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Sun Devil Football Lifts Lid on 2016 on Saturday Against NAU

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Sun Devil Football Lifts Lid on 2016 on Saturday Against NAUSun Devil Football Lifts Lid on 2016 on Saturday Against NAU

THE GAME - Sun Devil Football opens the 2016 season at home this weekend, taking on in-state foe Northern Arizona on Saturday, Sept. 3 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. The game, scheduled for an 8 p.m. PT kickoff, will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks with Guy Haberman, Evan Moore and Drea Avant providing the talent. 

It is the first time the Sun Devils have faced NAU since head coach Todd Graham's opening season in 2012. The game will give fans their first chance to witness the continued reinvention of Sun Devil Stadium, which will have completed the second of three phases by opening night.

THE LUMBERJACKS - The Lumberjacks were picked to finish first in the Big Sky Conference this year in the 19th season under head coach Jerome Souers. The Lumberjacks are led by the passing combination of sophomore quarterback Case Cookus and junior wide receiver Emmanuel Butler, both of whom have earned preseason All-America acclaim. Cookus ranked second in the FCS in passing efficiency, seventh in passing yards per game, eighth in total offense and broke the FCS freshman record by throwing 37 touchdown passes. Butler broke an NAU record last season with 1,208 receiving yards and tied the school record with 15 touchdown receptions.

ASU is 21-14-4 all-time against the Lumberjacks and winners of nine straight dating back to 1947. ASU is 5-0 since 2003 with an average margin of victory of nearly four touchdowns.

THE BIG SKY - ASU is 37-14-4 all-time against the Big Sky Conference and has not lost a game since its last loss to NAU back in 1938.

AN ASU VICTORY WOULD... 

  • Improve ASU to 75-27-2 on Opening Day in history and 57-15-1 on Opening Day at home.
  • Be ASU's 15th consecutive Opening Day win when the game is at Sun Devil Stadium.
  • Mark the Sun Devils' 10th straight win over the Lumberjacks since 1947.
  • Improve ASU to 27-0-1 since 1939 against teams currently in the Big Sky Conference.
  • Move the Devils to 22-6 in games played at Sun Devil Stadium since Todd Graham took the reins in 2012. 
  • Improve ASU to 10-3 under Todd Graham in non-conference games since 2012. 
  • Move Todd Graham to 35-19 as head coach of the Sun Devuls in his fifth season and 84-48 overall in his 11 seasons as a head coach.
  • Be the 18th straight victory in a home opener for the Sun Devils, dating back to 1999. 
  • Move Todd Graham to 5-0 in season openers at home and 4-1 on Opening Day as head coach at ASU.

#10THINGS (Twitter-Friendly Notes)

  • 1. 2016 marks just 11th time since '66 that ASU enters season with ZERO returning QB starts. 76-42-1 all-time on those previous 10 occasions.
  • 2. Additionally, @FootballASU is one of just 2 schools (Tulane) in the FBS without a quarterback on the roster that's thrown a D-I pass.
  • 3. Already with eight 100+ yard rushing games in his career,  @thefaceofcali in 9th in @FootballASU history in the category, 3 out of top-5.
  • 4. In four seasons under Graham, ASU's defense has forced 1,388 plays that have not resulted in positive yardage out of 3,827 plays (36.3%).
  • 5. In four years under Todd Graham, ASU has outscored opponents 483-225 in points off takeaways and leads FBS with 13 pick sixes.
  • 6. After posting 972 kick return yards last year, @tim_white6 needs just 545 in 2016 to set the @FootballASU career record. 
  • 7. Under @CoachGrahamASU, the Sun Devils are third among FBS schools w/ just 34.6 penalty ypg since 2012 (Navy/Air Force).
  • 8. LB Salamo Fiso needs just 6.5 TFL and 24 solo tackles to move into the Top-10/Top-5 in those two categories.
  • 9. The school record holder in points scored, @ZaneG_5 enters 2016 as the NCAA active leader in career scoring (9.9 ppg)
  • 10. With 32 punts downed inside the 20 last season, @matthaack21 finished second among all FBS punters in the category. 

