Head coach Todd Graham directs his players at practice on Wednesday, Sept. 10 (Photo by Alexis Macklin)The veterans of the ASU football team returned to practice after a day off the field.
“It’s just one of those days for us to get our bodies to recuperate,” said redshirt senior quarterback Taylor Kelly.They didn’t forego all football-related activities. Kelly said the team watched film and hit the weight room.
“It was a good day for us,” he said.
Today, a large portion of the veterans wore limited-contact gold jerseys. Typically, these jerseys are held for players either recovering from injuries or quarterbacks. Over the last week, they’ve been used as a precautionary measure.
“The gold jerseys mean we don’t want to be stupid and hurt them,” head coach Todd Graham said on Saturday.
The team is working to prepare themselves to take on Duke without getting injured. It’s important to stay as close to peak condition as possible while working out the kinks in their game.
An improvement they’ve made is an increase in offensive tempo. Freshman running back Demario Richard said it’s gotten faster every day of bowl practice.
“It has gotten way faster than what it’s been,” he said.
The team has run drills consistently that consist of the two-minute style offense, which is quick snaps and not operating in a huddle.
“I don’t know who’s going to be able to stop it,” Richard said. “Once we get our tempo moving, we can’t be stopped.”
Kelly, while pleased with the upbeat tempo, took a less optimistic approach on it.
“They got a fast-tempo offense as well so they’re probably used to it,” he said.
Duke’s quick offense is run through a medley of running backs. The Blue Devils have three backs with at least 74 carries, and none have more than 105. Redshirt senior quarterback Anthony Boone has 88 carries himself.
The defense may have grown accustomed to the fast pace, but Kelly said that ASU can still hurt them with speed of their own. If utilized efficiently, the faster tempo will tire out Duke defense and help ASU’s offense flow more effectively.
“We’re just trying to get guys lined up quick because we have to get back to what our offense does and that’s playing fast,” he said.
Strong left off AP All-American team
Redshirt junior wide receiver Jaelen Strong’s name was absent from the AP All-American teams released today. Graham said that while he thought Strong deserved a nod, he may have some bias for his own player.
“All coaches think their guys are deserving… Would I vote him All-America? Well of course I would,” he said.
Stats-wise, Strong didn’t measure up to the six who were voted onto a team. He had more touchdowns than three of them (10), but his 1062 yards didn’t compete with the others. Five of the six who were voted had at least 1,300 receiving yards; the other had 1,223. Additionally, Strong’s 75 receptions was 18 lower than the fewest on the team.
Strong didn’t quite stack up to the most successful individual receivers this year when using season statistics.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
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