Head coach Todd Graham

Opening statement...

"The Tigers are very good, a very, very good football team. I haven't seen a lot of people stop them. What happened to them last week is they turned the football over. They had some real critical fumbles and all of them on Georgia's end. [James] Franklin's the most dynamic player by far that we have played against, a tremendous command of what he is doing. You can tell he really understands the system and knows it well. [They have] very, very fast receivers. They hit two big-time plays against Georgia. They are very, very explosive. They remind me a lot of how explosive Oregon is when you watch Oregon on film. Really, last week the score wasn't any indication of the game. The game was close all the way down to the end and then they had some big turnovers that really hurt them but they have some really solid running backs. Their receivers are really good. I am very impressed with their system and [it is] a very, very big challenge for us defensively. We have to get takeaways. That is how teams have been able to be successful against them is for them to turn the football over. Defensively, they are very athletic and play extremely hard; hard-nose tough defense. Very, very well coached. I know coach Steckel on defense. [I am] very, very familiar with their staff. Obviously, I have a lot of respect for Coach and he has done a tremendous job. Each week it has gotten tougher for us obviously and I think this is going to be the biggest challenge yet. I think our guys know that. Nothing but respect for them and our guys know that our guys have to have a great week. The key for us is don't turn the football over. That is the one thing that we have to get corrected. We have turned the football over three times in two weeks. We cannot turn the football over in this game. We have to win the turnover battle and, again, continue to play disciplined football."

#ASU's national ranking (out of 120) in penalty yds/game last 5 seasons: 120, 114, 120, 108, 76. Todd Graham's teams: 18, 22, 39, 11, 73.

— Tyler Lockman (@TylerLockman) September 11, 2012

On why the snap-count was low in the Illinois game...

"I thought the tempo had improved last week. What is happening in a lot of these games that is hurting our snap-count is that it was 45 to 14 score so we actually slowed down in the fourth quarter, which we usually would not do. I thought we did improve our tempo. I thought we did a good job with taking what they gave us and spreading the field out and forcing them to run the football. I though Taylor [Kelly] and Mike [Eubank] both did a great job. The only negative things about what we did offensively were the two turnovers, that's it but we have a lot of room for improvement. We are not where we need to be yet."

On the key to winning on the road...

"I think focus. I think that is probably the key. One of the things we try to have the guys do is that how we do everything we do, we do it a certain way. I think just the mental aspect of it and also going into a hostile environment, it's going to be very loud. I am very familiar with the stadium and they have great football fans so it is going to be a loud place to play. Sometimes when you are at home there is the extra emotion that comes along with that and you feed off of the crowd. When you go on the road you have to go in there and you have to have a different level of focus and concentration. It doesn't really matter to me what we have done in the past one way or another, other than we want to honor the great things that we have done, but this is 2012 and I challenged our guys. What you just said, I challenge you and now we find out. You want to be a championship caliber team you have to go on the road and you have to win. That is just the way it is. I think that we are six and six on home and away and some people play seven and eight home games and that is a great idea. I'd love to do that. I can tell you that it is the hardest thing to do in college football. I have always believed that. We work very, very hard at trying to capture their focus and preparing. I think it is mental more than it is anything else. It's like on game day at Sun Devil Stadium. I've got a feel for it now. I didn't know what it was like and I have had two times out there and I really have a feel for it and I am comfortable.  When you go to a different environment it's different. We do some things. We always go to the stadium. I don't want the first time there to be when we are running out for the kick-off. We go in the stadium we walk, make sure we measure it is 53 and a third yard wide, it's a 100 yards long, the end zone is 120 whatever, we make sure all of the goal posts are the right height and stuff and tell them it is the same field. What makes it tough on the road is the crowd, is the fans. That is why we work so hard with our fans. Our fans did a great job the other night. I am excited to see how our guys do respond because this is a very, very good football team. From an offensive standpoint it would be hard to see one that is any better than what their offense is."

On moving things from the home locker room to the away locker room...

"We do all that. We take all of the signs that are in our locker room and actually have them made and carry them with us. We have plug-in air fresheners and we use the same air fresheners to try to make things as normal as they can possibly be. I don't change anything. Everything is at exactly the same time. We try to keep things like that. As much as you can keep them in the routine the better it is.

On the keys to winning Saturday's game...

