Pitchfork Nation

We're Now on Fanster

2009-02-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Blogspot for some great hosting over the past couple years.

However, this will be the last official post, as we've been invited to become the official ASU blog on Fanster.com.

If you get to us VIA the address http://www.pitchforknation.com/, you'll go there directly.

If you continue to get to us VIA our Blogspot address, please update your bookmarks to the address above.

Once again, there will be NO MORE UPDATES on this site. Everything will now be on Fanster, accessed through tier site (www.fanster.com) or our site (www.pitchforknation.com). Make sure your update your bookmarks....NOW!

All the same content, some new wrinkles and all the great people from Fanster.com behind us. Get at us there!

Today's Game: Which One's Prettier?

2009-02-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

You decide.

No Glasser, Likely No Kuksiks Tonight

2009-02-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

The story of the 2008 ASU football season was the multitude of injuries that racked the Devils throughout the year.

Now, the injury bug is hitting basketball.

Derek Glasser will not play tonight at Oregon State (6:30, FS Arizona) after suffering a neck injury Thursday night at Oregon.

Only a game after suffering a concussion in the 84-71 loss to Washington at WFA, Glasser and Joevan Catron collided, snapping Glasser's neck back and sending him to the floor in pain.

Like I said earlier, I think it's a good idea to keep Glasser out and let him recover, especially with a head injury. The Devils would rather have him at full strength for this week's Thursday/Sunday set with UCLA and USC.

Rihards Kuksiks also missed the Oregon game while battling some sort of virus and apparently he's not better yet either. The Republic says he's "questionable."

With that, I imagine the starting lineup tonight in Corvallis will look like McMillan-Abbott-Shipp-Harden-Pendergraph, which is a major defensive issue. Shipp gives up four inches to Kuksiks on the defensive wing while McMillan often looks confused playing on top of the matchup zone.

Back On Track...?

2009-02-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

Last night, the Arizona State Sun Devils played 20 good minutes of basketball and won a Pac-10 game.

Actually, let's backtrack.

James Harden took over in the 2nd half against an 0-9 Pac-10 team, regardless of where the game was being played, and ASU won a basketball game in which they were moribund in the 1st half and played in spurts in the 2nd.

Either way, the Devils won a game they should have at Mac Court yesterday, and there were good things to take from it, but concerns still surround this team as they head to Corvallis on Saturday.

There's no taking away from what James Harden did last night. There's obviously a reason we all complain and moan when the super sophomore plays hesitant basketball; we wonder why he doesn't take open shots early in games and such, and last night we saw what happens when James plays up to his potential.

The Sun Devils certainly didn't have their legs under them throughout the 1st half. They took ill-advised shots, passed poorly and turned the ball over throughout the first 20 minutes. With Rihards Kuksiks out with an illness and the shorter, less heady Jerren Shipp in his place on the wing, they left good shooters like Tajuan Porter wide open for shots from the perimeter and let Michael Dunigan dominate the paint off the bench. I couldn't help but sit and wonder if the Devils were actually putting themselves in the position of potentially losing to the woeful Ducks.

ASU was getting a steady dose of their own medicine, as coach Ernie Kent picked up on the Devils inability to be consistent from the field. His hybrid 3-2 zone frustrated the Sun Devils throughout the first frame and even held them scoreless for over 4 minutes.

Then Harden showed up.

With Jeff Pendergraph returning to his doldrums of taking poor fouls and spending key minutes riding the pine, Harden stepped up and nailed two key three-pointers to start the 2nd half and turn a precarious 5-point halftime lead into an 11-point cushion before the under-16:00 time out.

From there on, the story of the game was either James being able to hit from wherever he was on the floor. He drove the lane, owned the paint and nailed tear trop treys throughout the 2nd half.

He finally put this team on his back and carried the Devils to victory.

Scary moments late in the 2nd half occured when Derek Glasser obviously reaggravated a head injury and remained down on the floor for about 10 minutes after a collision. I will not be surprised if Glasser sits out tomorrow's game at Oregon State. That was a nasty looking shot; nothing illegal, just two players playing tenacious basketball; from Joevan Catron.

Regardless of his minor flaws and frustrations, Glasser is this team's best floor leader and he needs to be ready for the stretch run against the best the Pac-10 has to offer.

PFN Live Chat 2 On Its Way

2009-02-05T13:29:00.001-08:00

Thanks to all of you that participated in last week's live chat. Sorry we couldn't get to everyone's question but I think that it was an unmitigated success for our first go around.

So, on that note, let's do it again!

Same bat time, same bat day, same bat channel. Next Tuesday night at 6:00 PM. Let's recap signing day and the weekend for the Devils in Oregon and other notes from around the Pac-10.

And maybe more XFL talk.

Until then, submit your questions and comments ahead of time to pitchforknation@gmail.com.

The Rich Get Richer at LB

2009-02-05T13:10:00.001-08:00

A widely used axiom in pro sports dictates that getting a player back from an extended absence is just about as good as making a major deal for a player just before a trade deadline.

The difference here is that when you get a player back from injury or the such, you don't have to give anything up.

Such is the case today as Gerald Munns announced that he is returning to the Sun Devils.

Munns missed eight of the Devils final nine games last season due to undisclosed personal issues. He had a tremendous game in the win over Stanford in early September, garnering Pac-10 Defensive POTW honors. He also broke his pinky finger in that game, missed the loss to UNLV and then left the team.

