ASU Football: Butterflies as usual for Taylor Kelly

Arizona State head coach Todd Graham preached one thing at Wednesday's practice - identity.

Graham said he wants his team to establish its identity before the Sun Devils travel to take on No. 5 Stanford.

"We have to be who we are and know what our identity is," Graham said. "We want to be a team that's known for playing defense, and that's the only teams that win championships... Good, bad or indifferent, we're going to be aggressive."

Graham acknowledges that Saturday night's game will be a much more difficult test than the Wisconsin game.

"It's a lot harder than last week," Graham said. "I've been working a lot more hours trying to get ready for that, and trying to make sure we got our guys prepared."

Graham also emphasized the importance of having solid practices during the week. He said that last week the team struggled on special teams on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and those mistakes translated onto the field.

Stopping Stanford's special teams was also a focal point of practice.

"They're probably the best team that I've seen on film on special teams. They're not the fastest, but they're the best," Graham said. "They're well coached, they're well prepared, and their guys understand what they are doing."

On offense, quarterback Taylor Kelly said that he has to play better than he did last week against Wisconsin.

"We got to have poise. We got to be confident and focus on what we can do as a football team," Kelly said. "If everyone does their job and their responsibilities, it's hard to stop [us]. I'm excited to go against one of the greatest defenses in our league and also in the nation. It's going to be a great game."

Kelly said the team has focused a lot on stopping the blitz in practice.

"They just bring blitzes from everywhere and [use] different fronts," Kelly said. We have a lot of work [to do] with our protections and that aspect."

Kelly said that even though Saturday will be the biggest game of his career, he hasn't been focusing on that too much in practice.

"I always have those kind of butterflies... I'm anxious, I'm excited to get playing," Kelly said. "I feel comfortable with the game, and the job at hand. We had a great practice these past two days. We're very confident in ourselves right now."