Arizona State’s season opening of hard knocks continues after a tough first run-out against BYU.
Second trip? How about a bus ride to California to face St. Mary’s? Head Coach Gary Lane isn’t fazed. Neither is he too caught up in BYU’s 72-8 victory last weekend. The Sun Devils were right there with the Cougars for almost the entire first half. Only when they started shifting around combinations in the open-subs match did the score run away from them.
“We felt pretty good about a lot of things in that game,” said Lane. “Especially the first half. We were on defense the whole time and our structure was not bad. They have a lot more depth than we do, and I looked and realized we had eight freemen playing on that team. I think what we did bodes well for the future."
The game was a training exercise for ASU, albeit a difficult one. They found out a lot about some of their issues - lineouts for one - but handled the physicality and intensity well.
“We scored our one try off continued pressure, and whenever we had possession we went down the field,” added Lane. “We knew what we were going up against and we know the next game’s going to be tough, too. We saw what St. Mary’s did to Utah.”
And that would be win 81-15 over the Utes last Saturday. ASU will have to maintain more possession to avoid a similar fate.
Arizona State v St. Mary’s kicks off at 1pm Pacific Time. The game will be live-streamed here.
