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ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 26, 2015Todd GrahamBenjamin FreakleyTempe, Arizona GEN. BENJAMIN FREAKLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm honored to be here on behalf of Dr. Crow and Ray Anderson, the director of athletics, and welcome you back to Arizona State University. You know, we're the No. 1 research university in the United States, and recently we've been ranked the No. 1 innovative university, and we're No. 2 in the nation in support to veterans, and that's just manifested by all that's done and in particular by our athletic department. This week alone we'll have a football game against Oregon where last year I predicted we'd beat Notre Dame, and I assure you this week we will beat Oregon. If you need to talk to me after that, I'll talk to you. I have the utmost confidence in Coach Graham, his leadership of the team, and we're going to prevail against the Ducks. Secondly, we're going to be playing basketball in November the 13th and volleyball on November the 6th. Arizona State University's Salute to Service starts today and runs through the 13th of November around Veterans Day, and the complete university is dedicated to showing our support to our veterans, our active duty service men and women, and our ROTC, and we do that in many, many ways. I'm taken that the university will showcase cleats that honor Pat Tillman and honor our military this game, and these cleats are fascinating. They replicate the boots that our men and women are wearing in combat right now. When you look at the back of them, you see three stripes that don't represent Adidas but in turn represent the sergeant stripe, which is the heart of our military are the sergeants that put themselves in harm's way every day, lead our young soldiers and advise our older soldiers like me. It's a remarkable pair of cleats. I've got to imagine when our Sun Devils suit up and strap on those No. 42s, there's going to be a lump in their throat, representing Ranger Pat Tillman, the scholar athlete that he was here at ASU, like many of our scholar athletes, and representing him on the field of battle against Oregon. Just a couple other points I'd say is that we today have 5,421 veterans, military spouses, active duty who are here on campus and online earning their degrees, mostly on campus. It's a huge commitment by the university, one of the largest programs in the nation. Secondly, we have 609 men and women in our ROTC programs being prepared to lead our men and women in combat globally here at ASU. It's one of the largest programs in the nation, and they're here because of the character that they're not only taught by our athletic department but is taught by our ROTC department to build leaders of character here at Arizona State University, and most exciting to me is the public service academy, only one of its type in the nation, that we opened this year with 88 students, growing to 100 this semester, 150 next year, so by next year we'll have 250 men and women at Arizona State University being prepared to lead our nation at the local, national, international level and nonprofit, external to the military. It's a huge commitment to service by the university. So thank you all for what you do to help us use Sun Devil athletics to tell a remarkable story of character, of courage, of commitment and service to our country through the stories you tell about our player athletes. Thanks a lot, and we look forward to you covering a great game and a Sun Devil win. TODD GRAHAM: I'll tell you what, I like your prediction. We'll try to hold true to that. I want to thank the General for being here today, and I'm not supposed to say anything, but you know me, I can't help but not say something. I'm really excited about this Thursday and the salute to the military. One of the things as you come in our building, I don't know if you guys notice, but right there as you turn left off the elevator, you'll see a picture of Pat and Kevin in their ranger uniforms, and then right there on the left you'll see a four-foot by eight-foot American flag. If you turn and look down the hallway you'll see a sign that says that there's 76 former Sun Devils that served our nation and three of them rode with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. You've got Bronze Star, Silver Star, we've got just a tremendous history in Sun Devils who serve, and so the American flag is made up of a two-inch by two-inch picture of every Sun Devil that's ever served. One of the reasons that's there is I'm an educator and I'm a teacher and I represent this University, and one of the things I think that when I came here, one of the reasons why I come here is because of the philosophy that Dr. Crow has, and that's one of being a teacher and our obligation to teaching the values of what our country is all about, and I think the number one value, and we talk to our players, is about recognizing and respecting that people pay a price, and the men and women that serve in our military, they pay a price and a heavy price for our freedoms, and it's not free. So much of the time, I think, it is our responsibility to do that, and so that's the reason why that flag is so big, and that's one of the reasons why we're taking this time this week to be -- we're