This is what we had to say about Munns' injury and absence last October 1:

"We found out on Monday that Munns would miss the Cal game due to personal reasons, but now we find out this morning that those personal reasons will keep the starting linebacker out for the remainder of 2008.

We respect confidentiality obviously, but there's definitely curiosity around why Munns is gone for the year. He didn't play against UNLV due to pinky surgery and he, like most of his fellow linebackers, was completely ineffective against Georgia. But now, out of nowhere, he's gone for the year.

The only thing that we can hope for is that he gets his personal matters, whatever they are, in order for his own sake. Munns has a lot of raw talent and has the ability to be a very good defensive player."

I stand exactly by that. There's no real reason to press and dwell on why Gerald sat out the bulk of his junior season, but according to Dennis Erickson, "he's back to the old Munnsy;" at least that's what he told Jeff Metcalfe.

This announcement comes at a spectacular time as well; with Morris Wooten gone, ASU severely lacked a major playmaker in this second layer of the defensive front. Now Munns, Travis Goethel, Mike Nixon, Ryan McFoy and Vontaze Burfict are the nucleus of what could be a very good linebacking corps.

Talking Recruiting on The Fan

2009-02-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, I did a guest spot on The Fan AM 1060 with Bob Kemp to talk about yesterday's National Signing Day and the 21-member Sun Devils 2009 signing class.

We hear from Dennis Erickson, talk about who could make an immediate impact for the Sun Devils and several of the other players that will play for the Maroon and Gold starting next season.

We'll have a more in-depth look tomorrow afternoon in the Podcast.

Afternoon LOI Update

2009-02-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

Let's take a look at what ASU has done on National Signing Day so far, as were now 3 hours from the official ASU press conference.

-Regardless of what ESPNU might be ticking by...they still had him going to USC as of about an hour ago...Vontaze Burfict has signed. Now the legwork to get him eligible probably begins.

-As we talked about in the live blog last night, Burfict's teammate, DT William Sutton, also sent in his letter of intent. You can't do much about his height (6'1") but his size (265 lbs.) as a high school senior and still growing adds bulk to what's shaping up to be a dominating defensive line.

-Other teammates sending in their official LOI's are Saguaro's DT Corey Adams and OL Kody Koebensky (pictured, courtesy of AZCentral.com).

-After a whole lot of waffling over the past few weeks, Walnut Creek WR Diante Jackson shunned Arizona State and a previous verbal commitment to Colorado to sign with Oregon. His speed and athleticism will certainly fit in well with Mike Bellotti's offense.

-There's word floating out there that outside of the 20 LOI's the Sun Devils have received, there's still one player that they're waiting on a decision from. It's a feeling eerily reminiscent of the one we had while waiting for Omar Bolden to commit. Methinks this has to do with WR Randall Carroll, who still as of this second has not signed on the dotted line to his verbal commitment, USC.

-Out of all the commitments received today, Dean DeLeone, LeQuan Lewis, Brock Osweiler and Matt Tucker are all eligible for Spring Practice.

And It's Finally Official

2009-02-04T09:34:00.001-08:00

Short and sweet:

Vontaze Burfict is a Sun Devil.

Jeff Metcalfe of the Arizona Republic says he has signed.

Te'o Shuns USC

2009-02-04T09:24:00.001-08:00

In what is apparently coming as a major surprise to many national recruiting insiders (but didn't to us here at PFN, because we pretty much called it in last night's Live Chat), Hawai'i linebacker Manti Te'o just signed a LOI with Charlie Weis and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Te'o is considered the top outside linebacker available in this year's recruiting class. Vontaze Burfict is the considered the top inside linebacker.

It's easily the biggest defensive recruit that Weis has landed in South Bend in his tenure there. And it's also something we always love to see at PFN: a giant stiffarm to the face of Troy.

It might be a blessing in disguise for USC though, as we mentioned last night, Te'o is on record saying that he wants to go on his 2-year Mormon mission once he turns 19, which will certainly take him away from Notre Dame pretty much right after his freshman season.

It Has Arrived

2009-02-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

From my family to yours, I wish you a happy and healthy National Signing Day.

Remember to celebrate responsibly and never drink and drive.

Either way, I'm working all day today, so I'll try to keep up as much as possible with today's exploits, but I'll certainly come through with an update on ASU's class tonight after Dennis Erickson has his press conference at 4:30 PM.

The kids were obviously keeping an eye on today are Burfict, NorCal stud receiver Dionte Jackson (who has ASU in his final three after giving a soft verbal to Colorado) and WR Randall Carroll out of Los Angeles.

Until this afternoon, I'll tide you over here at PFN with some highlights of five-star linebacker Vontaze Burfict out of Corona, CA. We reported last night that he has committed to ASU after telling USC to buzz off.

PFN Live Chat #1

2009-02-03T16:14:00.000-08:00

And away we go. At 6:00, the floodgates open. If you've got a question, submit it in the box below. I'll make my best effort to answer any questions you've got. If all you've got is a pithy comment, send it too and I'll post it up.

BREAKING NEWS: Burfict to ASU

2009-02-03T16:09:00.001-08:00

The worst kept secret in West Coast recruiting finally is apparently official.

Michael Becker of the Riverside Press-Enterprise just reported that All-American linebacker Vontaze Burfict has chosen to play at Arizona State. He'll make the official announcement tomorrow.