ON THE AIR

Hear the hometown call with broadcaster Tim Healey and color analyst Jeff Van Raaphorst as well as sideline reporter Derek Hagan providing all the action for Sun Devil Football this season. The hometown broadcasts are boosted by Bonneville's powerful sports/talk lineup of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, ESPN Phoenix 620 AM and 92.3 KTAR News FM. This week's game will broadcast on ESPN Phoenix 620 AM. The hometown call will be on Sirius Channel 83/XM Channel 83. 

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

The Sun Devils will look to continue their impressive 14-1 all-time when playing a game broadcasted by the Pac-12 Networks. The season opener will feature Guy Haberman on the call alongside analyst Evan Moore while Drea Avant will provide insight from the sidelines.

The Pac-12 will again provide access to Armed Forces Network for carriage of Pac-12 football games in 2016 for the benefit of the men and women in the military.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

  • 2016 will be just the 11th time in the last 50 years that the team will not have a single quarterback start returning (and second time under Todd Graham) and just the fifth time since 1992 that it has occured. For whatever it is worth, ASU is 76-42-1 all-time in those previous 10 seasons where it did not have any quarterback starts returning. ASU is one of just 10 teams in the FBS without a returning QB start this year.
  • ASU also has no quarterbacks who have officially thrown a pass in a college game, joining Tulane as the only other program this year in that category. 
  • Last season, ASU's roster combined for 27 occurrences of a player eclipsing 100 all-purpose yards in a game this season, compared to 16 times in all of 2014.
  • Demario Richard had seven 100-yard rushing games last year, becoming just the fourth Sun Devil in history to do so in seven or more games in a season (Freddy Williams-8/1975, Art Malone-8/1968), Woody Green-7(x2)/1972 and 1973).
  • After playing in its fifth straight bowl game last year, ASU broke the previous record of four straight bowl teams held by Frank Kush's 1970-73 squads.
  • The Sun Devils will enter the season with the fifth fewest returning offensive line starts (15) of any team in the country. 
  • The ASU offense returns a grand total of 90 career starts this season. Conversely, those seniors that graduated after last season had a combined 178 career starts, meaning the Devils lost over 65 percent of their career starts heading into this season.

STRIKE FIRST

  • Arizona State has scored first in 36 of the 53 games with Todd Graham at the helm and is 28-8 in the Graham era when getting on the scoreboard first. 
  • The Sun Devils were 5-2 when scoring first last season, doing so vs. Cal Poly, UNM, UCLA, Colorado, WSU (L), Arizona and Cal (L). ASU was 7-1 when scoring first in 2014.

STRIKE FAST

  • 218 of the Devils' 302 offensive scoring drives under Todd Graham have come in three minutes or less (72.1 percent). 
  • Of ASU's 73 scoring drives last season in regulation, 50 came in under three minutes (68.4 percent).

GETTING STARTED ON THE RIGHT FOOT

  • The Sun Devils have outscored their opposition 473-256 in the first quarter under Todd Graham and 84-60 in games last season
  • The Sun Devils are 22-2 under Graham when holding their opposition scoreless in the first quarter and 4-1 last season when doing so.
  • A strong second half start is also important and ASU scored 115 points in the third quarter of games against FBS opposition last year, a 9.6 points per third quarter average that was ranked 14th nationally. 
  • The Sun Devils were 36th nationally against FBS teams in 2014 in giving up just 5.1 points per first quarter while being 31st with 8.0 points scored per first. 
  • ASU has posted an impressive 29-3 overall record under Graham when leading at halftime.

DON'T CROSS THAT LINE

  • Last season, ASU forced 370 negative or no-yardage plays out of 967 run by the opposition (38.3 percent)
  • Under Graham, ASU has forced 1,388 plays that have not resulted in positive yardage out of 3,827 total plays (36.3 percent).

SERIOUSLY, DON'T CROSS IT

  • With 111 tackles for loss last season, ASU's 8.5 tackles per loss per game were ranked third nationally and first in the Pac-12.
  • ASU averaged 3.54 sacks per game last season, a total that ranked first in all of the FBS.