all Sun Devils, but we're part of a bigger team, and that's being an American. It's really close to my heart because I feel like everybody in this country should serve. How I serve is being a teacher of the values of what our country is all about, and respect and honor the people that pay the price for us is very, very important to me and something we teach our players every day. And obviously we talk about Pat and what he means to this program, and not just what he did on the football field being a Player of the Year and a Defensive Player of the Year in the conference, but what he did academically and how he served his teammates and served his family and what a dynamic individual, but his individuality always came second and ultimately gave his life for his country. Sometimes I think we have so much news and things like that, you become immune to it, but we talk to our players every day, and our players are truly, on behalf of them, I want to make sure that the men and the women of the military know just how grateful we are for their service, and so that's what Thursday is all about, and that's why we're honoring them with the uniform that we're wearing, just telling them how much we appreciate their service for our country. I don't take it lightly to be an American, and we're just so lucky to get to live in this country, and the reason why we have the rights that we have and get to do the things that we do like play in this great game is because there's been a big price paid, and it's been paid by the men and women of our military. It's very personal to me. It's something that -- general, that's the only thing in my life -- I have a couple of regrets that I won't mention here, but I wanted to be a Marine, and that's what I was going to do, and my high school coach said, Son, you're going to get a scholarship, so I wound up playing college football and probably was a better path for me. I probably wouldn't have made it very long. But we really appreciate you being here. This is not something we're just doing. It's something that's really, really important to President Crow, to Ray, to myself and to our players. We've got great, great respect, every game -- when I came here, we'd run out with the American flag every week, and it's something we talk to our players about that I'm very, very proud of, and we live in the greatest country on earth. But you know, it's something -- something I think is important like with my son, every night when we say prayers, we always pray for the men and women that are sacrificing in the military for us. So that's what Thursday is about, and we're going to go out there, and I talked to our players about how important this is, and I'll be talking to them in pregame and talking to them all week about just how important that is and how we play, and that's one of the reasons why we play this game, and obviously we want to win every game, but it's how we do it and how we represent our school and how we go about doing things. That's why character is so important and discipline is so important and respect and honor. Respect is something you give, and in return you'll receive it. That's what -- we're trying to teach the same ideals. We're excited about Thursday, and really just blessed to get the opportunity to thank the men and women of the military. Questions? Q. The offense has struggled at times this year. Have you found yourself spending a little bit more time with that end at all, or has it been kind of the normal routine? TODD GRAHAM: Well, that was a mood killer question right there after that. I was feeling really good until that question there. (Laughter.) No, I mean, here's the whole deal: You play the whole season to get to the end -- this is the last week in October, I think, and November. Championships are won in November, and every year, no one ever gets it right usually. It's going to be the team that just comes out and every single day -- I always tell our players, when I come out on the field and I look and I watch every person in our organization, that person is serving, and he has a passion, right, he has an intent to get better every day, or you don't. There's not -- I don't talk about smart and dumb. I talk about people that are conscientious and people that are careless, and so right now, this time of year, there's been a big, big focus on that, so I've been working on both sides of the ball. You probably notice that when I'm out there. But my whole deal is about rising up, man. It's about finish. In our program there's three things outside our values that we're trying to accomplish. We want to operate with great speed, and if you have character and you're smart and you have the values that we stand for, then you can operate a lot faster than everybody else and a lot more efficient. Physicality, we want to be very, very physical. And then the last thing is finish. Man, it's time to rise up and finish and don't worry about anything other than I think the team that we're playing, Oregon, is at full strength. I think that it's no doubt you look at what their program is about, the challenge ahead of us, but the key for us is to take care of the football. That's the key. If we take care of the football, we're going to win. That's how simple it is. We're playing I think -- you can dissect it all you want. We win