After being burned, have the Sun Devils learned from early mistakes?

Arizona State football opened up Pac12 play with a 35-13 victory over Colorado on Saturday, helping to get the Sun Devils back onto the right trajectory. It was a night Coach Herm Edwards and his team needed to have, not only to get the win, but to prove they are capable of more. Leading up to the season, there was a strong outlook for where the team could end the season, but those visions quickly were brought into question when Arizona State handicapped itself in two of the first three games. 

In preparation for the Colorado game, arguably the biggest focal point surrounded penalties, which had started to look like a huge area of concern. 

In week one, it seemed as if fans had jumped into a time machine and traveled back to the Dennis Erickson era, as the Sun Devils racked up 13 penalties for 135 yards in the game against Southern Utah. Things were slightly improved the following week against UNLV, with only seven flags for 63 yards, but things quickly headed downhill again the following week with BYU. 

The Sun Devils had 16 penalties in the game, the most since Dirk Koetter was still the coach in 2006. The penalties, accounting for 121 total yards, were deadly for Arizona State against BYU. 

Coaches spoke about it in the press conference this week, and how it was something they’ve been working on and it was going to take time to clean up, but have the Sun Devils finally woken up a bit after touching the hot stove and getting burned? In the game against Colorado, Arizona State still gave up 90 yards in penalties, however, those came on only seven total calls. 

Another red flag leading into the game against the Buffs was the number of turnovers the Sun Devils had on the year. Issues involving turnovers are not something new for Arizona State; In fact, it’s something they’ve been struggling with since the 2019 season. 

The issues are reminiscent of the October road game against Utah, which was a wet and chilly battle, where Arizona State turned the ball over twice. From there, the Sun Devils went on to commit three turnovers in each of the following two games against UCLA and USC respectively before giving it away twice against Oregon State. It wasn’t until the home game against Oregon where Edwards was able to get the train back on the rails and secure the ball to upset the Ducks and move on to defeat Arizona, finishing both with zero turnovers. 

In the 2019 Sun Bowl, the Devils had two turnovers once again, but it was highly overshadowed by the Seminoles’ six turnovers of their own. 

While the 2020 season was anything but normal, the start for the Sun Devils was spot on. Opening up the season against USC, the Sun Devils had three turnovers in what would become one of the most disappointing meltdowns by the Sun Devils in more recent history. They followed it up with two turnovers in the next game against UCLA before finally reeling things in against Arizona and Oregon State to close out the season.

In the game against BYU, the Sun Devils had four turnovers, which is something you just can’t come back from when it’s also paired with a slew of flags. Arizona State looked to have things back on track for the game against Colorado, but it’s still to be determined if ball security truly has improved or if the Devils found some luck against Colorado. 

Saturday’s upcoming game against UCLA is going to be more of a true test, though, as the Sun Devils will once again have to deal with crowd noise on the road. Cougar fans caused massive issues for the Sun Devils, forcing Arizona State to not only struggle offensively with the snap count, but also with defensive miscues. They’ll be up against another big crowd in Pasadena, giving the Sun Devils a chance to show if they’ve figured out a way to continue evolving.