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ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 14, 2015

Todd Graham

Tempe, Arizona

Arizona State - 27, Washington - 17

COACH GRAHAM: I think Bercovici said it all so I'm out of here. That was impressive.

Well, first, I want to say, can I say something? Man, I tell you what, I'm just extremely proud of our football team. That was the most chaotic first quarter I think I've ever been in.

We lost our free safety this week in practice. We lost Jordan, then we lose Laiu. And we got guys that are third team playing.

These guys motion shift every play and they had some things that they were doing that they were -- the first half, they had some really good things that were getting us a little bit outflanked and stuff and so we had to make a lot of adjustments and stuff on the move.

But I can't tell you how proud I am of James Johnson and Chad Adams, Marcus Ball, I mean, man, that was impressive. It was guys that -- some of those guys, I don't think Marcus got any reps, he got maybe four reps in practice. So that was really phenomenal.

My heart goes out to Jordan. Man, he's been incredible for us. Great leader. But I tell you, our guys, to face that kind of adversity, I haven't seen it on film, I thought that was a really bad first half.

But you know what, man, these guys, it feels good that what we stand for and what we teach, it works.

We talk about each other and what it means to be a Sun Devil and you've seen it demonstrated today. That's heart. That's character. That was impressive. I couldn't be more proud of our football team. Questions?

Q. When Laiu was out of the game you guys have tended to struggle. You take Jordan off the field also, what enabled --
COACH GRAHAM: That's a lot of starts right there.

Q. What enabled -- especially in light of the first half struggles, what enabled that in the second half?
COACH GRAHAM: Well, I mean we got, obviously, smart guys. Chad actually wound up playing bandit. James wound up playing free. James was reps last week at spur.

So, I got Daz on the side. I said Daz look, if anybody goes down at spur, free, or bandit, you're in. Any of the three. That's where we were. Because we lost Kareem.

But -- and Coach Pete does a great job. They do a lot of shifts and motions and all kinds of things and Salamo was hurting.

And we lost Jordan, who is our major communicator for us. Laiu is a major communicator for us. And I think it's a great testimony to Marcus. And I just told him to listen, just do what Salamo says, don't say anything, just do what he says.

And so we had to simplify a little bit and be a little more basic in what we were doing. But we also got back to just, we would kind of -- we pressured. We brought the heat.

But I think this is a testimony to our players. That's, that was impressive. I tell you though, I think I mentioned Will Sutton one time, who has really inspired me in his efforts and how he played at the Rose Bowl against UCLA.

Tony Longino inspired me in the same way. He should not even have played. As a matter of fact, I don't let you play if you don't practice. He took four reps. He took four reps on Thursday. And in no way did he need to play, in my opinion. And he let me know that that wasn't going to be my decision.

Just the way he inspired his teammates and the way he played and, I mean, I was inspired. Usually I'm doing my job but I was sitting there at halftime and I even pointed him out and I said man, it means something to him.

And I don't know, when you pour into these kids and you see it and you see the hard work and, man, it's been tough. It's been tough.

Now it ain't like -- we're losing close games in the fourth quarter. And to see them just to see how they have never, ever, ever have I felt like that they did not play every snap and play hard and play with character and just great to see that. Because it tells me that we're doing some good things in what we're teaching these young men.

So our guys -- Tony is a guy that needs to be pointed out, man, I mean it was phenomenal how he was leading. It was impressive.

Q. Jordan had an injury that was pretty serious, can you tell us anything about his situation?
COACH GRAHAM: You know, I shouldn't. But I think it's pretty serious. But I don't know for sure. But it doesn't look good.

Q. Can you give us an idea of how that conversation with Antonio went when you told him he wasn't going to play, and he said he was?
COACH GRAHAM: Yeah, I told him I said look, you don't practice you can't play. And then he said, I did practice. I got four reps.

And then -- no, I mean, it wasn't -- I mean this young man has accomplished a lot and sacrificed a lot and there's only two more times, this one and then next week, that's it. He ain't never going to play in this stadium again.

So, I wasn't going to -- I strictly left that up to him. We wouldn't let him play if the doctors wouldn't clear him, just so you know. I don't make those decisions on getting cleared.

