Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: ARIZONA STATE division champs last season, Graham has his squad poised for another trip to the conference championship, only with hopes to win it this time. The College Football Playoff selection com- mittee ranked Arizona State No. 14 in its initial rankings Oct. 28, which represents yet another sign of just how much the program has improved un- der his leadership. "The biggest thing that changed drastically from the past coaching staff was the discipline around the program," Lockman said. "You're not seeing stupid penalties, you're seeing guys act differently and they've raised the standard really in that regard. Then it's a matter of belief. You've gotten guys to buy in to the fact they could win this conference and got them to buy in that they could win the confer- ence and do more than that." Lockman cited the program's 37-34 loss to Notre Dame in Arlington, Texas, last season as an example of where the team has grown in just one year. "The biggest difference between Ari- zona State now is that last year that team had nine different guys starting [that aren't now] and a lot of that was holdover from the [former head coach] Dennis Erickson era," Lockman said. "As much as those guys responded to Todd Graham, it also seemed a lot in that game like some of those guys didn't play 60 minutes. A knock on a lot of guys under Dennis Erickson was that they'd quit near the end of games, and it felt like a lot of those guys weren't in it all of the way. "I think you saw a little bit of a lack of leadership in that game. Now you've got more of a Graham team and guys are doing that less." Like Notre Dame under head coach Brian Kelly, Arizona State is winning games it would have lost in the past, which should make for quite the show- down in desert. ✦ 2014 ARIZONA STATE SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Aug. 28 Weber State W, 45-14 Sept. 6 at New Mexico W, 58-23 Sept. 13 at Colorado W, 38-24 Sept. 25 UCLA L, 62-27 Oct. 4 at USC W, 38-34 Oct. 18 Stanford W, 26-10 Oct. 25 at Washington W, 24-10 Nov. 1 Utah W, 19-16 (OT) Nov. 8 Notre Dame (ABC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at Oregon State TBA Nov. 22 Washington State TBA Nov. 28 at Arizona (FOX) 3:30 p.m. 2014 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Aug. 30 Rice W, 48-17 Sept. 6 Michigan W, 31-0 Sept. 13 vs. Purdue* W, 30-14 Sept. 27 vs. Syracuse^ W, 31-15 Oct. 4 Stanford W, 17-14 Oct. 11 North Carolina W, 50-43 Oct. 18 at Florida State L, 31-27 Nov. 1 vs. Navy+ W, 49-39 Nov. 8 at Arizona State (ABC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 15 Northwestern (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 22 Louisville (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at USC TBA * at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; ^ at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; + at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.