and lose as a team. Have we reached our potential? Have we played to our potential offensively? No. The number one thing that we focused on for two weeks is ball security, taking care of the football and getting our speed and our tempo going, and that's some things that we have to focus on offense. You can't just -- you've got to have -- we have leaders and we have people in place that are calling the plays and doing all those things. As a matter of fact, Coach Patterson is calling almost every defense now and doing a tremendous job. No one really notices that. I actually signal for him because I communicate with him. That's the honest truth. You know, I think offensively the big thing is just focusing on getting better at one thing, and the one thing we've got to get better at is our tempo and owning the football. That's it. That's been the number one focus for us. You can't worry about all those things. Every year there's a team that I'll watch in this league for the last three years, you know, that rises to the occasion. In 2013 it was us. We rose to the occasion, and no one expected us to be playing Stanford in the championship game, but we won the South, and we did that because we had a group of guys that fought and refused just to stay the same and got better every day down the stretch. That's the key for us, and obviously it's a must-win. We have to go get it done, and I don't care if it's 3-0 or 60-59. I just want to win. So you know, we have looked at those things and dissected them and really tried to look and say, you know -- and we're really close. It's just things that are -- you look at the UCLA game, you know, and you look at how we put it together there. We've really put together one complete game as a football team. But I will tell you we're playing at the highest level we've played at on special teams, but still, we shanked a punk last week and fielded a ball inside of the 5. There's very little margin for error, but we're playing better on special teams than we've ever played here. I think we're playing better in our run defense and setting a record pace in TFLs and sacks and all that. Defensively -- but you don't get to do that. Nobody cares. Nobody cares if you've got the best defense in the world; you lose, nobody cares. It's about the team, and so we do need to correct -- the one thing that's slowing our team down more than anything else is turning the football over. The second thing is the fact that we are operating too slow, right, and some of that is complexity of what we're doing, but we have gone back and really tried to come together with a plan that our guys can execute and execute it quickly. Q. I want to get your thoughts on what makes Oregon's rushing attack so good. TODD GRAHAM: Their running back. He's really good. Their running back, obviously big up front, obviously they've got a great scheme, and it's hard to kind of say who their scheme is like. I think the way they run the ball is very similar to what Arizona does and what UCLA does, so it's more of that style of a running attack. But he's just powerful. He's 230 pounds, he gets downhill, and he's very patient, a lot like Paul Perkins, very patient, not just a bruiser guy, a guy that's very, very patient about what he's doing. And then they have the guys that complement him that have tremendous speed. So they're not just one-dimensional. They can run it inside, outside, run a lot of misdirection. Every play is a run-pass so they really hold you accountable on the perimeter. He's the second leading rusher in the nation, and good reason for that. A lot of his yards are after contact. We've got to do a great job of tackling him. The strength of our defense is a run defense, so it's going to be a big challenge, going to be a big match-up. What was your other question? Q. What's the emphasis in facing that rushing attack? TODD GRAHAM: Yeah, our emphasis is obviously being sound in our gap fits, and we've got to stop the run and keep it in front of us in the back end. The other thing about Oregon, Oregon's offense thrives on the cheap one-play touchdown, so we've got to do a good job of vertically cutting people off and being accountable. They hold you accountable with all the run passes, so you've got to make sure you don't leave somebody free. You've got to be very sound in your coverage and also very tight in your run fits. Q. The Pac-12 is only four or five years old now, but there's been a lot of great starts and then teams that have faded and not finished well or vice versa, come on strong at the end. What do you make of that, and to you, what are the keys to finishing strong, sustaining through a whole season? TODD GRAHAM: Yeah, I'll tell you, that is -- you know what, we spend a lot of time in the off-season, I spend a lot of time talking about that, and I spend a lot of time complaining to Coach Cassidy about it. I tell him all the time, I just don't understand. I don't understand. God, do you know how important this is, because it's so hard to get your team up. I don't know if it's -- maybe I'm getting old, but man, it is so difficult. There's so many factors, you know, from travel to times you play. This is probably one of the most challenging leagues to play in from a time standpoint because the game is so late at night and all those things, the travel. So