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Herm Edwards explains decision to avoid scoring a TD in ASU’s win over MSU

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Mark Dantonio expected him to take the points. Michigan State’s defense expected him to take the points. Spartan fans expected him to take the points.

But Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards never had any interest in scoring a touchdown at the end of the Sun Devils’ game against Michigan State on Saturday.

Rather than punch it in to go up by a touchdown out the end of the game, Edwards decided to sit on the football and set up a game-winning field goal with just 0:04 left on the clock. And guess what? It worked.

Coming off the 16-13 win over then-No. 15 Michigan State, Edwards was asked about his decision to settle for the field goal rather than get the ball across the goal line. And his explanation was pretty interesting.

“Most college coaches wanna score. They always think points are the thing, that’s how offenses are run,” Edwards said. “That’s where it gets away from them, I think. Probably a lot of coaches, in that moment, would’ve wanted to score a touchdown. I was opposite. We don’t have to score a touchdown to win this game.

“I was nervous about the fact that, we give them too much time, I’ve seen this too often in college football, they go right back down the field.”

Edwards also pointed out the fact that the clock stops after first downs, allowing offenses to get set and snap the ball in a hurry. He preferred to take the chance with his kicker as opposed to giving Michigan State’s offense another opportunity.

Here’s the full segment from Edwards’ press conference.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB