Despite Winning, Arizona State Admits Penalties Were Unacceptable
Week 1 of the college football season, for a big program at least, is used as a measuring stick.
Sure, teams such as Arizona State will spend most of their time and efforts not worrying too much about a school such as Southern Utah. That's no knock on the Thunderbirds, but the Sun Devils know there are bigger fish to fry.
A 41-14 victory Thursday night will be published on various platforms for those who missed the game to read Friday morning, and it will appear to be a flattering score that upon first glance assures everyone that Arizona State handled business promptly in its first taste of action.
Yet, that wasn't exactly truly the case, as both media and fans could actually agree the team played far from outstanding against Southern Utah.
The Thunderbirds outplayed ASU on special teams, while the Sun Devils offense failed to generate momentum through the air. As for the defense, position groups such as the defensive line and sometimes the secondary looked a tad lost.
However, those issues can be easily eradicated. The main issue ASU will take away from Thursday night? Yellow flags, and plenty of them.
Arizona State totaled 13 penalties for 135 yards, the highest amount of penalty yardage for the Sun Devils since 2006. There were 11 for 120 yards in the first half.
ASU will be the first ones to admit, the flags need to stay in the officials' pockets in order to continually win games.
"If I’m being honest, I feel like we played sloppy on offense. We had a whole bunch of penalties. I think you guys (the other players) would say the same thing," quarterback Jayden Daniels said after the game.
"We still executed on some things, but we have to limit the penalties and mistakes. It’s just the little things. (The) o-line did a great job, but it’s just the little mistakes up on the perimeter that took us back. But going forward, we can’t be the team with this many penalties. We just have to clean up the little things, but it was the first game, we got the win under our belts so we’re just moving on to next week."
As expected, head coach Herm Edwards also wasn't thrilled with his team's output .
"We had 13 fouls for 135 yards, we turned the ball over twice, we did a lot of things that good football teams can't do," said Edwards.
"Now, fortunately for us, we took the ball away and we were able to keep them out of the end zone for the most part, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. We were a very sloppy football team, and our emotions got the best of us at times. And we got to get that corrected.
"I liked the effort of the players; they never questioned that they weren't going to win the game. But it’s not about this game, it's about really getting better, and you can't play this type of football if you want to become a good football team.”
Arizona State looks to add to its 1-0 record next Saturday in a home meeting with UNLV. The Sun Devils should be well-rested and well-versed on what needs to change to better their discipline.
Donnie Druin is a Deputy Editor with AllSunDevils. Follow Donnie on Twitter @DonnieDruin, and AllSunDevils @AllSunDevils. Like and follow AllSunDevils on Facebook, and for more ASU news visit https://www.si.com/college/arizonastate/