man, it's pretty important the years you have more home conference games than the years you don't. There's so many factors. Weather, you know, I wish we played all of our non-conference games the last three games of the season so that way we could have everybody come down here in September instead of us going up there. There's so many factors like that. But the key is just getting it -- that's why your foundation, the principles of your program, you know, and how you finish is so important, and we faded last year. We were -- man, we were strong, and then we went and lost a couple of games we shouldn't have lost, finished up good, but at the end of the day -- and it was different in 2013. You know, you got towards the end of the season, went over to the Rose Bowl and clinched it in decisive fashion, and just played -- was going stronger as we got to the end of the season. Obviously got beat in the championship. You know, the first year, you know, I thought we got stronger as the year went. Obviously lost four straight right in the middle of the season. So it's how you finish, and championships are won in November, but the key is the mental maturity of your team. Your program or anything that you do, any organization has to be based on values and character is about service and sacrifice. So we talk about that, and it's so important. There's so much entitlement and there's so many things that don't matter. There's so many things that you -- things are so overanalyzed. At the end of the day, man, you just bring it every day, and you serve the guy next to you, and if you can create that kind of culture, I feel good about our team because our team really responds well to adversity. The problem is I wish the adversity would quit happening, and so now there's no margin for error. There's no responding to adversity. You have to win every game to even have a chance. And so it's all about what's in here, man, and you face -- your character is exposed when you face that adversity, but to be a champion, too, you've got to have consistency day in and day out, and that's what we talk to our players about. Discipline, you know, is the -- throw everything else out. It's about discipline and it's about self-disciplining yourself, managing to get focused and prepared for every game. And what I find that's so challenging as a coach, the key is to get better. You stay the same, you're going to lose. You stay the same, you're not going no win. It doesn't matter how good you are. The team that gets better every week is the one that's going to be left standing at the end, and in this league it's never the one everybody expects. And that tells you how that heart and desire is 10 times more important than talent. Q. A few weeks ago you said that you would like to see Das get to a level where he can help you out defensively in addition to special teams. Is he getting to that point? TODD GRAHAM: He's giving me a headache today. We're teaching him the spur -- I'm probably giving him a headache, too. We've had an interesting two weeks. But no, I really think that he -- he has been a standout player for us on special teams, and you know, his -- he is a winner. I mean, he comes from a winning background. He's a winner. You know, from the time I met him and his family, that guy is impressive, and I really think he's a guy that can help us, so we've worked him at that spur position as well as the adjuster position, and where Laiu plays, and it's hard because he's trying to learn a complete new position in two weeks, but I do think that he might see some playing time there. He's really, I think, a guy that can help us. Smart, disciplined, you know, just our kind of guy, and he's got really good ability. Q. I want to get your thoughts on Ducks' quarterback Vernon Adams, Jr. TODD GRAHAM: Here's the big thing about their team: I think they struggled, obviously, when he got hurt and he wasn't in there, because he has a tremendous cast around him. Out of all the teams that we've played in our conference, obviously USC, UCLA and Oregon is right there when you look at their skill players as far as the talent, the talent base. When you look at the running back, the receivers and their ability to hit big plays, he gives them that stability, and he is a guy that can extend plays and he's very difficult to keep corralled. Heck, he came out of the pocket against Michigan State and threw a ball left-handed. I mean, he's very athletic -- and completed it. He's very athletic. He's the guy you can tell is their guy. He's the guy they want in there. He had been hurt, and now they got him healthy. They've got the two offensive linemen back that are healthy. I expect them to be full strength, and he's the guy. I mean, he's the guy that makes it work. They got him back against Washington and they won, and they kind of got a big lead and then Washington came back on them, but he's a guy that's a very dynamic player because of his ability to extend plays, and you've got to keep him corralled, and when he gets outside the pocket he can do a lot of damage because he's got a tremendous support staff around him. Q. Because you haven't played Oregon for two years, does it make it more difficult to prepare for them? TODD GRAHAM: Everything we did last time we're trying not to run. (Laughter.) Q. Also could you talk about