According to Becker, a representative of Burfict called USC earlier today and informed the football office of his decision.

A lot of this decision will end up being due to academics, as Burfict's eligibility will without a doubt be called into question in the coming months.

Let's talk more about it. Live chat in 50 minutes. Be there.

Condi says No Thanks

2009-02-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

In a random sidebar to today's ASU news (and tonight's LIVE BLOG/CHAT at 6:00 PM), we bring you the latest in Condoleezza Rice's post-cabinet career search.

GWB's Secretary of State, who has been linked to jobs in college football and even as a possible commissioner of the National Football League, was apparently a candidate to be outgoing Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen's successor.

Now, the Seattle Times says that it's not going to happen. Instead, Rice will become a teacher at Stanford University.

Hansen will retire on July 1 after 26 years (drunk) at the wheel of the Pacific-10 Conference, and it's going to take a strong willed commish to succeed Tom and fix some of the inane decisions he's made while at the helm.

Monday Night Bits & Pieces

2009-02-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

-Whatever confidence in LA that is left about Vontaze Burfict keeping his soft verbal commitment to Southern Cal has pretty much completely waned. Most of it, as expected, is related to the fact that Burfict's academics will prevent him from even being granted admission to USC, regardless of whether or not he's a five-star recruit. In his blog today, Scott Wolf says...

"I'd say it's about 70-30 in favor of ASU right now...he's worried about admission to USC...but there is a special admit program...so I'm not sure he's thinking clearly and might just be listening to his Centennial buddies at ASU."

Of course, the "Centennial buddies" he refers to are RB Ryan Bass, LB Shelley Lyons and LB Brandon Magee, who all also went to Centennial High School in Corona, CA. (Fun fact: OL Zach Schlink also went to Centennial...the one in Peoria, AZ though)

-Speaking of Los Angeles, the Trojans are the leader in the clubhouse when it comes to players getting invited to the upcoming NFL Scouting Combine. They're sending 12 of their players to Indianapolis for America's most glorified physical. The Sun Devils are sending four seniors to the combine: QB Rudy Carpenter, SS Troy Nolan, LB Morris Wooten and OG Paul Fanaika.

In my humble and usually accurate opinion, I think Fanaika and Nolan have the most pro upside and probably will be the only Sun Devils drafted this year. Fanaika's footwork and size make him appealing to scouts while Nolan's (usually) sure hands and good field awareness could make him a player at the pro level.

I'm slightly surprised that Mike Jones didn't get invited.

Here's a list of Pac-10 players making the trip with the players in italic being my pick as the team's best chances to make an impact in the NFL:

Arizona (2): WR Mike Thomas, OT Eben Britton

Arizona State (4): QB Rudy Carpenter, OG Paul Fanaika, LB Morris Wooten, SS Troy Nolan

California (6): TE Cameron Morrah, C Alex Mack, ILB Anthony Felder, ILB Worrell Williams, OLB Zach Follett, DE Rulon Davis

Oregon (7): WR Jaison Williams, RB Jeremiah Johnson, OT Fenuki Tupou, C Max Unger, DT Sonny Harris, CB Jarius Byrd, SS Patrick Chung

Oregon State (5): WR Sammie Stroughter, OT Andy Levitre, DE Victor Strong-Butler, CB Brandon Hughes, CB Keenan Lewis

Stanford (4): RB Anthony Kimble, C Alex Fletcher, DE Pannel Egboh, CB Wopamo Osaisai

UCLA (1): RB Kahlil Bell

USC (12): QB Mark Sanchez, WR Patrick Turner, DE Kyle Moore, DT Fili Moala, ILB Rey Maualuga, OLB Clay Matthews, OLB Brian Cushing, OLB Kaluka Maiava, CB Kevin Ellison, CB Josh Pinkard, CB Cary Harris, KOS David Buehler

Washington (1): C Juan Garcia

Washington State (1): WR Brandon Gibson

Just for the record, USC is sending as many outside linebackers as ASU is sending players. Ouch.

-ASU track and field coaching legend Senon "Baldy" Castillo passed away Saturday at the age of 89. Castillo coached the men's team to the 1977 NCAA title and has a yearly meet, the Baldy Castillo Invitational, named after him.

-Dennis Erickson and the Sun Devils will hold their annual National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday at 4:30.

A 24-Hour Reminder

2009-02-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

The Weekend from Hell

2009-02-02T13:17:00.001-08:00

SHAMLESS PLUG: Don't forget about tomorrow's PFN Live Chat, 6:00 PM right here at PitchforkNation.com. Be there!

The good news for Arizona State, at least today, is that Justin Dentmon left Tempe on Saturday night and he's never coming back.

The bad news is that, barring their early departures, Isaiah Thomas and Klay Thompson will be back. Three more times each.

An 84-71 loss on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena sunk the Sun Devils today from 14th in the nation to nearly out of the rankings. Our beloved Sun Devils now sit at #24 and #23 in the two major college basketball polls and most likely now sit about one loss away from the dreaded "receiving votes" category.

This weekend of basketball was an unmitigated disaster for Arizona State. It was disastrous for several reasons:

1) It resulted in a horrendous shift in the Pac-10 Standings. With UCLA's sweep of the Bay Area, they and Washington now sit tied atop the standings, two full games ahead of Arizona State. USC also manhandled California on Saturday night, moving them to 6-3. The Golden Bears and Sun Devils, both victims of an 0-for this weekend, are tied for 4th at 5-4...Cal of course having the tie-breaker with their head-to-head win...and both now sitting just one game ahead of the Arizona Wildcats. Speaking of the Cats...

