UCLA Football Preview: Arizona State Offense Is Full of New Faces
ASU's offensive coordinator isn't the only new face on this year's Sun Devil offense.
Considering the fact the Sun Devils have been embroiled in a recruiting scandal, you would think that ASU has more playmakers than they actually have. A year ago, they had Jayden Daniels at quarterback and Rachaad White in the backfield.
Well, White is now in the NFL playing with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Daniels transferred to LSU and has led a resurgence by the Tigers.
What a difference a year makes.
In fact, as the Sun Devils adjust to life under Shaun Aguano, change has been one of the few consistent things. Even though Glenn Thomas is still the team’s offensive coordinator, it appears that the depth chart may be more of a suggestion now.
Quarterback
Even though Emory Jones was chosen as a team captain, it hasn’t stopped him from getting benched in favor of Trenton Bourguet. The move has paid off for the Sun Devil passing game. The benching of Jones has been gradual.
Bourguet came in to the Washington game midway through the second quarter, but even though he threw for three touchdowns against the Huskies, he still didn’t get to play against Stanford the following week. Instead, the narrow 15-14 loss to the Cardinal resulted in a change in the starter for last week’s game against Colorado and he threw for three more touchdowns.
In fact, Bourguet has more touchdown passes in two games than Jones has in seven games. Considering that, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that the Sun Devils have put up their most points of the season in the two games with Bourguet leading the team, which seems like a pretty good reason to make him the starter.
The only downside to having Bourguet as the starter is that he looks to be a pocket passer. He hasn’t run the ball once in the three games he has played in.
So, if Jones should replace Bourguet, then look for Jones to be running the ball. After all, he has the second most rushing attempts on the team and has scored four touchdowns on the ground.
Running Game
That brings me to the Sun Devil rushing attack.
After losing Rachaad White to the NFL after last season, the ASU coaching staff brought in a graduate transfer from Wyoming named Xazavian Valladay. Valladay has been the workhorse back for the Sun Devils. He’s carried 137 times for 760 yards and 10 touchdowns. He’s the one of just three Sun Devils to carry the ball more than 10 times along with Jones and backup running back Daniyel Ngata.
By comparison, Ngata has carried just 42 times for 218 yards and one touchdown. Valladay and Ngata are averaging within 0.3 yards per carry of each other. So, there isn’t much of a dropoff offensively when Ngata enters the game. This differs significantly from the Bruins where Keegan Jones averages only half, 3.7 yards per carry, of the 7.5 YPC that Zach Charbonnet has averaged.
That said, neither Valladay nor Ngata are close to being as good as Charbonnet. So, the Bruins will have the edge in the rushing game.
Passing Game
Jones and Bourguet have spread the ball around quite a bit. Seven different Sun Devil receivers have caught at least ten passes. Despite that, no one has caught as many as redshirt sophomore Elijah Badger. Badger has pulled in 45 passes for 627 yards on a team where only two guys have made at least 20 receptions. He is averaging almost 14 yards per catch and he leads the team in touchdown receptions with four.
The other Sun Devil to catch at least 20 passes is senior receiver Giovanni Sanders. Sanders has caught 25 passes for 298 yards but has yet to find the end zone. He almost did against Oklahoma State when he pulled in a 73-yard reception on the third play of the second half, but he was stopped on the two.
Tight end Jalin Conyers has only caught 14 passes for 184 yards, but he’s been another touchdown machine for ASU. Three of his receptions have been in the end zone.
Bryan Thompson is third on the team in receptions with 19 for 317 yards. But, like Sanders, he hasn’t found his way into the end zone either.
Finally, Valladay has also proven he can catch the ball too. He has 15 receptions for 120 yards and two scores through the air.
Analysis
Overall, it isn’t that the Sun Devils are bad on offense, they have been able to put up more than 40 points three times this season, after all. But no one is going to mistake the Sun Devil offensive attack for UCLA’s offense. The ASU offense is solid and can certainly be called good, but the Bruins are an offensive juggernaut and I don’t expect Arizona State to keep up with the Bruins tomorrow night.
The real trick is that the Bruin defense which has been good most of the season needs to show up. This game has the danger of becoming a trap game on the Bruins’ way to the Crosstown Showdown if UCLA’s defense doesn’t show up. But if they do, the Bruins should win this game easily.
Go Bruins!!!
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