Forget easing into a season.
ASU football starts off its 2020 campaign in Los Angeles with a tough matchup against No. 20 USC.
With just six games until the Pac-12 Championship on Dec. 18, the Sun Devils, nor any other team in the conference, have no room for error in their quest to contend for a title.
"Every win you get, you feel like you're in the race," ASU head coach Herm Edwards said. "If you don't win, you have to count on others to help you out."
USC won in Tempe last season. However, ASU was without starting sophomore quarterback Jayden Daniels due to injury. The year before, ASU went into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and earned a win.
"This is the rematch," said ASU junior safety and Southern California native Aashari Crosswell. "It's 1-1 right now, we’re trying to get to 2-1."
Game info
Gametime: 10 a.m. MST
Location: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
TV station: FOX
Jayden Daniels' and Zak Hill’s trial run
There will be some learning on the fly when the Sun Devil offense takes the field against the Trojans' defense. Multiple coordinators will be making debuts with their respective teams, including ASU offensive coordinator Zak Hill, who previously coached at Boise State, and USC defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, who came from Texas.
"Game one is always a challenge," Hill said. "You don't know what they put in during the offseason, they don't know what we put in the offseason."
Hill said his unit has gone through film on Texas to see the schemes Orlando ran and USC games to go over the Trojans' personnel. He imagined USC has done similar homework as they have.
ASU has built the offense around Daniels’ skillset this year. Going up-tempo with audibles and motions, Hill could confuse USC's defense enough to open some running lanes for his mobile sophomore quarterback.
"He makes sure I'm comfortable, we go over it," Daniels said of the offense. "He wants me and the whole offense to go out there and play fast, not think too much, be physical and score points."
Daniels will also need to adjust to his new targets.
Graduate student Frank Darby is the only wide receiver who recorded 10 receptions last season and is still on the team. But, ASU has multiple freshman wideouts high on the depth chart, like Johnny Wilson and LV Bunkley-Shelton, who have received praise from teammates and coaches this fall.
USC's secondary consisted mostly of underclassmen last year, one that allowed 260 passing yards in four of the final six games, including 292 to ASU.
But this year, the Trojans' secondary appears to be stronger. USC will be returning six players who have started at least a handful of games.
Junior strong safety Talanoa Hufanga, a Preseason First Team All-Pac-12 selection, is the star of the group. Hufanga totaled 90 tackles in just 10 games last season and is a versatile weapon with the ability to cause chaos in the backfield, recording 3.5 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss in 2019.
Starting alongside him is junior free safety Isaiah Pola-Mao, who shared USC’s Co-Defensive Perimeter Player of the Year Award with Hufanga last season after notching 73 tackles and a team-high four interceptions.
How that unit developed during the offseason could be a key to Saturday's game and the Trojans' success this season.
Kedon Slovis and Co. vs Sun Devil defense
USC quarterback sophomore Kedon Slovis broke out as a freshman last year while replacing injured starter JT Daniels, who has since transferred.
Slovis won the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year Award in 2019 after throwing for 3,502 yards and 30 touchdowns in 11 starts. USC finished sixth in the FBS in passing yards per game last year.
Slovis picked ASU's defense apart last season, completing 29 of 39 throws for 432 yards and four touchdowns, with all of the scores coming in the first quarter.
"I'm very excited for the duel between us," Daniels said. "Watching (Slovis), he's a good quarterback, very accurate, has control of the offense and can make any type of throw that he needs to."
Slovis will be passing the ball to one of the best receiving corps in college football, led by junior wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, redshirt senior wide receiver Tyler Vaughns and sophomore Drake London. St. Brown and Vaughns were Preseason First Team All-Pac-12 selections.
Although the Trojans lost their leading receiver from last season, Michael Pittman Jr., to the NFL Draft, they are bringing in redshirt freshman Bru McCoy, a former five-star prospect whose talent level USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell described as “through the roof.”
“This is an offense that spreads the ball around,” USC head coach Clay Helton said. “That’s the beauty of this thing — you can’t double one guy.”
St. Brown is likely to lead the way, having amassed 1,792 receiving yards over his first two seasons. He excels both as a possession receiver and a deep threat, as he notched 77 catches last year while also scoring four receiving touchdowns of 30 yards or more.
Vaughns has also been a consistent threat in his career, totaling 2,395 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns over his first three seasons. London exploded onto the scene last year as a freshman, posting 567 yards and five touchdowns in just eight games.
But this week, they'll face a veteran ASU secondary with reinforcements from last year.
Redshirt senior cornerbacks Chase Lucas and Jack Jones are back with safeties Evan Fields, a senior, and Crosswell.
Jones could be a major difference in this year's matchup, as he wasn't fully healthy for the majority of the games leading up to the USC game. The former Trojan finished the 2019 season strong with three interceptions during ASU's final two conference games.
"Pretty much injured the first six weeks of the season, nobody really saw who he is," Pierce said. "We want to see him be that all-conference, all-American type player."
Pressuring Slovis in the pocket could also help ease pressure off of ASU's secondary. The Sun Devils' 1.9 sacks per game last season was tied for 75th in the FBS.
But this season, ASU has NFL-experienced minds calling the defense in co-defensive coordinators Antonio Pierce and Marvin Lewis in what Crosswell called a more pro-style scheme. Plus, the Sun Devils face a Trojan offensive line that lost its left tackle from a year ago to the NFL Draft.
Possible X-factor: ASU’s halfback trio
The Sun Devils have two halfbacks slated as starters on the depth chart, but Hill said he will use three in a committee.
All three are new to the team. Junior transfer Rachaad White and freshmen Daniyel Ngata and Chip Trayanum each provide individual skills for their positions, giving ASU flexibility and the chance to keep fresh legs in.
"We feel really good about all three of them," Hill said. "We plan on playing all three and seeing where it goes."
They face a USC rush defense that struggled last year, allowing 162.3 yards per game on the ground and 19 rushing touchdowns.
That weakness has been accentuated by the decisions of redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Jay Tufele, a high-end draft prospect, and redshirt junior defensive lineman Jacob Lichtenstein, an expected rotation player on the line, to opt out of the season.
Helton said he plans to play “a lot of guys” on the defensive front at the beginning of the season.
“There’s a lot of men who are going to be walking into that battlefield for the first time,” Helton said. “How do they react to it? That’s going to be the biggest thing.”
A year ago, ASU didn't have much success against the Trojans, but the interior offensive line is set to be more experienced this time around with a healthy graduate student center Cade Cote, graduate student Henry Hattis at guard and 2020 Preseason All-Pac-12 Second Team sophomore guard Dohnovan West.
Reach the reporters alexjweiner@gmail.com and cbreber@asu.edu and follow @alexjweiner and @carsobi on Twitter.
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