LIGHT 'EM UP

  • ASU has scored 50 or more points 14 times since Todd Graham arrived in Tempe for the 2012 season.  
  • To put that in perspective, ASU eclipsed 50 points 10 times total in the previous 10 years before the current coaching regime (2001-11). 
  • ASU went 86 games without scoring 60 from 2005-2011. Under Coach Graham it has scored 60 or more three times ('12-63 NAU, '12-62 Navy, '13-62 USC). 
  • The Sun Devils have dropped 50 on Arizona twice in the last three years after doing so just three times in 85 previous contests. 
  • Last year, the Sun Devils finished Aug./Sept. 93rd nationally with just 25.0 points per game. In October, ASU was 23rd with 39.8 points per game and 21st/34.3 ppg in November.

SUPER DEMARIO

  • Demario Richard eclipsed 100 all purpose yards in all but two of his 11 complete games played last year and rushed for over 100 in all but four.
  • Richard is just the fourth Sun Devil in history to have at least seven 100-yard rushing games in a single season. Freddy Williams and Art Malone had eight each in 1975 and 1968, respectively while Woody Green had seven two times in 1972 and 1973. 
  • Richard became just the fourth FBS player since 1996 to eclipse 150 receiving and 100 rushing yards in a game (UNM) and was just the second player in Pac-12 history to do so.
  • Of Demario Richard's 1407 yards from scrimmage last season, 648 came after first contact (46.1 percent/2.7 yards per touch).

TAKING OFFENSE

  • After last season, ASU ranked second in the Pac-12 and eleventh in the nation at 37.45 points per game in the Graham era.
  • ASU ranks second in the Pac-12 and 12th in the nation with 1,985 total points in that time.
  • That said, ASU had three games last season scoring under 20 points in a game, compared to just one in the entirely of 2014

MAKE 'EM PAY

  • Under Todd Graham, ASU has outscored opponents 483-225 in points off takeaways, though it uncharacteristically trailed 68-55 this season.
  • The Sun Devils outscored the opposition 142-62 in points off turnovers in 2014, ranked fourth nationally behind only Louisiana Tech's 172, Nevada's 170 and Oregon's 164. 
  • ASU scored 22 times following 27 total takeaways (81.5 percent)  that year and scored touchdowns on 19 of those occasions (70.4). 
  • In 2013, ASU outscored its opponents 146-42 on points off turnovers while posting a +15 takeaway number, putting points on the board following 75.8 percent of opponent turnovers (25-of-33) compared to just the 33.3 (6-of-18) percent clip ASU opponents scored off of Sun Devil turnovers.       

A HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR

  • ASU finished with 27 takeaways in 2014 (2.1 per game) after having a streak of 29 consecutive games forcing a turnover come to an end in the season opener. The total was good for 24th nationally and third among Pac-12 schools. 
  • ASU led the Pac-12 with 33 takeaways in 2013, finishing fifth nationally. The team was seventh nationally with a 1.1 turnover margin that season.  
  • The Sun Devils have forced 111 turnovers under Todd Graham in the past four seasons, which is the eighth-highest total in the country in that span.
  • ASU has 13 interception returns for touchdowns under Graham, compared to posting just four total in the three previos seasons prior to 2012. The total currently leads the nation in for the most interception returns for touchdown in that span (3 more than any other team) and ASU has added three fumble returns as well for an NCAA-leading total of 16 defensive touchdowns in the last since 2012 seasons.

TURNOVER FACTORY

  • After last season, ASU is second in the Pac-12 and sixth in the nation with a .69 average turnover margin per game (Oregon, Michigan State, Houston, Boise State, Bowling Green) since Graham took over the helm and was second in the Pac-12 and tied for sixth in the nation with a plus-37 total turnover margin (Oregon, Michigan State, Houston, Boise State, Bowling Green, tied with Northern Illinois).
  • In that time, ASU is first in the Pac-12 and fifth in the nation with an average of 1.34 interceptions per game (Houston, Boise State, TCU, Louisville) since 2012 and is first in the Pac-12 and tied for fourth in the nation with 71 total interceptions (Houston, Boise State, TCU, tied with Louisville and Northern Illinois).