2) The Devils lost to two teams that the Arizona Wildcats absolutely rolled. Washington's disgusting defense let the 'Cats put up 106 points on Thursday night. Two days later, Arizona trapped and pressured Washington State into mistake after mistake in the 2nd half as the Wildcats built up a double-digit lead midway through the 2nd half. They used this pressure to neutralize Klay Thompson; in effect, they did what the Devils should have been doing.

3) The Devils matchup zone is now in a state of disrespect. Tony Bennett said it himself after the game on Thursday: why should his Cougars run anything else other than perimeter shots from their outside gunners when he KNEW Arizona State wasn't able to throw anything at them defensively other than their zone? Complete defensive breakdowns in back to back games don't impress the Selection Committee. It then all happened again on Saturday when Dentmon and Thomas found themselves wide open nearly every time they wanted to take a long range shot. The Sun Devils looked tired, confused and frustrated throughout their loss to Washington...a foreign concept to me seeing as that even two years ago, when the Devils were the worst team in the Pac-10, that team even ran the zone better than this team did on Saturday.

4) Arizona State now only currently holds tiebreakers with one team ahead of them...and that's UCLA, who seems primed to take advantage of this ASU meltdown and start to run away with the conference again. The Devils have now lost to Washington, USC and California in the first go around, and if the Devils can't take advantage of their rematch, ASU will find itself in a very unfortunate situation if conference play continues to be as tight as it is right now.

5) Rihards Kuksiks' production has dropped from slim to none. You could tell early on in the WSU game that Rik has lost a ton of confidence in his long range shooting. When our favorite Latvian is not clicking, his shooting motion clearly changes. It goes from a quick, confident release to a slow, deliberative motion. To me, it gives him too much time to think about the shot, and it's what we saw out of him early in his career when I said, on this site, that I thought Kuksiks would be a transfer candidate. The goal is clear for Kuksiks: stop thinking and the shots will fall.

It's now or never for the Sun Devils. There are nine regular season games left for the Sun Devils and five of them are at Wells Fargo Arena. The two games coming up for the Devils in Oregon are, in my mind, must wins.

These games against Oregon State, who the Devils completely smoked last month, and 0-9 Oregon will give them chances to work out these kinks. The games could not be coming at a better time for a team whose confidence is obviously teetering on the brink. And they'd better get it in gear in those games, because visits from UCLA and USC the week after won't give them any chance to try and recover.

SHAMELESS PLUG (again): Let's talk about all of this more tomorrow in the Live Chat, right here at PitchforkNation.com at 6:00 PM.

Decision Saturday Looming in Pac-10

2009-01-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the most important Saturday of the Pac-10 season.

By the end of today, all 10 teams in the conference will have played, and around 11:30 PM, we're all going to have a much clearer picture of what's going to happen through the rest of the conference season.

It's very rare that every single game on a conference schedule on any given day carries some sort of actual meaning, and as I perused game previews and trends this morning, it's pretty clear to me that Saturday, January 31 is going to be a pivotal one in the Pacific-10.

The day starts in the Old Pueblo 40 minutes from now as Washington State takes on Arizona on CBS at 11. Both of these teams are coming off upset wins on Thursday; WSU obviously taking down the Sun Devils while the UofA hung 106 on frontrunning Washington. With each team under .500 in conference play and hovering in the bottom half of the standings, this will prove to be a bubble buster for each team's fledgling chances of getting into the NCAA Tournament. A loss for each could prove to be disastrous in the long run.

At 1:30, the Bruins hope for a home court sweep of the Bay Area as Stanford faces UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on ABC. After heartrending losses at home to Arizona State and on the road in Seattle (where the Bruins are as successful as the kid with braces on prom night). UCLA grabbed a convincing win on Thursday over streaking Cal. Combined with Washington and ASU's losses on Thursday, a win here for the Bruins throw them right back in the race for 1st in the Pac-10. As for Stanford, they've lost four of six since their 11-2 start and desperately need a win on the road today to try and right the ship before the season is lost.

Of course, then we have the big one. Washington visits Arizona State in a battle of 1st and 2nd in the conference. We all know what the stakes are for ASU...there's a huge difference at the halfway point between 6-3 and 5-4. A win also puts them at least into a tie with UCLA for 1st in the conference as well. There's also the necessity to get up off the mat after getting flattened and stomped on by Wazzou on Thursday. For Washington, today is another chance for them to prove they actually do belong in the upper echelon of the conference. It's certain that no one expected the Huskies to be this much of a contender at this point in the season and for that matter, still have their doubters. A win over the Sun Devils on the road will go a long way to cementing them as a serious threat.

In the game with the least bearing yet is still interesting for some reason, Oregon goes to Oregon State at 5:30. Oregon is dreadful and a loss today drops them to 0-9 to start Pac-10 play for the first time since 1992-93 (Fun Fact: Antoine Stoudamire, a cousin ofperennial dumbass Damon Stoudamire, started for Oregon in that miserable year). However, they've won four straight in the Civil War series, so they've got that going for them, which is nice. For the Beavers, they've already surprised everyone by actually winning basketball games this year against teams that arent Cal State Bakersfield and have a chance in finishing the first half of their schedule with a respectable 4-5 record. Nice job, Barack's half-brother!

