by Doug Haller - Sept. 18, 2012 05:44 PM
azcentral sports
Arizona State coach Todd Graham admits: The Sun Devils need Mike Pennel.
The junior defensive tackle, who stands 6-feet-5 and 355 pounds, gives ASU much-needed size on the defensive front.
Through three games, the Sun Devils have started no one taller than 6-1. But Pennel's adjustment from Scottsdale Community College has been slow.
He played in the opener, splitting time with the first and second teams, but he missed the Illinois contest because of a team suspension. Tweeted Pennel: "I want to (apologize) to the sundevil fans and my family for letting them down this week. I will be back next week and this won't happen again."
Pennel returned in Saturday's loss at Missouri, playing a key role in ASU's four-man front. He finished with two tackles and had a quarterback hurry. Graham said he was proud of Pennel for both his performance and his approach.
"At the end of the day, there's only one way we're going to do things and for some people it comes easier than others," Graham said. "In a very short period of time, we've had a lot of newness. I'm new. We brought in a lot of new players that are playing. It's been quicker for some and not as quick for others.
"Probably the reason he hasn't played as much is I'm not going to change one single thing. We're going to have one vision as a program. Kids need that kind of structure. That's what will pay off for us down the road."
Norvell addresses rotation of quarterbacks
ASU offensive coordinator Mike Norvell on Tuesday talked with reporters for the first time since Saturday's loss.
He addressed his rotation of quarterbacks Taylor Kelly and Michael Eubank and where it failed in the Missouri loss. A portion of the exchange:
How difficult is it to determine when you put another quarterback into the game?
"I don't want the first time we work on something (to be) when we step on that field. We have a specific plan of what we want to do. We go with what we work on. That's something that didn't work out the way we wanted Saturday night. We did have a miscommunication on one of the plays in the red zone, which is totally unacceptable and we have to get that corrected as coaches. But I look back at it, the first two weeks, everything worked smoothly. The third week we come up about an inch short. It's something we need to definitely improve on."
How do your judge your performance as an offensive coordinator?
"Whether we win or we lose ... I'm extremely hard on myself, making sure I'm giving these guys the best opportunity to be successful. Obviously, when you lose there are a lot more plays you look back at (and think), 'Boy, I'd like to have this one back, I'd like to have that one,' but we got to trust what we do. Each week that we go in and work, we do a great job, I got a great staff on offense putting together a game plan for us to be successful. ... One of the biggest disappointments in (Saturday's game) is that we started off slow. We turned the ball over, the punt, the interception, those things really set us back. And then it was 17-0 and I think our guys just started to press a little too much. They missed a couple progressions, missed going through their reads. Those are things that we can't have."
If a quarterback is in a good rhythm, how does that factor into your decision making?
"It's a feel. As we're rolling down the field, there are certain times that I've had in my mind that I wanted to put Eubank in, and I decided not to because Taylor was rolling. There's been times in the earlier games that I wanted to start off with Eubank and then get Taylor in during the middle of the series. But if Eubank gets rolling, I try to leave those guys so they can do that. The situation in the game the other night, we were moving the ball down the field and we got inside the 3, and we had a set plan that we wanted to do what we had worked on (in practice). It came up a few inches short."
News, notes and observations
Change could be coming among ASU's starting receivers.
Freshman Richard Smith and junior Kyle Middlebrooks had first-team reps, long with junior Kevin Ozier, for the portion of practice that media were allowed to observe. (About three plays.) Two we haven't seen much of this season: juniors Alonzo Agwuenu and J.J. Holliday. At times in preseason camp, both ran with the first-team. For the first two weeks of camp, Holliday drew praise from both Graham and receivers coach DelVaughn Alexander. Both players were on the field late in Saturday's loss at Missouri, the through three weeks, they have have a combined one catch.
Tuesday, Graham was asked what they need to to do get on the field. His response: "One of the big things I try to tell them is that they're going to run 3.2 miles in practice every day. You can run it full speed and get better. Our guys have never seen that, so they don't know that they're not where they need to be in practicing. They look at me sometimes like, 'What are you talking about?' But the reason why we have trouble with some of the timing of our passes -- and this is not something that happened last week, this was in Week 1. On Game Days, we're running a different speed. You can't do that. You have to practice a timing offense full speed every day. And that's something we have not mastered yet. That's something they have to understand. ... Our rhythm passing game is the least to catch hold right now. It's been all run, play-action pass and those types of things. We need to get that going."
ASU is looking at changes on special teams, too.
Graham said senior Charles Beatty may join the kick-off cover unit and walk-on Andy Garcia likely will see more action. Don't know Garcia? That's because he just joined the team two weeks ago when the roster expanded. A 2009 graduate of Nogales High, Garcia was an all-state running back as a junior and an all-state receiver as a sophomore. After spending time at Pima Community College, he transferred to ASU. In Saturday's loss, Garcia not only traveled, which is rare for a walk-on, he also played as a gunner on the kick-off team. He practiced there again Tuesday.
"He showed some good things," Graham said. Junior linebacker Grandville Taylor, sophomore Marcus Washington, junior linebacker Brandon Johnson, and junior receiver Kyle Middlebrooks also could have bigger special-teams roles.
Offensive line coach Bob Connelly's assessment of the line in Saturday's loss: "We didn't do good enough. We didn't control the line of scrimmage. We let the noise get to us. The silent count got us. We were late off the ball. Our eyes weren't where they needed to be because of the anticipation of the snap count. We had five off-sides penalties, which obviously is not acceptable, period. And we didn't run the ball like we needed to."
The reserve offensive lineman who's shown improvement: sophomore tackle Tyler Sulka."He's the guy that's probably improved the most since fall camp," Connelly said. The offensive-line coach said sophomore guard Sil Ajawara also has earned more playing time.
Senior linebacker Brandon Magee pointed out that last Saturday marked the first time he has played every defensive snap since the Arizona game in 2010. "I was a little tired after (the Missouri game)," said Magee, who missed last season with an Achilles injury. He didn't play much in Week 1 because of the lobsided score and missed the Illinois win because of a concussion.
Follow me at Twitter.com/DougHaller.
19 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/articles/2012/09/18/20120918asu-football-getting-much-needed-size-from-mike-pennel.html
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