KICKING THE HABIT

  • A total of 79 of Zane Gonzalez's 88 kickoffs last season went into the endzone and 66 were touchbacks (75.0 percent), the highest touchback percentage in the country and notable as just 27 of 83 opponent kicks were touched back (32.5 percent).
  • Gonzalez's 64.56 yards per kickoff were .35 yards behind national leader Ka'imi Fairbairn of UCLA (64.55 yards per kick).
  • ASU had just 33 touchbacks for the entire season in 2014 on 91 kicks (36.3).
  • The 18 kickoff returns allowed by Gonzalez were the fourth-lowest total nationally and the lowest among all 67 teams with 71 or more kickoffs.
  • Of Matt Haack's 74 punts last season, just 22 were actually returned. With the exception of four returns of 79 yards, 45 yards, 40 and 30 yards, and including fair catches, balls out of bounds and kicks downed, opponents gained a measly 1.04 yards per ASU punting play last season on 70 kicks.
  • Overall, ASU only had 40 kicks or punts returned against them this season out of 165 total kicks (24.2 percent). The 40 returns were the ninth-fewest given up by any FBS team last season (three teams tied for the national lead at 25 returns allowed).

WINNING THE BATTLE FOR FIELD POSITION  

  • Under Todd Graham, ASU has had an average starting yard line of its own 34.7 in 34 victories compared to a starting yard line of the 25.5 for their opponents in such contests.  
  • Conversely, opponents have an average starting field position of their own 31.3 yard line compared to ASU starting at its own 29.1 in ASU's 19 losses under Graham. 
  • in 2012, ASU posted an average starting spot of its own 33-yard line that ranked 10th in the nation, according to the folks at Football Outsiders (www.footballoutsiders.com) and in 2013, the team ranked 13th nationally (average starting yard line: 33.3). With a 32.6 average starting spot in 2014, ASU was 13th nationally.
  • The Sun Devils also held their opponents to an average starting line of their own 28-yard-line, a total that ranked 24th nationally in 2012 and was 32nd in 2013 (average opp. starting yardline: 28.2).  ASU jumped to 11th nationally in 2014, forcing their opponents to an average field position of their own 26.9 yard line.

SEAL THE DEAL

  • ASU has outscored other teams 537-423 in the fourth quarter and overtime under Todd Graham.  
  • The Sun Devils finished sixth nationally against FBS teams with 10.6 points per fourth quarter in 2014, 10th (9.9) in 2013 and eighth (9.3) in 2012.
  • The Sun Devils averaged 18.5 second half points per game last season against FBS opponents, good for 13th nationally.
  • ASU struggled defensively in the second half, however, giving up 18.8 second half points per game to opponents, the 14th-worst total nationally. 
  • ASU did hold Washington scoreless in the second half, however, the first time it had held a conference opponent scoreless in the second half since the 2012 season.

ROAD WARRIORS

  • The Sun Devils are winners of eight of the last 13 true road contests. 
  • ASU has 12 wins in the past 22 road games, including 10 Pac-12 Conference road wins in the past 18. 
  • Todd Graham has 10 Pac-12 road victories under his belt already, the second-most among all ASU coaches since 1980 behind only Bruce Snyder's 18 from 1992-2000. 
  • Graham is 10-8 in Pac-12 road games at ASU, notable as the Devils were 5-13 in four seasons prior. 
  • The Sun Devils have won their Los Angeles games in each of the last three seasons (UCLA in '13, USC in '14, UCLA in '15). Only once before in the Pac-12 era ('91-'93/USC/UCLA/UCLA) has ASU accomplished that.

T.N.T., WE'RE DYNAMITE

  • The Sun Devils have a classification of "explosive plays" that equal a run of 12 or more yards or a passing play of 16 or more yards.  ASU had 12 such plays against Cal and 125 this season (9.6 per game).
  • ASU finished 30th nationally in plays over 10 yards last season with 216 and 27th in 30+ yard plays at 35.
  • ASU finished 24th nationally with 20 plays over 40 yards in 2014 after having just 16 total in 2013 and eight the year before.  ASU was 26th nationally in plays of 20 or more yards with 71.
  • The Sun Devils finished 2013 tied for seventh in the nation in plays longer than 20 yards with 86 after having 72 in 2012, which was good for 19th in the country in the category.