But he had an injury where he just wasn't a hundred percent. He was probably about 85. So it was just one I just said, what do you think? And he said well, what do you mean what am I thinking? He said I'm going to play. And I said okay.

Q. What did you see from him once he was on the field? You talked about the inspired play.
COACH GRAHAM: Just heart. Just heart. He had tears in his eyes, in the first half he did. He was bringing it. I mean he was inspiring his teammates and it wasn't going very well.

And it was very -- we were trying to like I can't describe what that's like. That's about as uncomfortable as I've been in a game since I've been here. Okay. And we're just trying to hold -- keep the walls from falling in on the thing, because you got so many things that are happening, so much -- losing one guy right after another and that was difficult.

For him, really, because we lost, he didn't play last week, Antonio didn't. Kareem, we lost him in the week. He practiced most of the week, but so he got most of the reps at free safety and then we lost him on a little deal.

So Tony playing was really big. Really big. So I was really proud of him. Man, I'm going to tell you, I love sitting here listening to them and I love how they care about each other and how much it means to them. I wish you could stand there at halftime. That's one of the cool things about my job is I get to stand there in front of them and see the look on their face. And man, there was fire in their eyes. It means something to them. We were in there talking about each other. They talk about how much V means to them and DJ. And 90 football games, that's pretty impressive.

And this senior bunch is really special to me. To see them do that, especially as maligned as it's been, and I mean, I'm not -- you know, you win or you don't. That's the way it is.

But at the same time, I love these kids and I was really proud to see that. To see that there's not, there wasn't any -- sometimes when it gets like that and people are like, it's chaotic, people are not, we're trying to get a hold on things, people can start to complain, people can start to go, what are you doing and start to yell at other people and all that. There was none of that. There was none of that.

There was none of that. There was nothing but inspiring Chad, inspiring James, inspiring Marcus. And I mean -- and what's amazing is Laiu, he comes over there, he's explaining to him, now look man, when they line up in this, this is what they're going to do. He's coaching them up. Jordan is on his crutches coaching up Chad at safety. So impressive. Impressive group of guys.

Q. You guys haven't been able to force turnovers this season at the same rate you have in years past, but the last four UW possessions all ended in turnovers. How encouraging was that to see to close out the game?
COACH GRAHAM: Yeah, it was great. It was fun. It was really fun. Kweishi was huge. That was a big one.

Obviously, Christian's was huge and Marcus's was a big one as well. But, yeah, that was great. I thought we -- the only thing that was puzzling me is, we seemed sluggish or something. I think we missed -- I think seven people missed a sack on the same play. You know what I'm saying? I started to run out there and tackle him. I was going like, man, geez. You know what play I'm talking about? I'm just going like, are you kidding me?

So, yeah, those turnovers were big and it was fun. You guys ought to -- you ought to put a mic and a camera on Coach Patterson. He gets pretty excited about take a ways.

Q. You got two injuries in the first half, what's your halftime message to the team and what's the general atmosphere like in the locker room?
COACH GRAHAM: The next play. Next play. That's what it always is. It isn't -- there's not -- I don't give a lot of inspirational speeches, contrary to belief. I like to talk to you guys for a long time, but our kids really just get probably bored quicker than you do. It's a body of work. It's about what you do every single day. So, they know, they know. I think what you try to do is you try to -- being a leader is not panicking. I think everybody knows that this is not good. When you lose some of your best players.

But it was interesting. Now there was some interesting things that happened that I'll, I won't comment on, but it was really some interesting things. Sometimes when people haven't played, they will do some interesting things that will about -- that are really interesting. There was a couple times we weren't paying attention and the ball was snapped. So I'm like, look, don't put your mouth piece in, get your eyes over here, here's where you got to do this. Because there's a sequence. There's a lot of things going on, a lot more than you realize.

But it was just some, some really, really interesting things and I just loved how our guys responded to that and it's obviously for Jordan I hope that some how, some way he's okay, but man, he's been, if he can't play the next three games, then he's been really special and obviously he's a big leader on this team.

Q. In the first half you guys rushed Manny Wilkins in for a play or two. Was that part of the game plan or what was going on there?
COACH GRAHAM: Yeah, we have had that in the game plan for awhile. For many many weeks.

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