Arizona State Vs. Oregon: Todd Graham press conference

Todd Graham conducted his press conference with the media and touched upon the titanic tilt between the Arizona St. Sun Devils and the Oregon Ducks in the desert on Thursday night. Ryan Bafaloukos of House of Sparky grabbed these quotes from Graham's presser.

Graham touched upon how important tempo will be, and how ASU's offense will need to stay on the field to try and keep the team fresh defensively.

"We try to manage our snap count," said coach Graham. "I mean how many snaps we play defensively. Our goal in this game is to not be playing 80+ snaps on defense."

That becomes especially important considering how quickly Oregon can score offensively, and how much they can burn up the opposition. One thing Graham hopes that his defense can do to limit snaps is to force some turnovers.

"Every turnover we get, in my years of coaching, you play five less snaps (on defense)," said Graham. "You get four turnovers, you play 20 less snaps, keep it under 70, that's the formula to win."

This is quite possible considering the opposing quarterback. Marcus Mariota is making his first true road start this year, but even in his home games he's made mistakes, throwing the occasional interception. Graham is hoping that his Sun Devils defense can force Mariota to commit some turnovers.

"This is his first year, and this is his first game being played on the road," said Graham of Mariota. "My deal is this is a different year, different season. Their tradition helps them tremendously, their experience helps them tremendously. I do think the crowd, no matter how experienced you are, is a factor. That's why its so hard to win on the road."