BETTER SUITED FOR HANDKERCHIEFS

  • Despite some atypical penalties last season, the Sun Devils were still ranked in the top-20 in all the fewest penalties/fewest penalty yards per game categories: 16th in fewest penalties (60), 12th in fewest penalties per game (4.62), 18th in fewest penalty yards (518) and 15th in fewest penalty yards per game (39.85), first or second in the Pac-12 in all categories.
  • The Sun Devils averaged just 4.5 penalities for 32.4 yards per game in 2014, ranked 16th in fewest penalties per game and fourth in fewest penalty yards per game in D-I.  In 2013, the Sun Devils finished eighth in fewest penalties per game (4.00) and seventh in fewest penalty yards per game (31.4).

KEEP IT CLEAN

  • ASU ranks first in the Pac-12 and third in the nation with an average of 34.6 penalty yards per game (Navy, Air Force) under Graham and ranks first in the Pac-12 and sixth in the nation with an average of 4.32 penalties per game (Navy, Air Force, Army, Ball State, Iowa).
  • Twenty-six of ASU's 30 least penalized games since 2006 have come under Todd Graham. 
  • Since Todd Graham arrived at Arizona State, the Sun Devils have had just 229 penalties in 53 games (4.32 penalties per game).

PROTECT THIS HOUSE

  • ASU is 21-6 at Sun Devil Stadium under Todd Graham.
  • In 26 regular season home games under Todd Graham, the Sun Devils have averaged 42.1 points per game. 
  • ASU has posted under 20 points in a regular home game just twice in Todd Graham's tenure - a 19-16 overtime victory over Utah in 2014 and a 42-14 loss to #19 USC in 2015.
  • The Sun Devils are 278-101-3 (.731) all-time at Sun Devil Stadium since 1958, the 25th-highest active winning percentage in a stadium among all FBS schools.

ON THE RISE

  • ASU is 23-13 in Pac-12 games since 2012, tied with UCLA (23-13) for the best tally in the Pac-12 South in the past 3+ seasons.
  • ASU is 18-9 in Pac-12 games in the past two-plus seasons, ahead of UCLA (17-10) and just ahead of USC (18-10) for tops in the Pac-12 South. 
  • ASU has finished first or second in each of the last three of the past four seasons in the final Pac-12 South standings.

USE THEM WISELY

  • Since the start of the 2012 season, ASU has used 58 timeouts on defense in third down situations, and have not allowed a first down on the ensuing play or forced a turnover on 40 of those occasions (69.0 percent).

IN-ZANE IN THE MEMBRANE

  • Zane Gonzalez currently leads active FBS players in averaging 9.9 points per game in his career. Additionally, he is first among all active kickers with an average of 1.87 field goals per made per game in his career.
  • Gonzalez had six field goals against Cal last season, a new career best, tied for the Pac-12 single-game record, and the ASU single-game record. With four more against WVU, he has connected on four or more field goals five times in his career, setting a school record for most games with four or more field goals, two more than any other ASU kicker ever.
  • Gonzalez has scored at least one point in each of the 39 games he has played at ASU and is well on pace to break the ASU school record of 45 such games held by Luis Zendejas for most games scoring a point.
  • Gonzalez finished the 2015 season averaging 10.0 points per game, good for second in the Pac-12 and 10th nationally. 
  • As a freshman, Gonzalez led the Pac-12 with 25 field goals and was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award. He was a semifinalist last season as well and named to the preseason watch list for 2015.

ZANE-IAC

  • With 73 career field goals, Gonzalez has more field goals made than any other player in the country
  • Gonzalez was good on 26 field goals last season and became the first ASU kicker ever to have 20 or more field goals in three different seasons. In fact, only Luis Zendejas had two such seasons before. No other player outside Zendejas and Gonzalez have had more than one.
  • After just three seasons, Gonzalez now has 386 career points breaking Zendejas' long-standing school record of 380 points from 1981-84. Gonzalez still has one more season to add to that total. Gonzalez now has his sights set on the FBS scoring record of 500 points (held by Wisconsin's Montee Ball) as well as the scoring record for kickers (466, currently held by FSU's Dustin Hopkins). If his career ended today, Gonzalez would also own the FBS record for scoring per game among kickers with his 9.9 points per game topping Hopkin's current career record of 9.6.
  • With 25 field goals in 2013, Gonzalez tied the NCAA freshman record of 25 that was set by UCLA's Kai Forbath in 2007 (25-30) that was four more field goals than any other player in the FBS in the process. 
  • Gonzalez finished with 118 points in 2014, good for a tie for fourth all-time on ASU's single season scoring list. With 130 points last season, he now owns the first and third-ranked marks in ASU single season-history.