Finally, the nightcap sees two bubble teams duke it out as California plays USC at the Galen Center. USC barely eked out a win over tenacious Stanford on Thursday night and a win would convince me (if no one else) that they're a legit tournament bid contender. They could also certainly use the win for their record as well; the second half of their schedule includes road games at UCLA, Arizona, ASU, Washington and Washington State. California has been a great story so far this year and a win today puts them certainly in the top four of the conference for the rest of the season.

As for me, I'm pulling doubleheader duty today, as I'll be taking in Washington/ASU at Wells Fargo Arena and then gunning Herbie halfway to Los Angeles to catch America's sweetheart Jochen Hecht and the Buffalo Sabres take on the Phoenix Coyotes. If I'm not too tired tonight, I'll have a recap of today's action tonight.

If I'm deleriously tired, you might end up with a Sabres/Coyotes recap. Either way, prepare yourself for both.

Scott Wolf things Vontaze is gone

2009-01-30T13:44:00.001-08:00

Scott Wolf of the Los Angeles Daily News is one of the most consistent, fair and accurate USC reporters in Los Angeles. If you don't read his blog, you're missing a ton of great information about the Pac-10.

With that said, I just made my daily stop at his blog and he just gave his update on his confidence level on USC's soft verbal commits.

Needless to say, he's not very enthused about Vontaze Burfict's chances to go to USC.

Out of a very creative (yet odd) ranking system, he gave Burfict "one Euro" out of four on his scale...four Euros means that their LOI is pretty much in the mail.

Says a lot about how much the USC community feels about Burfict being a Trojan anymore.

LA Daily News - Inside USC

No Surprises Here: Hall to UA

2009-01-30T12:10:00.000-08:00

If this takes you by surprise, keep walking.

Adam Hall, the stud Mr. Everything from Tucson Palo Verde High School, committed to the University of Arizona, where his dad starred in almost 30 years ago.

Hall scored 38 touchdowns last year on offense, defense and special teams as he saw action everywhere; it's unknown now where coach Mike Stoops will utilize him.

Wherever he's utilized, though, he's sure to most likely be a beast.

More info right here, including video, from our buddy Eric Hess at the Arizona Daily Star.

Still waiting on official word from Vontaze Burfict, however, I have a very strong gut feeling that he'll be committing to Arizona State sooner rather than later. Just a hunch. A strong hunch.

The 1st Ever PFN Live Chat

2009-01-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

We're rapidly expanding. Check out the podcast later today for an exciting announcement.

To sweeten the deal, I'm announcing a new feature right now.

Since we'll all be suffering from a Super Bowl hangover next week, I figure we're all going to need an outlet since the focus of all of us will be on (of course) ASU.

So next Tuesday at 6:00 PM we'll be hosting the first ever Pitchfork Nation live chat. I'll moderate and take your questions, but for the most part, I'll sit back and let you loyal readers duke it out and have a tremendous discussion on all things ASU.

I hope you'll join up on Tuesday night. See you there!

This Is What Happens.

2009-01-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

When you take a step back and really think about the reasons that #14 Arizona State fell and fell hard to Washington State 65-55 at home last night, the reasons it happened become crystal clear.

There's no sugar coating anything that happened last night. It was an ugly game played by two teams in which it seemed like at times neither squad wanted to actually win.

In the end, it was freshman Klay Thompson that defeated the Sun Devils.

Every time ASU has lost or almost lost, I find myself constantly telling other people "This is what happens when..."

Being a top 25 team carries a lot of responsibility in college basketball. It's not like football where, for the most part, the teams within the rankings stay the same yet fluctuate in their order from week to week. In basketball, two bad losses and two wins by another team can bounce you to the receiving votes category.

Consistent top 25 teams in this game have one thing in common: they do all the little things right. Teams that stay in the rankings don't often make the same little mistakes over and over again and expect them to just remedy themselves.

Last night, every single one of those things that have plagued the Sun Devils caught up to them.

This is what happens when...ASU misses from long range. The usually surehanded Rihards Kuksiks is 3 of his last 20 from outside the arc. It's becoming increasingly clear that Ty Abbott can only consistently hit treys against California. The Devils went 4-for-17 from 3-point land in the 2nd half alone, including a five minute stretch where they missed seven consecutive long shots. At the start of that drought, ASU was up 43-41. By the time Jamelle McMillan missed the 7th in a row, the Devils were down by 8. This was the kind of game where, apparently, ASU was going to live and die by the long range shot and, thanks to 18 bricks, they died.

This is what happens when...ASU doesn't hit free throws. We've griped all season about the Devils missing foul shots, and while the seven misses from the charity stripe wouldn't have made an ultimate change on the final score, making a few of those would have certainly made a difference between it being a nine point deficit late and being, maybe, a 3 or 4 point gap. That changes the entire late game strategy of defense and intentional fouling.

This is what happens when...the matchup zone fails. We all know that the ultimate strength of running any zone defense is to take away a team's offensive inside threat and forces them to take a lot of low percentage shots from outside. Well, what are you going to do when Klay Thompson is 7-for-7 from three point range midway through the 2nd half? Maybe...I don't know...put a MAN on him? After the game, WSU head coach Tony Bennett told the media that there was no reason to expect ASU to change their strategy because he knew Herb Sendek wouldn't deviate from the zone.

