Martell Hughes

And ASU allowed no fourth quarter points, which was huge.

Martell Hughes records 14 tackles.

Nice game for Martell.

So the question is, was this a genuine defensive turnaround, or was this just a product of Kansas State not having their quarterback? And the backup quarterback's name was Kunth.

And we know because watching it and then seeing it on paper, you could see that Arizona State stopped the run better than they have all year.

Martel Hughes and Owen Long played arguably their best game as a tandem together at linebacker.

And I know there are going to be folks that say, oh, what about the Kansas game? That was an Owen Long steal the show kind of game.

Owen Long and Martel Hughes, two of the highest graded players in that game against Kansas State.

Martel Hughes specifically had a grade over 90.

One of the best run defensive games, run stopping games that he's played at Arizona State.

Took all the narrative of ASU can't do this right.

That's how creative and how deep this BYU offensive line and run game is.

They can play their assignments, but they're not doing great pass rush.

Our biggest strength is at the linebacker position with Owen Long and Martell Hughes.

Offensively, Reed Harris is an absolute monster.

Possible future first-round pick.

Like a Rodney Bimmage.

uh boogie wilson i look at some of the the the interior players in this front seven i look at like a cj fight i look at a martel hughes like these are players who've been in this system for several several years now right and it's still not functioning it's not working i shouldn't say still but it's not functioning in a in a way that we've seen dysfunction before right Over the last four years at Arizona State, it looks like an implosion is the only word that I can think of when I think of this Arizona State defense broken, right? A unit that I don't know if it's a lack of confidence.

I don't know if it's a lack of communication.

I certainly don't think it's a lack of talent.

I really don't because I think we've seen so many of these players succeed, whether it be at Arizona State or other stops before, right? Like Boogie Wilson succeeded at Arizona State last season coming in for an injured Xavier Alford to the point of everyone was super, super happy at the safety position with Boogie coming back this year.

Right? We saw Martel Hughes succeed and grow and evolve as a player over the last couple of years.

Made you excited to see him paired up next to Owen Long.

CJ fight and anchor for this Arizona State defense.

And it's every single time that opposing teams run the ball, this situation happens.

And it's almost like it's a Martell Hughes or Owen Long bailout.

And even

those two haven't played great.

That's awesome, right? With our second Owen Long coming in as a great linebacker.

And Martell Hughes has been solid this year.

but they ran for 260 yards.

They received for 242.

... make those tackles for loss behind the line of scrimmage, put Texas Tech behind the sticks, and, and force Will Hammond into those second and long, third and long situations.

Yeah, this could be a big game for Owen Long and Martell Hughes in coverage.

And certainly there are some other players on this Arizona State defense that I wanna talk about in terms of what the match-ups could look like, potentially taking a look at what Will Hammond and Joey McGuire could be game planning to take advantage of in terms of looking at that Sun Devil defense.

So we're gonna continue this conversation on the other side of our first break.

He's out this week.

You got Jacoby Williams, you got Koy Iken, you got Terence Carter Jr.

I look at ASU's defense and I say, "That's cool." Owen Long, Martell Hughes, C.J.

Fight, some of those edge rushers.

Second up is Carde Mack, number 25.

He's got 22 carries, so less than half the carries of, of the, the starting guy.

214 yards, so he's at nine and a half yards per carry, two touchdowns.

And then their third guy, Marquise Gillus, number six, he's got 20 carries.

So Gillus and Mack are both about there in terms of carries.

Gillus has 104 yards, 5.2 yards per carry, and a touchdown.

Hmm.

Just so you know.

Ashton Stamps was targeted eight times, Dequan Dunn just once, Boogie Wilson was targeted once, Bimage was targeted twice, Kai McDonald was targeted three times.

Um, outside of Montana Warren, um, and Ashton Stamps, the next two highest targeted Sun Devils in terms of coverage were Martel Hughes and Owen Long.

That tells you exactly where Hawaii wanted to go with the football.

Yeah.

So let's go ahead and get into our heat index.

This week, starting on the defensive side of the ball with your contribution here, Adam, you're going with Martell Hughes needing to have, uh, somewhat of a big game for the Sun Devils on Saturday.

Yeah, I think we've talked about so many, you know, ha- people who have been talked about, so many defensive players like, you know, Owen Long, Rodney Bimage, Ashton Stamps, the defensive line, the safety groups, Lyric Ross being out.

I feel like the one hidden contributor we've kind of- ... collectively, as, as a media, as a whole, have missed on is Martell Hughes.

Mm-hmm.

And this is a guy who, um, you know, is just continuously out there doing his thing, um, roaming around the field.

I, you know, forget w- if he caught that, if he knocked it loose.

Uh, but nonetheless, um, I think one of the keys for ASU in this game and, and bouncing back as a defense as a whole is going to be, um, to, to force some turnovers.