TODD-BITS OF INFO

  • Over his four seasons prior to coming to ASU -- one at Pittsburgh and three at Tulsa -- Todd Graham's teams rushed the ball on at least 53.4 percent of their total plays. The 2012 Sun Devils rushed the ball on 59.1 percent of their total plays followed by a 55.2 percent tally in 2013, 52.1 percent in 2014 and 50.2 percent last season. In 2011, ASU rushed just 44.5 percent of the time. 
  • Over the past 10 seasons at Pitt, Tulsa, Rice and now ASU, only one Graham-coached team has ranked outside the top 50 nationally in sacks. The Sun Devils averaged 4.0 sacks per game in 2012, the second-best mark in the nation, and then finished with 2.9 per game in 2013 and 3.0 per game in 2014 to finish 17th and 13th, respectively, in the country. ASU would earn the NCAA statistical trophy in the category in 2015, leading the nation with 3.54 sacks per game.
  • In 10 seasons, Graham is 30-28 in true road games. ASU was 3-3 in such games in 2012, 3-2 in 2013 and 4-2 in 2014 before dropping to an uncharacteristic 1-4 last season (11-11 overall).  In the previous four seasons prior to Graham's arrival, ASU was 5-16 in true road contests. 
  • In nine of the last 10 years, Graham's teams have ranked 39th or better nationally in fewest penalty yards per game. The Sun Devils averaged 34.92 penalty yards per game in 2012 (eighth nationally), 31.36 per game in 2013 (seventh nationally) and 32.38 per game in 2014 (fourth nationally) and 39.85 per game last season (15th nationally).

HOLD ON TO YOUR SEATS

  • ASU played in four games in 2013 decided by seven points or less, going 3-1 in those contests.  The total is notable as ASU was just 4-13 in the previous four seasons in games decided by less than a touchdown. 
  • ASU was 3-1 in 2014 in games decided by less than a touchdown following the team's 36-31 Sun Bowl victory over Duke.  
  • ASU has now gone 7-5 in games decided by a touchdown or less since the 2012 Arizona comeback in Tucson.  To put that in perspective, ASU had gone 6-16 in such games since the 2007 season up until that Tucson game.

HOLD ON TO THAT BALL, ALSO

  • In 2014, the Sun Devils had six games where they did not turn the ball over and went 6-0 in those contests.  That number was notable because in the previous two seasons, ASU had just five combined games where it did not turn the ball over.  
  • ASU is now 11-3 under Todd Graham in games where it does not have a turnover.

TODD'S WINNING WAYS

  • Graham has won 34 games in his first four seasons at Arizona State, becoming just the third Sun Devil coach outside Frank Kush and Darryl Rogers to accomplish the 30-win feat by his fourth season. 
  • He has become the only ASU head coach to be bowl eligible in each of his first four seasons with the program.
  • He led ASU to three consecutive eight win seasons for the first time since 1971-73 in his first three seasons at the helm.  
  • Of all the coaching hires made prior to the 2012 season, Graham has posted the fourth-best record at 34-19, ranking behind only Urban Meyer (50-4), Jim Mora (37-16) and Kevin Sumlin (36-16) in the last four seasons.

NOT WASTING TIME

  • In his first  four seasons, Todd Graham has an average of 8.5 wins per year at ASU, which ranks him number one all-time in Sun Devil lore. 
  • ASU's 31 regular–season wins under Coach Graham (2012-15) were the most regular-season wins in a four-year span since 1980-83, and the team's 34 total wins were the most since 1975-78.
  • Graham became the third-quickest coach to reach 30 wins, doing so in 43 games (Frank Kusk and Darryl Rogers each did so in 40).
  • As far as Bowl Games go, Graham has wasted no time establishing himself in the record books as his three appearances with the Sun Devils are already tied for third among all ASU coaches and his two wins are tied for second.

