ASU football is set to go on the road against Colorado for its first game in the month of October.
Colorado is undefeated in the four games it has played this season. This in itself poses a challenge, but for ASU going on the road is the main concern.
“The hardest thing about this is that we played two really good teams,” redshirt sophomore defensive back Chase Lucas said. “Washington, San Diego State (are) very good teams. They’re very disciplined and they’re very organized in their schemes toward us.”
In those two road games, the Sun Devils lost both times by a single touchdown, with San Diego State having a final score of 28-21 and the game against Washington ending with a score of 27-20.
ASU had a major comeback from those two consecutive road losses last week when they beat the Oregon State Beavers at home by a score of 52-24. However, ASU is still in dire need of a win on the road.
“For us, we haven’t won a road game in a long time,” Lucas said. “That is the biggest thing that coach Herm is harping on. We just got to get this road win. The thing about us, we start losing sight of what we want and start paying attention to all the other stuff. They make a big play and we shut down. We can’t do that. We’ve just got to be us.”
Lucas is right in saying ASU has not won a road game in quite some time, as the last road victory came on Nov. 18 of last year against Oregon State. Additionally, the Sun Devils only won two of their four road games last year.
There were plenty of issues last year, but this season, the Sun Devils have lost games because they allow big plays made by other teams to throw them off their game.
For example, ASU makes mistakes on fundamental parts of its game such as tackling in the case of the defense.
“We didn’t tackle very well in the first two road games,” defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said. “I don’t think it had anything to do with where we played, but we probably didn’t prepare right during the week to play as good as we can. So far, we’ve had two pretty good days of practice. I think if you don’t make the road a big deal, it’s not. We haven’t even talked about going there this week. It’s just another opportunity to play football.”
ASU is trying to adapt to a new approach regarding road games during practice. At this point, the Sun Devils are close to utilizing this method to its full extent.
“I think each week we’ve definitely gotten better preparing just as a football team as a whole," redshirt senior Manny Wilkins said. “We’re starting to figure out practicing the right way, preparing the right way, watching film the right way as a group. Some guys do it right, some guys — freshman — may not have it figured out yet. We’re at the point where everybody is on a routine and got everything figured out and that’s when things start clicking when you prepare consistently the correct way.”
Now, the Sun Devils have to rely on all of the improvements they are continuing to make as the season carries on with a very tough opponent in Colorado.
“It’s huge. I think that we have a lot of opportunity to be a special team,” Wilkins said. “In order to be special, you’re going to have to win on the road. We’re going to go against a really well-coached football team, so now it’s just about putting all the pieces together and letting it roll the correct way.”
Not only would ASU have the confidence that comes with a major comeback if they beat Colorado on the road, but they will have a massive amount of momentum to carry them into the games against even tougher opponents that lie ahead.
“It would be very crucial to our year …” Lucas said.“ I think this road game is going to determine a lot, especially with our season … Next, we’ve got a little break, but then we’re back on Stanford and then USC. We’ve got a hard schedule.”
Reach the reporter at pburnell@asu.edu or follow @paige_burnell on Twitter.
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