum at night,” Erickson said. “That’s such a storied program for years and years and that’s a storied place to play.”
Rising intensity
For the second straight week, Erickson has been pleased with the way his team has shown up for practice.
On Wednesday, the intensity and energy were high, a good sign during the middle of the season.
“We practiced well,” Erickson said. “For whatever reason, when the sun goes down we practice better, it cools down a bit. We have had a good week of practice. We will see what happens.”
Linebacker depth hurt
With Shelly Lyons out for the season with a broken ankle, walk-on special teams ace Mike Callaghan was elevated to the second unit at linebacker.
But Callaghan sprained his ankle last Saturday and won’t play against USC. Suddenly, the abundance of depth at the linebacker position isn’t quite as strong.
“Obviously with Shelly going down, it kind of skinned us up a little bit,” Erickson said. “We’re alright, we have five guys. That’s probably better than some. Shelly is a loss and we can’t afford to lose many more.”
Special teams standouts
Callaghan has made his biggest impact on special teams this season and his loss will be felt on that unit the most.
Special teams is a unit that the coverage guys or blockers don’t get much credit for and only get recognized when they screw up.
Erickson identified a few players that have been big for ASU on special teams this season after practice.
“LeQuan (Lewis) has, there have been some guys,” Erickson said. “Brandon Johnson has done some good things for us at times. He’s a walk-on that gets a chance to play. Keelan Johnson has played well on special teams for us.”
Injury report
Callaghan (ankle) and defensive tackle Bo Moos (sprained MCL) both missed practice Wednesday, but both did a lot of running during practice.
Despite looking good while running around, both are highly unlikely to play on Saturday.
Sophomore defensive tackle Corey Adams also was held out of practice on Wednesday, with a stinger. On Tuesday, Erickson said that he expects Adams to play.
Junior linebacker Oliver Aaron was back practicing on Wednesday after sitting out Tuesday with back spasms, and sophomore linebacker Vontaze Burfict showed no ill effects of his ankle injury.
Redshirt freshman cornerback Osahon Irabor was involved in a collision with a wide receiver and safety Clint Floyd during practice and went down to the ground. After practice, Erickson said Irabor just had the wind knocked out of him.
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
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