The No. 20 ASU football team is just a week away from its season opener against Temple, and coach Dirk Koetter isn't happy with what he sees.
"It's a good thing we were playing ourselves and not Temple tonight," said Koetter after the team's scrimmage in Sun Devil Stadium Wednesday night. "If we were playing Temple we'd be 0-1 right now."
After an encouraging 10 days at Camp Tontozona in Payson, Koetter hasn't liked what he's seen in the three practices since.
"I've said it three nights in a row since we've been down from Tontozona," Koetter said. "We're very sluggish, our execution is not good enough, our concentration is not good enough, we don't know what we're doing half the time -- if we don't get our head out of our (expletive) we're going to be 0-1 on Thursday."
The scrimmage gave the Sun Devils an opportunity to practice a myriad of plays not usually covered in regular practices.
Koetter employed fake punts, two-point conversions and even stopped the scrimmage twice for two instant replays.
Instant replay has been added to Pac-10 games for the first time this year.
"That's going to be awkward," Koetter said. "All of a sudden you are just standing there for two or three minutes while they review it. That could happen in a game."
Injury Updates
Although he didn't participate in the scrimmage, sophomore tight end Zach Miller has been cleared to resume practicing beginning today. Miller has been recovering from off-season shoulder surgery.
"I'm so excited to get back out there," Miller said. "I've sat and watched for so long."
Miller expects to be ready for Temple.
There is mixed news on junior defensive end Kyle Caldwell. Caldwell had an MRI on his knee on Monday, and while the original area is better than expected, other areas have become inflamed.
Reach the reporter at kyle.odegard@asu.edu.