As clean and pretty as watching Thompson's stroke was, with every shot he nailed, my frustration grew. He seemed to find himself wide open for at least 5 to 10 seconds on every possession with nary a defensive soul near him. His first miss was a long, uncontested airball. His other miss was an uncontested baseline shot that rimmed out. Every single one of Thompson's threes was uncontested. On a singular possession with about 12:30 left in the 2nd half, it seemed to me that ASU was trying to switch into a man-to-man look to try and contain the hot shooter. When Jamelle McMillan and Jeff Pendergraph tried to execute a switch, they ran into each other and kind of looked at each other for long enough for me to comment, "Are they just going to keep staring?" Luckily, Aron Baynes missed a jumper on that possession.

There has to be something done about this inability to adapt the defensive strategy when an opponent shoots as well as Washington State did last night. The Devils have now been burned more than once by this and it makes for a short run in March if they can't find a way to defend a hot shooter from outside the arc.

This is what happens when...mental mistakes rear their head. I already discussed the defensive lapse that allowed McMillan and Pendergraph to collide. The one other mental mistake that really bothered me occured late in the game while ASU was fouling. With the game still somewhat in reach for the Devils and Aron Baynes, a 77% free throw shooter, at the line, the Sun Devils took a sloppy, lazy lane violation after Baynes missed the front end of a one-and-one. Baynes then sank the next two. That's inexcusable. In situations like that, that can't happen. It doesn't need much more explanation.

Despite all of this, they have to put it behind them, because there's an angry Washington team who just had 100+ points smacked on them by Arizona heading up I-10 and desperate for a win of their own.

A win pulls ASU even at the top of the Pac-10 standings.

A loss puts them two critical games back.

Most important game of the season on Saturday? You bet.

Shameless plug: Look out this afternoon for a new Pitchfork Podcast.

A March Bidding War

2009-01-29T08:17:00.000-08:00

If you haven't noticed yet, it's January 29.

Long past the date when America should put on their bracketeer hats.

There are three times in every calendar year where pundits obsess over how many teams from each conference will get into the NCAA Tournament. These are during the release of preseason polls, near the midseason of conference seasons and the morning of Selection Sunday, when more or less the field is set save the official champions of the ACC and the Big XII.

And having the strange, wandering mind I have, while watching Mike Tomlin and Ken Whisenhunt have their press conferences this morning three days removed from Super Bowl XLIII, all I could do was read and reread standings and RPI rankings this morning and try and figure out conference bid totals.

Obviously here at PFN, we've got a very small, almost unnoticable bias toward the Pac-10.

(About as unnoticable as a kick to the crotch.)

But in the interest of full disclosure and honesty, anyone who has watched any Pac-10 basketball this season can easily tell that the strength of the conference is way down compared to previous seasons. We've seen every team in this conference look great and awful at least once this season...except for Oregon...we've seen nothing but concentrated garbage coming from Mac Court this season. On that note, I don't think anyone actually expected Washington to be King of the Hill at this point, nor did anyone really expect Arizona to be 2-5. And then there's Oregon State, which made the Bay Area schools look as easy as Sunday morning a few weeks back.

Let's be realistic here though. Oregon State is not going to make the Tourney. Neither is Arizona. Washington State needs to kick their offense into gear while Stanford has cooled off dramatically after their surprising start.

So that leaves five teams that are going to probably go through the rest of this conference season that will be competing for spots in March Madness: Washington, ASU, California, UCLA and USC.

With that, you have to take a look at the other power conferences (and some of my favorite Mid-Majors) to see how many "locks" they'll have and other teams that will try to muscle their way in. That will definitely have a major impact on how many teams the weakened Pac will send to the dance. Let's go conference by conference:

ACC: Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Clemson are locks right now. You've got upset-minded Virginia Tech, Boston College, always-a-bridesmaid Florida State and Miami still hanging around as well. Let's be realistic and say that the Hokies and Hurricanes muscle their way in, giving them 6 bids.

Big East: There's a reason I call this behemoth the lumbering giant. Marquette, Louisville, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Providence and Syracuse look pretty nice right now with their resume and RPI rankings. On the bubble and teetering toward being in are Georgetown, Notre Dame and Villanova. On the bubble precariously are West Virginia and Cincinnati. I have a nagging feeling this conference will get 9 bids.

Big XII: Oklahoma is awesome. Kansas, Texas and Baylor are all but in. Texas A&M, Missouri and Oklahoma State need some big wins down the stretch to beef up their resumes. Beyond any other conference, the Big XII has the clearest distinction between the top and bottom, making it easier to distinguish who is for real and who isn't. It's realistic to say that this conference will get 5 bids.

Big Ten: Like the Pac-10, I haven't seen one team emerge as this conference's dominant leader. Michigan State looks great one night and loses to Northwestern the next. Purdue hasn't been wowing the nation like we expected. And Penn State...PENN STATE...is over .500 after eight conference game, something I'm pretty sure hasn't happened since America kept cool with Coolidge. MSU, Illinois, Purdue and Minnesota look nice right now and I can't make a case for anyone else right now, leaving the Elite 11 with 4 bids.

Other conferences: The WCC could send three (Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and San Diego), St. Joseph's, Xavier and Dayton are strong out of the A-14, Northeastern, Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason are all legit out of the Colonial, the Missouri Valley could find themselves with three or four again and the Mountain West and WAC each could send two.

