ASU Football: OC Mike Norvell reflects on loss to Texas A&M

Mike Norvell knows his offense didn't have a good game against Texas A&M last Saturday. And that seemed to have lit a fire inside the Arizona State Sun Devils' offensive coordinator.

In a team period that the media viewed during Tuesday's practice, Norvell grew frustrated and yelled loud enough to be heard anywhere on the practice field after the offense continued to struggle with penalties (two false starts) and dropped catches.

"Saturday sucked," he said after practice. "There's nothing fun about it."

Yet, Norvell took much of the blame for the Sun Devils' poor offensive performance against the Aggies, in which ASU had just 292 yards of total offense and mustered only 17 points.

Norvell pointed out the team is trying to adjust with its mixed personnel. On skill positions, the offense has veterans that have played college football for four-plus years like D.J. Foster and Devin Lucien, while also integrating young, underclassmen like Demario Richard and transfers like De'Chavon Hayes.

Norvell acknowledged that there is a challenge of balancing his skill players to play as much as they can, while not asking them to try new things in which they haven't received many reps. And ASU seemed to have struggled with that Saturday.

"That's my job, to make sure that we continue to adapt and adjust, and to make sure we have guys in the best position to be successful," Norvell said.

Speaking of best positions, he also didn't rule out on Foster possibly coming back to the backfield to get more carries like he did earlier in his career, although Norvell said he didn't want to force touches for Foster..

"That's something we've looked at," Norvell said. "We're continuing to evaluate everything we have."

Even though Norvell said he's looking into every option, it seems ASU is still trying to preserve freshman running back Jason Lewis' redshirt. When asked if Lewis would see some time due to Kalen Ballage's absence, Norvell said that Lewis, a late arrival in fall camp, is continuing to develop.

"We're just trying to see how he it plays out," said Norvell about Lewis' progression.

Even though he's still adjusting from the game, Norvell said he has moved on from Saturday's loss. He insists his mind is on this Saturday's matchup against Cal Poly as well as improving the offense.

"Like I said after the game, I thought there are things that I could have done better in helping prepare our guys," Norvell said. "Coming back and looking at it, we got to continue to focus on us."

Notes

• Offensive linemen Nick Kelly and Evan Goodman wore green no-contact jerseys for the second practice in a row.
• Tim White was no longer in a green jersey and practiced with the first team as a slot receiver. He dealt with an apparent left hand injury and was limited for much of fall camp.