PASADENA, Calif. — ASU football head coach Todd Graham entered the half of Saturday night's game against No. 7 UCLA (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) unsatisfied despite holding a 15-10 lead on the road.
He had a point. His team had just allowed UCLA to drive 40 yards on four plays, consuming just 21 seconds of game time to kick a field goal at the end of a first half that was undoubtedly his team's best thus far this season.
In typical Graham fashion, he made his thoughts loud and clear.
"I though (defensive coordinator Keith) Patterson was going to punch me in the face at halftime," Graham said. "I was talking about everything we were doing wrong and he said, 'Hey! They have seven yards rushing and five three-and-outs!' He got a little heated at half. ... It was impressive."
Patterson was right. ASU (3-2, 1-1 Pac-12) had held UCLA to seven total yards rushing on 15 attempts during the first half. They held UCLA redshirt junior running back Paul Perkins, who lead the Pac-12 in rushing in 2014, to 28 yards on 12 carries to that point.
The defense had forced UCLA to four three-and-outs, as well as forcing their first safety since 2013 and adding an interception by redshirt junior linebacker Laiu Moeakiola, who added five tackles.
That didn't stop Graham, a self-described teacher, from implementing his observations in a "unique" coach fashion.
"I wasn't yelling at anybody," he joked. "I came in at halftime and if you did great, great. You did what you were supposed to do. I was pointing out that we made sure we talked about thing we were supposed to do. (Patterson) was pretty animated and saying we were doing pretty good."
The passion, always evident in Graham's persona and vernacular, did not stray into the common situation of a coach's office.
"No, it was in front of everybody," Graham said. "(Patterson) punched the dry-eraser board and was pretty animated. So I shut up."
It worked. ASU picked up a 38-23 win at the Rose Bowl Saturday night, in many ways revitalizing their season and showing the team's true potential for the first time.
The passion is good. It was something needed from a program that many felt attempted to climb a much-discussed mountain and fell flat on their backs.
ASU has not played well through their first four games. It's been written about and discussed and beat to the ground much like their fans' preseason championship expectations.
Graham doesn't blame them.
"I don't blame our fans for being upset," Graham said. "They should be. We have not played very good. I was pissed about it. We were pissed. We played pissed tonight. Maybe we need to play pissed more often."
Again, Graham's team overcame an embarrassing loss with a primetime win. In 2013, it was a loss to Stanford. In 2014, a loss to these same UCLA Bruins. Last week, ASU could only sit and watch as USC put up a 42-14 victory.
They followed those games with a 62-41 win over USC, the "Jael-Mary" and now, the highest-ranked opponent ASU has defeated under Graham's watch.
"I'd really like to quit putting our backs against the wall, but we respond pretty good," Graham said.
As shown in previous seasons, the pieces were there. There is a reason why ASU was projected by many to win the gauntlet of the Pac-12 South, and a reason to believe that there could be room for improvement after such a deflating loss.
For one case, on Saturday night the defense limited big plays. UCLA freshman quarterback Josh Rosen rarely managed to burn the ASU secondary. Perkins was bottled up for most of the night, finishing with 18 carries for 63 yards and a touchdown.
The defense, which USC torched repeatedly on third down and long situations last week, held the Bruins to a 3-for-14 mark in the same situations.
ASU redshirt senior safety Jordan Simone finished with a team-high eight tackles despite being tested early and often for the second straight week. Simone, as much as anyone for the Sun Devils, had dealt with the criticism of failed expectations.
Simone didn't waver.
"I'm not surprised," Simone said. "The passion we had at practice this week was just off-the-charts. ... People saw a little bit of what we are all about."
Improvement is part of the Todd Graham philosophy.
"You can call it a turning point, but we just call it another game," redshirt senior quarterback Mike Bercovici said.
The necessary changes just took time and, as shown during halftime Saturday night, a little passion.
"What you see, when we face great adversity, you see their character exposed," Graham said. "That's what you saw tonight — a team with great character."
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated which day the game was played.
Reach the reporter at fardaya@asu.edu or follow @fardaya15 on Twitter.
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