ELITE COMPANY

  • Head Coach Todd Graham had a school-record 28 wins in his first three seasons as head coach at ASU, one more than College Football Hall of Fame Coach Dan Devine (1955-57). 
  • Coach Graham has recorded 10 wins in five of his 10 seasons as a head coach (Tulsa 2007, 2008, 2010; ASU 2013, 2014.) Since 2007, Coach Graham currently sits tied for No. 7 nationally in most 10-win seasons with five at FBS institutions, ranking behind only Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, Chris Peterson, Urban Meyer, Mark Richt and Gary Patterson.

TAKING DOWN THE TOP

  • ASU finished 1-2 against teams ranked in the AP Top-25 Poll last season after a gauntlet that pitted the Sun Devils against three Top 25 teams in four weeks (a loss to USC, a win at UCLA, and a loss at No. 4 Utah).
  • ASU was 3-2 in 2013 against team's ranked in the AP Top-25 Poll and the three victories were the most since 1997 when the team went 3-1 against teams ranked in the AP poll.  
  • ASU's 2014 schedule put the team on a collision course with three consecutive AP Top-25 teams (UCLA, USC, Stanford), a streak that ASU had faced only twice in program history. The last that happened was 2001, where ASU went 0-3 against No. 13 Washington, No. 8 Oregon and No. 11 Washington State. In 1994, ASU defeated No. 20 BYU in between losses to No. 23 Washington State and No. 21 Oregon.  
  • ASU came out of the stretch with a 2-1 record with back-to-back victories over No. 16 USC and No. 23 Stanford.  It was the first time ASU has won back-to-back games over ranked opponents since 1997, when it took down No. 25 Stanford on Oct. 18 before defeating No. 10 Washington State on Nov. 1 following a bye week.

SLAYING DRAGONS

  • The Sun Devils have gone 8-6 in the last 14 games against ranked teams. 
  • In four seasons at the helm, Todd Graham is 8-9 against AP-ranked opponents and the team was 4-2 in such teams in 2014. 
  • Graham has more than doubled the Top-25 win total of Dennis Erickson (3) and Dirk Koetter (2) during their tenures. 
  • In the previous 14 seasons, ASU was 5-40 in games against teams ranked in the AP poll.
  • Other notable victories include the come-from-behind victory over Arizona in 2012, winning a game in the Coliseum last season for the first time since 1999 and defeating USC in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1996-97. ASU also ended a four-game losing streak to Stanford.

HAACK THIS WAY

  • Matt Haack was a game changer in the field position battle last season and his effort against UCLA was a testament to that. He pinned five balls inside the 20 yard-line against both UCLA and Washington.
  • Haack was named the Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week for the effort against UCLA named the Ray Guy Award Punter of the Week as well.
  • Haack averaged 43.1 yards per punt last season, good for fourth in the Pac-12 and 35th nationally. 
  • Yardage doesn't do the whole story justice, however. Nineteen of his 74 punts were for 50 or more yards (25.7 percent) while 32 punts were downed inside the 20 yard line (43.2 percent). The 32 punts inside the 20 were the second most in the nation and four more than any other player in the Pac-12. His two touchbacks were tied for the lowest total in the nation as well.
  • Haack has a 42.7 yard per punt average in his career that current ranks tied for fourth all-time in ASU history.

GRAND SALAMO

  • Redshirt senior Salamo Fiso finds himself in a position this year to move into numerous Sun Devil records while also finding a spot on several preseason award lists, including the Bednarik, Nagurski, Butkus, Lombardi and Polynesian CFB Player of the Year.
  • Fiso enters the season just 14 solo tackles behind Mike Richardson (sixth all-time) for most solo tackles for a career and just 6.5 tackles for loss behind Carl Bradford (43) to crack ASU's all-time top 10 for tackles for loss.
  • Fiso finished eighth nationally and second in the Pac-12 behind teammate Antonio Longino last season in average 1.5 tackles for loss per game. His 6.0 solo tackles per game were also second in the Pac-12 (behind teammate Jordan Simone) and 12th nationally.

WHO'S THE NEW GUY

  • There are plenty of new faces on the Sun Devil coaching staff this season, an especially high amount given the fact that Todd Graham remains at the helm. ASU's five new assistant coaches this season are tied for the fifth most in the nation among all FBS programs that retained their coaching staff (USC leads with 7; Fresno State, Utah State and Western Kentucky all had 6 changes).