(Photo by Sam Rosenbaum)Senior wide receiver Rashad Ross thought about his three drops all weekend.
Redshirt junior Alonzo Agwuenu was frustrated with the lack of energy on offense.
Coach Todd Graham wanted the wide receiver group to step up last week before the Missouri game, yet nobody answered the call.
So, Ross and Agwuenu, both slotted at the “nine” wide receiver position, are doing something they haven’t done since Camp Tontozona in fall camp: watching film together.
“This is the first time I actually went and watched the game when I had a bad game over and over and over,” Ross said.
The result left Ross questioning how he dropped so many passes. Was it the timing of his jump? Was his hands right? Was he worried about the defender?
Ross felt it pointed back to ASU’s first series on third down. He appeared to have a first down catch in his hands, but the ball came out as he hit the ground.
From that point, Ross was discouraged despite how focused he felt before the game.
“Going into a game when you drop your first pass, then you drop your second pass, it’s going to be pretty hard to catch your third pass,” Ross said. “You’re thinking about, ‘Oh I got to catch the ball. I got to catch the ball.’ It’s like when you try too hard, it’s not going to happen.”
Ross said Agwuenu proposed the idea to watch film together. They did it at Camp Tontozona because there weren’t any distractions during the week in Payson. Agwuenu felt they had to get together to get better, considering how they’ve dropped off a bit since Camp Tontozona.
“We know we both got to get better and push each other collectively together as a two-man group to make the position all it can be and help the position out as much as it can,” Agwuenu said.
The coaches tell Agwuenu the “nine” position in this office is supposed to be one of the go-to guys.
They have the fewest receptions out of the wide receiver positions. Ross has two. Agwuenu surprisingly doesn’t have a catch given how much he was used in fall camp.
“My game dropped a little bit and now I’m starting to pick it up a little bit,” Agwuenu said. “The coaches are noticing and telling me I’ll be on the field this week.”
Offensive coordinator Mike Norvell said the “nine” position has to be able to win one-on-one matchups against cornerbacks. He feels the only way to answer Graham’s call is through consistency at practice every single day.
“I thought that was something I was disappointed in is that we missed some opportunities out there (against Missouri),” Norvell said. “Each game, you don’t get do-overs. You’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to be on point. And the way you do that is you get ready in practice.”
Ross said last week was the worst week of practice ASU has had this season and it showed in the game. This week has fared a lot better. The dropped balls crippled the offense, but it also decreased the confidence from the group.
Ross and Agwuenu hope their work outside of practice together will benefit each other, and most importantly, their team.
“When one person gets better, I believe the next person gets better,” Agwuenu said. “We’re competing for the job still so we still got to keep getting better. We’ve been splitting reps with each other the whole week so everything has been good these first two days in practice. We’ll see how it works this weekend.”
Reach the reporter at mtesfats@asu.edu
