ASU football is 8-2 in games after a loss in the last three seasons – an important thing to consider in light of last Saturday's 41-20 loss to USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
To stay in the thick of what looks to be another wide-open Pac-12 South race, head coach Todd Graham and the Sun Devils (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) will need to take care of business at home against UCLA to rebound from the USC blowout.
"It's kind of a byproduct of what you do all the time," Graham said. "I really wish we would just stay where we're at and not have those deals. I just think it says a lot about our heart."
Colorado, Utah, and ASU are the leaders in the Pac-12 South standings respectively and have yet to lose a home game, and the division as a whole is a combined 14-2 at home thus far.
Graham said when he and his staff tried to pull redshirt senior linebacker Salamo Fiso, he refused to come off the field even with the game well out of hand.
The visiting Bruins (3-2, 0-1 Pac-12) have won the last two meetings at Sun Devil Stadium, while ASU won 38-23 in 2015 at the Rose Bowl and 38-33 in 2013 to clinch the division.
Nothing is certain yet, but with redshirt sophomore quarterback Manny Wilkins leaving just before the half due to a leg injury, it's not out of the realm of possibility that redshirt freshman Brady White could make his first start versus UCLA, as Mike Bercovici did after Taylor Kelly injured his ankle at Colorado in 2014.
"The good thing is that it's not for an extended period of time," Graham said of Wilkins's absence. "We'll see. The good news is it wasn't anything significant."
Graham said the x-ray results for Wilkins were positive and that he no longer needed a walking boot, after requiring a boot and crutches to return to the field from the locker room at USC.
In the event White does start, Graham said freshman Dillon Sterling-Cole will prepare as a backup and will be ready to act in accordance with their post-Wilkins contingency plan.
"Obviously Brady's our two guy," Graham said. "Depending on how quick Manny recovers, we'll get the guys ready that we need to get ready."
Reach the reporter at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.
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