We are going to need the game of our life from seniors Will Sutton, Davon Coleman, and Gannon Conway on the D-line. Tyler Gaffney hits the hole hard, we must tackle well. Third down stops will be key. Stanford really executed their gameplan well, when they had long scoring drives that took up big chunks of time. Ty Montgomery is a tough cover on the outside. ASU will need to be careful using man-to-man coverage against him. The ASU defense loves to blitz and go man, but Kevin Hogan made them pay last time. It will be interesting to see if ASU goes full blitz like usual, or decides to sit back in zone defense and bracket coverage. I think it has a lot to do with how Stanford is able to run the ball.
On offense I think it comes down to Taylor Kelly. No Marion Grice, means DJ Foster will be the primary running back. If Stanford decides to key on Jaelen Strong (especially the back shoulder fade), the opportunities should be there for Chris Coyle, Kevin Ozier and Richard Smith in the middle of the field. I would like to see Demarieya Nelson and DJ Foster in the backfield. I think that will allow us to still use Foster as a weapon in the passing game.
I like Mike Norvell's playcalling especially of late. He is using all parts of the field, plus running the read-option with Kelly. I think this forces Stanford to prepare for a lot on offense. The linebackers Murphy and Skov will likely both be playing on Sundays. It will be tough to handle, but ASU must run the against Stanford. If they have some success in the run game, I think you can neutralize the linebackers by mixing in the play-action pass.
