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There were four turnovers in Arizona State football’s abbreviated scrimmage at Camp Tontonzona on Saturday. While that isn’t necessarily good if you’re judging quarterbacks, it is a positive sign if you’re looking more at the defense.
Last season, the Sun Devils held their own on that side of the ball, which was especially noteworthy considering how the offense struggled. Look no further than the 15-7 loss to eventual national runner-up Washington in which Brian Ward’s defense did not give up an offensive touchdown against a team that averaged 36 points and 462 yards a game on offense.
But one area where the Sun Devils struggled was creating takeaways, which is uncharacteristic for a Ward coordinated defense. There are 130 football teams in the FBS, and last season, Arizona State was 127th in turnover margin. The only three schools worse — Rice, Nebraska, and Temple — had losing records like ASU.
The top team in that department? No coincidence, it was undefeated national champion Michigan, which had 27 takeaways and only eight turnovers lost.
Head coach Kenny Dillingham started emphasizing turnover margin in the spring, and it appears to be paying off.
“We’ve been preaching takeaways on defense,” Dillingham said. ” Four of the first 10 drives with the one and twos we created a takeaway and even though the offense drove a little bit, good offensive success, you turn the ball over four times in the first 10 drives, good luck to you in a real game. Kudos to the defense. For us, we’re preaching it, and it’s showing up, and we didn’t have that last year. And if that shows up, well,l teams that don’t turn it over and have a good turnover margin are tough to beat. That’s what I like about it. Back and forth. I can’t say we had many of those last fall. It was pretty defensive dominant.”
Last season, ASU had just nine…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/arizona-state-football-wants-more-200553811.html
Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Publish date : 2024-08-14 20:05:53
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