“CBA vs. everybody.”
Those were the last words spoken by a player at ASU football’s postgame press conference shortly before Saturday night became Sunday morning, and they came from the mouth of none other than junior running back Demario Richard.
Richard may well be regarded as the heart and soul of this Sun Devil squad, but it’s easy to see how several other characters shape the culture of a program expected to undergo a significant rebuild in a transition year.
One of them is Richard’s fellow CBA member, redshirt sophomore safety Armand Perry.
Armand Perry and his brother, Alex, shake hands as they head to the Tillman Tunnel. Alex was on an unofficial visit pic.twitter.com/gy47TAjBnr
— Stefan Modrich (@StefanJModrich) September 4, 2016
New quarterback? New offensive coordinator? New secondary? For those expecting the answer to those questions to be “no problem,” they were likely disappointed.
It’s hard to be entirely satisfied with an otherwise solid defensive effort marred by an ankle injury to junior linebacker Christian Sam, a targeting penalty that saw Marcus Ball ejected, and 425 yards of offense surrendered to an FCS team.
But limiting sophomore quarterback Case Cookus to one touchdown pass on a blown assignment by the second team defense was not lost on head coach Todd Graham.
“That was difficult,” Graham said, cracking a joke about the team’s lack of depth. “We were getting ready to get (Coach Keith Patterson) loosened up.”
Graham added that he told his defense they would not blitz until NAU scored a touchdown, which did not happen until the 10:39 mark of the fourth quarter.
Graham revealed that senior linebacker Salamo Fiso and senior defensive lineman Ami Latu were held out of Saturday’s game for disciplinary reasons.
If there ever was a game that told a tale of two halves, ASU’s season opener truly reflected that cliché. But the defense, as much as it bent, only truly broke once.
"It was 10-6 for a long time,” Graham said. “But you guys will forget about that in a couple weeks and be on to something else."
"I'm back, baby!" -@cba_peez pic.twitter.com/Fn9HtYtuJ5
— Matthew Tonis (@Tonis_The_Tiger) September 4, 2016
Meanwhile, Perry rose to the occasion and recorded six tackles, including one for a loss to shut down the Lumberjacks on fourth down.
Though Perry’s game is not quite reminiscent of former free safety Jordan Simone, having safeties at or near the top of the tackle leaderboard is a point of pride for Graham’s “attacking-style” defense.
“When adversity strikes, you’ve got to keep bouncing back,” Perry said. “We’ve just got to back to the film and get ready for Texas Tech.”
Perry vs. Troy Williams?
Perry vs. the worst ankle injury doctors have ever seen? Please.
Perry vs. everybody.
If he has his way, Perry and the Sun Devils will show the country just what the Darkside is all about.
Reach the reporter at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.
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