Herm Edwards on Hearing Boos; Facing USC

After losing consecutive games and putting their season in jeopardy, all eyes are on the Arizona State Sun Devils this weekend when the USC Trojans come to town. 

ASU head coach Herm Edwards opened his weekly press conference and spoke about the challenge of facing USC this weekend. 

"Playing USC, not a whole lot to be said about those guys, they’re very talented on all sides of the ball. It’s kind of interesting. They’re playing two quarterbacks right now and kind of rotating them. When you watch them play, they’re very talented," Edwards said.

"Drake London, I would like to say for him my prayers go out to him. He was injured and is out for the rest of the year and that’s a shame. I hate for any player to be injured, but a guy like that obviously has a lot of potential and is going to play in the National Football League and you hate for that to happen to a guy and my prayers go out to him. Hopefully he has a speedy recovery."

London was injured in USC's 41-34 victory over Arizona last weekend, fracturing his leg and effectively being shut down for the season. 

How dominant was London? The junior receiver reeled in 88 receptions for 1,084 yards and seven touchdowns. For comparison, the next closest receiver in receptions and receiving yards is Tahj Washington, who has 32 catches for 396 yards.

Although London won't be on the field, Edwards says the Trojans can still manage to play well, even on the road.

"With that being said, obviously the USC game is an important game for us, it’s a game in our conference and we have a lot of players from California. This is always kind of one of those games, a lot of these guys know each other, there’s always some chippiness it seems when these two teams get together," Edwards said.

"They’re playing well, they’re talented and they’re doing a good job of playing offense and they have some really talented players on defense. So, we anticipate them coming in here and playing well against us and we have to start playing well, we have to play a whole game. We can’t play in halves and I think if we get back to our momentum, get going again and it starts for us early in games. We have to get it going offensively and defensively and just play a full game. We haven’t played a full game, we've played halves of football games and we aren’t going to win like that and obviously last week with five turnovers it’s very difficult.”

Two of those five turnovers came in the first three plays from scrimmage for the Sun Devils, ultimately leading to a 28-0 deficit in the first half and audible dismay from the home crowd. 

Edwards says as a coach, you can't take it personal.

“That’s part of it though. Remember, I played in Philadelphia. Fans are invested in their teams, they have a right to be angry and be frustrated, but the great part about them is that they will come back this week and they will come in here and be hollering for the Sun Devils," Edwards said. 

"We get that, we don’t ever take that personally. You can’t. That’s the great part about being in an arena. I’d rather have people come here and get their anxiety and get mad and let it out and be done with it. Now this week we get another opportunity, and hopefully they can leave here and if we win a football game they will be excited. I don't take that stuff personally. I have walked in too many arenas as a coach and as a player. I grew up in one of the best arenas to ever be in, in Philadelphia. You get it. You don’t take it personally, you just understand that that’s part of it.” 

Arizona State plays host to USC on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 pm Arizona time at Sun Devil Stadium.