"I think is your discipline. When you run out onto the field here everybody is yelling yay but when you go to an opposing team it is a little bit different than that and do you respond to that, do you acknowledge that. That is one of the things I have worked really hard with. We had two times in the first game that one of our players acknowledged the other team, their guy saying something and they start saying something back. When you do that you go against everything that we are trying to teach because you cannot be focused on what you are doing in doing that. I think the key is to have poise. I think the key is to have discipline and total focus. It's hard to do. You have to have a focus and know that you have to focus on the job at hand and not be emotional. That is what affects people on the road, their emotions. I don't think they get as up for the game when they are traveling and I think they get distracted by their surroundings. I think road games are won in April, June and July with the work that we've put in there. What we have done to this point I don't think has a lot to do with what plays we are calling. I think it has everything to do with the training the guys go through."

On pressuring and containing James Franklin...

"We were up here all night trying to figure that out. You better hang on. He has really got command of what he's doing. They have a great scheme and a great system. I think they ran 143 or 147 snaps and almost half of them were no-back. That's interesting. They ran the ball sixty-something times and threw it 73. We have been going through that stuff and looking at it. It is really a challenge. They have really great skilled players. Their running backs are really dynamic. They are a really good football team. I think their offense is the strength of their team. I think their defense is really good as well. I think we are going to have to win special teams and win the turnover battle. On the same end, I have a lot of confidence in our guys. I think our guys need to step forward, know that this is step three and know they have to get better. If we can come out of this game with zero penalties, and without turning the ball over, then I like our chances. This is going to be a heck of a ball game. These guys are really good."

On the discipline of his team...

"I think they are working hard to try to be single-minded in what we are trying to do. We had four penalties the first game. Three of them were with our second unit. We have had one penalty a game with our ones, zero penalties on defense, and zero penalties on special teams. Those have been conscious efforts. There are times that our guys could go ahead and hit the quarterback and it would be close, but they don't. They pull-off and they don't do that. There are times on the sidelines where it is close and they're careful about what they're doing. Not cautious, but careful. They understand that and I think they are seeing that. You look at the Georgia-Missouri game from last week. It came down to two things. It came down to turnovers and penalties. They were costly. So much of that is your playing hard and things are happening. I'm not saying that we are always going to have games where we don't have one penalty, or no penalties, but that's the goal and the focus. I am extremely proud of the guys and where they are. We have a lot of work to do, but they are performing at a level that I expect them to. I'm not surprised by it. These guys really want to win and I think they understand that what I'm telling them is the truth. If our offense does not have negative plays and we don't turn the ball over, we are going to score. There are two things that kill you as far as negative plays. One is penalties. Holding penalties are things that are critical to you.  Starting off first-and-fifteen, second-and-fifteen, getting a penalty on kickoff return and you are inside your own fifteen. If you get a penalty on kickoff return, you are inside your fifteen, period. That is what is catastrophic for you. Those are the things we emphasize. I think our guys are really working to try to improve that."

On the status of Brandon Magee and Carlos Mendoza...

"Carlos (Mendoza) won't be back. I think he will be back this year but we are still waiting. He still has to get an MRI. I don't see him being strong enough to be able to play this week. He would be very doubtful. Right now, we don't think it is anything that is going to require surgery. Brandon Magee has been cleared for practice this week. Mike Pennell is back this week and ready to go."

On using James Franklin's experience to strategize against him...

"You have to impact the quarterback. It's going to be about match-ups up front and being able to do things to be disruptive. There are a lot of factors that go into that. Varying what we are doing, but we need to put pressure on him. It starts up front. The first two games we have played in we have dominated the line of scrimmage. We have to do that in this game. He is a very experienced guy. I watched 2011 games and he is a season veteran. He knows what he is doing. He is very relaxed. I think the main thing that is impressive about him is how relaxed he is in the pocket. He is really relaxed in the pocket and knows that he doesn't panic when he gets pressure. He is very smooth, gets away from it and gets the ball out. He is very quick. He is going to be a challenge."

On having to move defensive players around in the Illinois game due to injuries...

"We had some issues, but I was very proud of Anthony (Jones). He had to move in there without practicing. I was also very proud of Carlos (Mendoza). If I had to do it all over again, I would let Carlos play. I was worried that he would be overwhelmed. He wasn't overwhelmed at all. He played great, fit. His assignments were all right on. He played well. If anyone made assignment issues, it was us [the coaches]. Sometimes that happens. People game plan and things come up. We adjusted it, and fixed it, and we were fine. I think our guys played very hard defensively. I thought we advanced and improved. Each day, each rep, we improve. Did we improve from week one to week two? Yes we did. It was because we were playing against a lot better opponent too, that they had some plays. We had some assignment issues that allowed a couple of runs that shouldn't have happened. We gave up too many yards rushing so we have to bear down on that."

