All-access: An inside look at Arizona State football

How do the Sun Devils prepare for practice? You're about to find out.

Arizona State coach Todd Graham on Friday gave the media an all-access pass to his program. Reporters got to attend pre-practice meetings, observe an entire practice session and eat lunch with the staff and players. Here's how it unfolded:

POISE UNDER FIRE

Graham's approach to discipline? It's not all talk. At 7 a.m., you can tell that simply by walking into an auditorium on the third floor of ASU's football offices.

Offensive players sit on the left side of the room, defensive players on the right. Everyone sits in assigned seats, leaders in the front row. (The Sun Devils even have assigned seats on the trams that later will take them to the practice field).

Among those in the first row on the offensive side: senior quarterback Mike Bercovici, senior receiver D.J. Foster, senior center Nick Kelly and senior guard Christian Westerman.

First row, defensive side: senior end Edmond Boateng, senior end Demetrius Cherry, junior linebacker Laiu Moeakiola and senior safety Jordan Simone.

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Graham enters the room and the talking stops. All eyes are on him.

"Elite -- dominant -- play-makers," Graham says, repeating the season's theme.

To win a championship, Graham believes you have to think like a champion.

"Elite is an attitude," he said. "Do your job, but do it better than everybody else in the country."

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Since this is the first day ASU will practice in pads, he reminds the Sun Devils to keep their composure. No throwing punches. No touching the quarterback. No unsportsmanlike penalties.

Poise under fire.

"How do we have fun?" Graham says. "By kicking people's ass. How do we do that? It starts right here. It starts with the details."

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HAVE SOME FUN

Shawn Slocum is the newcomer on Graham's staff, hired to run special teams and coach outside linebackers. His NFL experience -- Slocum spent the previous eight years with the Green Bay Packers -- gets the Sun Devils' attention.

So does his enthusiasm.

He starts ASU's special-teams meeting with a question:

"Where's Jalen?"

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Earlier, Graham had pointed out freshman defensive tackle JoJo Wicker had picked up a fumble and took off the other direction, trying to score. Redshirt freshman receiver Jalen Harvey ran down Wicker and stripped the ball.

"That's a heck of a play getting that ball back," Slocum says.

Slocum goes over ASU's kick-off cover team, showing video examples from his days in Green Bay. On two screens in front of the room -- one on each side -- he shows the depth chart. Under Graham, ASU takes an all-hands-on-deck approach to special teams.

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Included on its kick-off cover team: Foster, Carrington and Moeakiola, among the team's best players.

Three keys, Slocum says: Speed, physicality and finish.

And if the ball goes into the end zone, resulting in a touch back?

"Show some emotion," Slocum says. "I don't want any clowning, but have some fun."

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THE BEST DAY EVER

In the quarterbacks room, Mike Norvell sits at a conference table along with Bercovici, redshirt freshman Manny Wilkins and freshmen Brady White and Bryce Perkins.

The offensive coordinator quizzes the Sun Devils in rapid-fire fashion.

"Where is the running back, Brady?"

"What happens when that adjuster walks up to the line of scrimmage?"

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"What do we have to do with our footwork, Bryce?"

The quarterbacks answer Norvell with "Yes, sir" or "No, sir." If they forget, it's 15 push-ups. If they get something wrong they should know -- 15 push-ups.

The biggest thing here: The amount of information quarterbacks have to process on every play and how quickly they have to do so. How many safeties high? From where is the pressure coming? Who's got the protection?

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Norvell -- who just an hour ago walked through the halls singing, "I think today is going to be my best day ever" -- skips through formations, each one shown on a screen in the front of the room. All the information is right there: Quarterback communication, quarterback cadence, alignment, assignment, footwork.

It's the quarterback's job to know it all, and for a true freshman, someone who has been in college just a short time, Perkins is off to a good start. Norvell tries to stump him, but it's difficult.

"Beautiful," Norvell says after a Perkins answer. "That's good, that's real good."

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STANDING AT ATTENTION

In the safeties room, players are standing as if they are in elementary school and about to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

"That's something coach Graham came up with," co-defensive coordinator Chris Ball, who works with the safeties and hybrid Spur linebackers, said later. "We look at the board and visualize a national championship. We believe mental training is just as important as physical training."

Players remain standing while Ball writes the day's depth chart on the board for four positions including nickel back. He explains that depth-chart changes are "sometimes to see how you respond. It's all about your attitude. You want to play, beat their butt out. We're going to rattle your cage. That's what camp is all about."

When Ball signals it's OK to sit, the players take a seat.

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With only 45 minutes to cram in an hour's worth of information, Ball starts by drawing a third-down marker.

"That's our down," he said. "You have got to take pride in this." So much so that defensive players are required to thrust a fist into the air after a third-down stop.

Ball reinforces the responsibility each player carries for knowing the situation (down and distance) and checking with the sideline if there is any doubt. Absolutes are posted on the wall including this cardinal rule: Keep everything in front and inside. No cheap touchdowns.

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Ball begins installing nickel coverages although much is review for the returning starters. For others, including Armand Perry and Coltin Gerhart, the information overload needs to sink in more so than when they watched the same presentation on their own during the summer.

"I can just tell when I interact with them if they've got it or not," Ball said later. "Some guys will have a weird look on their face. A lot of the younger guys don't ask questions because they're afraid. The older guys have got to help the younger guys. That's their responsibility as leaders. Your job as a teacher is to keep them engaged."

Ball quizzes them about whether they are playing on or off a receiver in a certain situation. Inside or outside leverage? Why is it important to make the quarterback throw inside? Ball claps his hands twice to show how fast the quarterback will release the ball and the urgency needed on a blitz.

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One coverage is described by Ball as "the one we make all our money on." He explains how it can be disguised. He introduces another as "our dagger." And another as so effective that "if I had this coverage, you might not know me. I'd still be playing," at age 52.

Nothing about the lesson seems simple, either to learn or to correctly apply under the glare of game day. Next to character, intelligence is the second most important trait in recruiting, Ball said later.

"If you run 4.3 (for 40 yards) and jump and catch and do all those things, but you're doing that the wrong direction, it doesn't matter,'' he said. "The guy that works hard and studies is going to be smart and make good decisions. The guys that don't are going to get passed up."

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TIME TO EAT

After practice, ASU takes the tram back to the Carson Student-Athlete Center, where they shower and head up to the fifth floor for lunch.

On the menu: Italian sausage with peppers, lemon chicken, flank steak, au gratin potatoes, rice, fruit and salad. There are rules here, too.

No cell phones. Coaches want players talking, not texting.

In Graham's program, no detail is too small.

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