Which leads us to the conference that will help the Pac-10's case the most...

SEC: Clearly the weakest out of any power conference up to this minute. Just a year or so removed from Florida taking home back-to-back national titles, can you believe the SEC has ONE team in either of the polls (Kentucky #24 AP) and the only other team even receiving votes is the Gators? Florida and Kentucky might be the only two locks right now out, with South Carolina, Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State making less than convincing statements. Unless another one or two of those teams make a strong statement in February, the SEC might only end up with 3 bids.

Which leads us to the Pac-10. Lucky for our conference, it seems to me that the top four right now in the standings: Washington, ASU, California and UCLA, have made strong enough statements to be with USC being the only strong looking bubble team at this point.

Further strengthening the case of the Pac-10 against the SEC is the general RPI strength of the conference and their individual teams. The Pac and SEC are 5 and 6 respectively in conference strength but are separated by a wider margin than any of the other top five. Also, a sampling of the top six teams in each conference shows a glaring disparity between them:

Pac-10
ASU: 21
Washington: 28
California: 35
UCLA: 40
USC: 54
Stanford: 64

SEC
Tennessee: 19
Florida: 29
Kentucky: 50
South Carolina: 62
Mississippi State: 76
LSU: 80

At the top, there's clearly a similarity between Tennessee/Florida and Washington/ASU, but beyond that, the Pac-10 has an obvious edge.

Of course, this all could change tomorrow...next week...late February...but all that matters is what our situation is on Selection Sunday, and it's in the Pac-10's best interest to just keep winning.

The Relaunch

2009-01-28T17:45:00.001-08:00

As Ricky Ricardo might say to his blushing bride..."You've got some 'splaining to do."

And I guess I do too.

It's been an upward struggle to have any time in my personal life lately. Between the incredible pickup at my actual job (and I hope you've all been still listening to The Fan), some distinct changes in my personal life and some other extraneous circumstances, my beloved Pitchfork Nation has had to take a backseat for the past few weeks.

I once thought that I'd only take a hiatus from writing at PFN when the Arizona Cardinals went to the Super Bowl. That always seemed about as likely as falling into an alternate universe populated by the guys from the Take On Me video.

WHAAAAAAAAAAT?

As I sat next to Tiki Barber and Tony Bruno at the NFC Championship Game and saw, yes, the Arizona Cardinals win the conference title and make a date for this Sunday's Super Bowl, I somehow came to a moment of clarity: the only thing that kept me sane about this entire world of covering pro sports was the fun I had in sharing the rampant thoughts of an insomniac about the Arizona State Sun Devils.

And with that, I'm back. And I promise to never ever ever ever leave you again.

The roundtable will be back. The podcast will be back. We'll have our thoughts on recruiting, next week's National Signing Day and of course everything going on with James Harden, Jeff Pendergraph and the Devils as they march toward...well...March.

In the mean time...some random meandering thoughts to kick us back off...

-Jamelle Horne is absolutely my favorite basketball player in the whole wide world. If there's a player out there as dumb/entertaining as him, point him way was so I may fart in his general direction.

-I never had an actual inkling that stud Desert Vista recruit Devon Kennard would actually pick Arizona State over USC...not after last season. And while I wish him success on a personal level, I still hope he likes sitting on the bench with 9 others at his position that could be starting and starring at other major programs. Maybe he and Everson Griffin can sit in the dorms at SC talking about how much they don't miss Arizona, possibly even culminating with the creation of a Friends Forever collage!

-If you weren't jumping around your living room as James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph combined to pound UCLA into the ground in the 2nd half, don't ever call yourself a Sun Devils fan ever again. That was a defensive performance unlike any I've ever seen in watching college basketball and ranks easily within the top 5 moments in ASU basketball history.

-I might be absolutely convinced that the ASU women will never lose to Arizona ever again. This year's game at WFA was more of a 40 minute punch line than an actual basketball game.

-Oh, and for the record, I never get a response from Louisiana-Monroe about their schedule change that no one in Tempe actually wanted to confirm. I'm over it. However, it's certainly going to be a CAN'T MISS first two games of the season with Idaho State and the Warhawks coming into Sun Devil Stadium.

I can't wait, and I'm about as serious as a game of schpoople.

Did you expect anything else from me?

Welcome back, friends.

We've Been Stiffarmed So Far

2008-12-19T13:04:00.000-08:00

Granted, it's only been two days since my pursuit of information began, but all things considered, I feel kind of like Reggie Torbor in that picture.

Marshawn Lynch, on the other hand, would be Louisiana-Monroe AD Bobby Staub.

Earlier this week, we brought you analysis on the Warhawks releasing their 2009 football schedule, the one that included a curious September 19 game against Arizona State in Tempe.

It's now even on their 2009 schedule page. On a side note, that's a hell of a NC schedule with trips to Austin and Lexington in addition to this game in Tempe.

On the other hand, the Future Schedules page on the ASU website still lists September 19 as an open date.

Earlier this week, on a journalistic and curious quest for honest information, I sent Mr. Staub an e-mail to the address that's listed under the ULM athletic staff directory.

To the time of this post, I've been given the cyber Heisman. No contact, no e-mail back, not even a shred of a response.

I understand of Mr. Staub is busy; what athletic director isn't?; but I really haven't asked him for a whole lot of his time. I only asked him to address four questions in his e-mail, to the effect of...