On the offensive line...

"Kody Kobensky really played his best game. Jamil (Douglas) played his best game. Obviously Fink (Evan Finkenberg) and (Brice) Schwab and (Andrew) Sampson play well every week. I thought our offense line played well. I thought they did a good job at protecting the quarterback. We held the ball to one sack, because we held the ball. One of the things we don't need to do when you get ahead a little bit and want to try and throw the ball down the field instead of taking what they give you. Other than that the big thing was ball security. We turned the ball over twice but there were five other times that we were carrying the ball loosely and putting the ball in jeopardy. That was the biggest things that we need to emphasize to get better at and then continue to get better at tempo. I thought we were very poised. I like how our guys are starting to coach themselves. I like how they are coming off and they are talking. I tell them to talk to me and I think communicating in that way is something we have to get better at, because a quarterback they can really tell a lot; he's standing right there. There was a coverage deal and I asked why he did not execute with this technique and I could tell by the look on his face that it was something he was uncomfortable with and I said, `Look if the game is on the line I don't want you playing a technique you are uncomfortable running, so let me know those things. What are the techniques you like?' Like when we press up against the corner there are several different ways we can do that and each person has strengths and weaknesses in that. We are starting to learn how to get those things because there are a lot of moving parts there."

On his concern regarding the depth in the secondary (corner and safety positions)...

"I am probably more concerned with the depth in the secondary than I am with anything else. We are probably going to look at Deantre Lewis a little bit. I think Deantre can still do the things he is doing on the offense. We have a whole arsenal of guys there. Deantre is a team guy and came to me and said if you need me to help you, I'll help you, so we are going to look and try and see if he can help us there, if not in-depth than in a certain package or a way like that. We are very concerned about that with Laiu (Viliami Moeakiola) being hurt. I think he will be full speed for the first time this week. We have to work to create depth there. I think Ezekiel Bishop is doing better. I think he is closer to being full speed. I don't think he has been full speed all camp. He has a brace he has to wear but hopefully that will be coming off soon. We really have to develop some depth in the corner and safety positions."

On the depth in the linebacker position...

"The linebacker situation is a lot better than the defensive back situation. Carlos (Mendoza) comes back and I feel pretty confident. What happened with the linebacker situation is we lost our best player, so the coaching deal is a little overrated and that's what made it so disruptive. I personally was beside myself because we had planned with him and he controls most of the communication on defense so when he didn't play it really threw things off for us. We switched somebody around where we should have just put are back up in and went from there."

On Cameron Marshall's fumbling...

"The turnover in this last game was actually because Taylor (Kelly) was trying to pull the ball out in a read zone and really down there inside the five there doesn't need to be much read to it. So really it is just a coaching deal there. He [Taylor] was trying to pull it and he got past the point were he should be doing that and Cameron had thought he had pulled it, when it was on his hip as he was running through the line of scrimmage. For week one I think it was because he hadn't practice that much. It was just a play he hadn't run very much and it was a pitch and just dropped the ball. I have all the confidence in the world for him taking care of the football and it is something we are working hard to make sure doesn't happen. That is the biggest concern right now, we have done a very good job on the penalty deal and we need to come out to these games and make sure we are securing the football. Obviously, you are going to have times like in week one were there is a big hit collision deal and sometimes that happens and we don't want it too. We do not want to be careless with the football and we have some of that. We have guys running with the ball and pulling it out away from their body and things like that and we have to get them trained up on that."

On playing Deantre Lewis on defense...

"We just try to look and see how much someone is playing and how much they are being utilized. I'll be honest with you Coach Norvell is not for it. But we have to do what is best for the team, especially long range. Where we will probably look at him is a `spur bandit' type deal, specifically in our dime package, our third downs. I think we could put him in at third down and tell him to rush the quarterback and he'd be able to do that and do it pretty well. So we will see. We might look at it and nothing come of it but Deantre was more than willing, as a team guy, saying that whatever he can do to help the team he will. He is a phenomenal athlete and a very physical guy doing a great job. I came up with this watching him run down on kick off cover. He is physical and runs very well and those are some good things. I don't think that he is not going to be a running back but if we can utilize him in a dime-nickel package on a third down, then why not? The reps he is getting on offense are limited because of all the guys we have there but he is still going to be able to do all those things as well."