Eric Sorenson
Cornerbacks are told to have short memories.
For Arizona State senior cornerback Osahon Irabor it’s going to be difficult after what happened on the final play Saturday night at Sun Devil Stadium.
Some how, some way ASU averted a heart-breaking loss when referees failed to take control of a confusing and chaotic final 20 seconds as Wisconsin attempted to position the ball in the center of the field to attempt a go-ahead field goal. Without a timeout remaining the Badgers had no way of stopping the clock and the Sun Devils held on for a 32-30 win.
“I was coming off the edge that play just to make sure everything was alright,” Irabor told Pros2Preps.com in a phone interview Monday. “The whole time the clock’s running and I just look up at the clock and it’s at four seconds, three seconds and the officials weren’t really quick to spot the ball for Wisconsin. They didn’t have a chance to spike it or run a play…there was a lot of confusion…we were ecstatic. We felt like we played hard on both sides of the ball and we kinda deserved that win.”
For as nice as Saturday’s improbable win was over the Big 10 champs the road gets even tougher Saturday when Irabor and the Devils travel to Palo Alto to take on fifth-ranked Stanford who, coincidentally, beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl in January.
We have to have a tunnel-vision type of focus
Irabor, who played arguably his best game as a Sun Devil registering a team-high seven tackles (2.5 for loss) and sack, knows they will have their hands full with Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan and his array of offensive weapons.
“They’re a very discipled team who won’t best themselves,” he explained. “As a defense we obviously can’t make a lot of mistakes. They have very good players. Hogan is a very good quarterback.”
ASU is a quarter of the way through the highly publicized brutal stretch of games which concludes with a home date against USC followed by a showdown with Notre Dame in Arlington, Texas.
“Tough opponents, we can’t do anything about that,” he said. But our preparation, how we get ready to play [we can control]. We have to have a tunnel-vision type of focus that’s just one week at a time.”
Make sure to follow all the latest news leading up to and after the ASU-Stanford game. Pros2Preps.com will be with the team in California from Thursday-Sunday.
