Tuesday’s football practice had two focuses. The first was on USC’s defense, but the other was on discipline and not making mental mistakes.
The Trojans run an aggressive style of defense with which the Sun Devils have some familiarity, coach Todd Graham said.
“They’re an attacking defense," Graham said. "They’re a 3-4 defense. They're a very good defense, comparable to the defense we played last week (against Stanford).”
While the USC defense was at the forefront of Tuesday's practice, the team placed equal emphasis on eliminating costly mental errors.
Against the Cardinal last Saturday, ASU struggled with dropped passes, two blocked punts and an interception that eventually led to a Stanford touchdown.
“We lost five posessions last week," Graham said. "You only get 18. You take all those mistakes we made, if you take half of those out, we’re probably gonna win the game.”
ASU suffers costly injuries
For the first time this season, the Sun Devils have had to deal with the injury bug.On Tuesday, Graham announced that two players were done for the season with another likely out for the rest of the year.
Graham said senior defensive end Junior Onyeali and freshman Devilbacker Chans Cox are both out for the season with shoulder injuries.
Additionally, Graham said freshman linebacker A.J. Latu is likely out for the remainder of the season with a “serious” ankle injury.
Other notes
– Redshirt freshman linebacker Salamo Fiso saw time with the first-team defense at Sam linebacker. Senior linebacker Steffon Martin, who has started the season at Sam, practiced with the second unit.– Freshman safety Marcus Ball is still not practicing and wearing a green no-contact jersey and no pads. However, he is no longer wearing a sling on his injured shoulder.
Reach the reporter at ejsmith7@asu.edu or follow him on twitter @EricSmith_SP
