"A lot of people say they're an attacking defense because it sounds good"

In their first season at Arizona State (5-1, 3-0), Todd Graham and his staff have stuck with the plan of playing an aggressive, attacking style of defense.

The Sun Devils are clearly getting after it each week, ranking second in both tackles for loss (nearly 10 per game) and sacks (just over 4 per game). Tomorrow's game against Oregon (6-0, 3-0) will be a huge test for them, on both sides of the ball.

Graham noted that he took a look at Oregon's film during their off week before the Colorado game, saying that while the coordinators focused on the Buffaloes, he's still a fan of the game, and that it's in his nature to be looking forward to a big game like this.

After practice yesterday, Graham explained that when they first got together as a staff, they asked themselves "who do we need to be to beat the best in the Pac 12?" and then designed their systems accordingly.

"So we designed our systems around how we think the best way to do that is. There is no doubt in my mind that there is no way that your going to beat a team as good as they are by sitting there. No doubt in my mind, they're too hard to defend."

Graham says that their defense will still be aggressive tomorrow night, but naturally won't be able to do as much because of Oregon's tempo and making sure that they can get everything communicated properly.

"I told you from the beginning that we're going to be an attacking defense. A lot of people say that just because it sounds good, but that is actually who we are."