Marcus Ball a little bit and where he's at right now? TODD GRAHAM: Yeah, I mean, he's just in the depth. He's playing on special teams, and you know, working hard to get better. That's about what I can say about that. He starts on a lot of our special teams units, and just working hard to get better. As far as not playing them for two years, I mean, obviously in the summer and stuff we spend a lot of time studying. Any time you're playing the defending national champion you're going to spend some time working on them. They're very different, and they've got a very, very -- they're very, very well-coached. They've got a very sound offensive scheme that's very difficult, and the key is not giving up cheap touchdowns. That's the key for us, and being very sound in top-down coverage and being very assignment oriented for misdirection. Q. Just because of the numbers both teams can put up offensively and what teams are allowing defensively, does this have the potential to be a shootout on Thursday night? TODD GRAHAM: I surely hope not. We don't want that. Q. Do you like Thursday night games? TODD GRAHAM: Do I like Thursday night games? Sure. Q. Do you prefer Saturday? TODD GRAHAM: I prefer Saturday at 1:00. Q. Why do you have to play Thursday? TODD GRAHAM: Well, because we have TV and we like to pay the bills. I ought not say that probably. Mike Bercovici. TODD GRAHAM: This is a big week for us, not just because it's Oregon week and we're playing on Thursday night. This is a game that we're honoring the ideal Sun Devil in Pat Tillman and what we're wearing on our jerseys and the tribute to the military is going to be a special night Thursday night. We're excited to be back into a live situation where we're playing this week. The bye week was great to rest and get extra film done, but we're really excited about our match-up Thursday night and just a special congratulations to my roommate Jordan /SPHOEPB I being one of the finalist /-DZ for the Jim Thorpe watch list, something that he idolized what every single Sun Devil is, and that's just a hard worker and it shows on the field. Q. I just want to get your thoughts because the offensive capabilities of both teams and how both teams are susceptible to giving up some points, does this game Thursday night have the ability to be a shootout? TODD GRAHAM: Well, I mean, this is an incredible conference where anything can happen on any day, but what we have to focus on is Thursday night, going out there and playing our game. Oregon has some talent on both sides of the football, but specifically the mission is simple: To win the turnover ratio, not turn the ball over, get turnovers on defense, and play hard special teams like we have all year. So if it's a shootout, it's a shootout, as long as we just want to be one step ahead. Q. What are you seeing from them defensively? TODD GRAHAM: Like I just said, they're a very talented football team. They're very opportunistic in their secondary. They've got athletes everywhere. They've got a good -- they've just been playing hard. Watching them on film, they make plays simple as that. We'll be ready. We'll be excited. Our offensive line is excited for the match-up. Our wide outs, running backs, tight ends, we're going to be geared up. We've gotten a lot of rest, and it's time to go. Q. It seems like if there's one player on the offense that kind of flies under the radar all the time, it's V. You just don't hear a lot about him. What does he bring to that unit? TODD GRAHAM: What V brings is experience. I think he's got the longest tenure of anybody on this offensive football unit. He's just been there before. That's how you can explain V. He's an extremely smart football player. He prepares the best of any O-lineman you can say. He knows how to prepare, whether it be mentally, physically, film study, and-e just a leader for the offensive line and he's just someone as a quarterback, it just gives you confidence with him on the offensive line. Q. Coach Graham keeps saying the offense is still operating too slow. How do you solve that problem? TODD GRAHAM: Well, I think it can never be fast enough. I think when you start going fast and go faster. That's just the fun part about being a tempo. We've got guys getting lined up. It all starts with setting your feet and just having a sense of urgency. It's a self-discipline sense of urgency. You can't have people yelling at you to line up. It's got to be within yourself and I think we got that accomplished this bye week and heading into this week. Q. Has there been any talk about the last time Oregon came here or these two teams played at Sun Devil stadium? TODD GRAHAM: You know, it's funny because it feels like light years away. We've got some pretty young guys who might be playing, but they're still fresh to being a Sun Devil, so they might not even remember that type of game. But for the few that are still here, we do remember that game. We have a little bitterness in our mouth the last time that they came here and they took care of business against us. But it's just exciting to know that we're playing against such a quality opponent who has achieved some of the goals that we want to achieve, and it's just going to be a fun night. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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