Sun Devils Practice Their Dance Steps

Arizona State practiced in its hotel ballroom Friday afternoon, declining to risk injury on its sodden practice field at Citrus College.

The other oddity was that Coach Bruce Snyder wasn’t there for most of the workout. Snyder was at a noon press conference at Universal Studios and couldn’t get back in time. He made the last 20 minutes of the ballroom drill.

“Even though we were inside, we were able to get in some work on the single-most important play in football--punt protection,” he said.

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When did Snyder first think his team had a chance at an unbeaten season?

“Right after the UCLA game, when we came back from being 21 points down,” he said. “Walking off the field that day, I thought, ‘We’re going to run the table.’ But I didn’t tell anyone that.”

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Snyder, when asked what this team does best.

“Listen,” he said. “It’s the best team I ever had for listening at halftime. I’ve had teams sit down in the locker room at the half, you tell them: ‘OK, we’re going to make Adjustment A . . . ‘ then they go out there and not only do they not know what to do, they have no recollection of you telling them what to do.

“This team, they absorb everything and know exactly what to do. It makes it look like they have great coaching.”

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The Sun Devils’ curfew schedule at their Pasadena hotel, as described by Snyder:

“[Friday] it’s 2 a.m., Saturday it’s 1 a.m., Sunday it’s midnight and Monday it’s 11.”

And what about Tuesday, New Year’s Eve?

“Tuesday night is lock-down,” he said.