1) Is it set in stone that ULM will be playing ASU on September 19?
2) Did ULM approach ASU for the game or vice versa?
3) What makes ASU an attractive opponent for the Warhawks?
4) Do you think ULM fans will travel to Tempe for the game?

And all things considered, the first two questions can be answered with one word each, or two if he chose to go with "No comment." Wouldn't have even minded that.

Probably would have even preferred the interactive Punch In The Face e-mail that Peter Griffin got from Carter Pewterschmidt in an old episode of Family Guy (and if anyone can find that cilip, e-mail it to pitchforknation@gmail.com, because I just wasted 10 minutes trying to find it myself).

Either way, I'd still love to get Bobby's answers to my questions on the mere fact that I'd just like to know who our Devils are actually playing, especially because the official line from the football program is that they "can't deny" there are talks about schedule alterations going on.

By the way, good point from Dan Zeiger of the Tribune, pointing out that the idea that the ASU/BYU game was to be played at University of Phoenix Stadium is a total farce considering the acrimonious relationship the teams shared when they both played at Sun Devil Stadium.

Which leads to a total side note about my favorite exchange between a security guard and a normal person, which took place right after ASU beat Iowa in 2004:

Security Guard: Hey! Get off the goalposts!
My Buddy: Why?
Security Guard: The Cardinals are playing here tomorrow!
My Buddy: They don't need them!

(exit flashback)

The story takes a more sensible turn if BYU comes to an agreement with Oklahoma to play next year in Dallas. If this all comes back to the Cougars wanting to reschedule the game aganist ASU because they found themselves a better opponent, then more power to Brigham Young.

Regardless, it's still curious that Louisiana-Monroe would come out with this kind of info before an opponent confirms it or at least coincidentally releases it, especially if the BYU/Oklahoma game is not yet scheduled in stone.

Either way, stay tuned. To keep you entertained in the meantime, you can read up on ULM here. Fun fact: they have a kick-ass water skiing program!

ASU on the MMA scene

2008-12-18T21:26:00.000-08:00

No sport is experiencing the rapid growth that the world of Mixed Martial Arts is currently enjoying. With each UFC promotion drawing more viewers than the last, the sport is a bonafide global phenomenan. Recently, Arizona State has seen its ties with the sport take on a national spotlight.

On Dec. 13, former ASU All-American wrestler Ryan "Darth" Bader became the latest winner of Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter 8." Bader's light-heavyweight title on the show has earned him a six-figure contract with the UFC, MMA's top-notch promotion.

Bader, who wrestled for the Sun Devils from 2003-2006 and won three Pac-10 titles, was the second straight ASU alum to appear in the finals of TUF. His roommate, former ASU wrestler CB Dolloway was the runner-up on the TUF 7. He was dominating eventual winner Amir Sadollah in the championship match until he got careless and Sadollah submitted him with an arm bar.

Despite the loss, UFC head honcho Dana White gave Dolloway a shot in the octagon. "The Doberman" made the most of it on July 19, when he defeated Jesse Taylor (who would have been in the finals of TUF 7 if not for a drunken romp through Vegas got him kicked off the show) with his go-to-move, the peruvian necktie. It was the first time in UFC history that the move had been succesful in a submission.

Bader needed only his fists to claim the crown last Saturday. A first round haymaker to the head of Vinicius Magalhaes earned him the belt and the big payday.

On his website, Bader says the allure of MMA fighting always surrounded the ASU wrestling team.

"After joining the ASU Wrestling team, I met some of the friends that would lead me into my MMA career. It seems like during my 4 years at ASU, MMA began to gain popularity and a lot of guys that I competed with and against are now in, or are entering MMA. Guys like Johnny Hendricks, Shane Roller, Jake Rosholt, and Josh Koscheck are competing now, not to mention my ASU teammates and coaches, such as CB Dollaway, Aaron Simpson, Jesse Forbes, Cain Velasquez and Kellan Fluckiger. At ASU, we were all fans of MMA and a lot of the guys above helped Jesse Forbes (TUF 3) prepare for his fight against Matt Hamill."

Bader and Dolloway both train at Arizona Combat sports in Tempe, an MMA training center notrious for producing some of the sports best up and coming strikers.

A lot of people shy away from promoting this sport, noting that it is too violent. But I think ASU should laud the accomplishments of its athletes. MMA is a sport of dedication and intensity, and while it often carries a certain stigma around of the sport being a bloody, testoerone-driven free-for-all, the accomplishments the former Sun Devils are acheiving in the sport are a result of an incredible amount of hard work and athletic talent. Something I can show a lot of love for.

Photo courtesy of ryanbader.com

Jeff Metcalfe is on the Brock Osweiler bandwagon

2008-12-18T13:12:00.001-08:00

Looks like PFN isn't the only one who thinks 6'8" teen-beast Brock Osweiler could be the early frontrunner to be the next starting quarterback at ASU.

On his blog today, Arizona Republic beat writer Jeff Metcalfe joined me in saying that it wouldn't be a shock to see Brock as a strong candidate for the job coming out of Spring Practice.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/jeffmetcalfe/41627

There's a schedule controversy a-brewin...

2008-12-17T10:20:00.001-08:00

According to a press release put out yesterday by FBS Sun Belt powerhouse...*pauses for laughter*...Louisiana-Monroe, the Warhawks have announced their 2009 schedule and are very excited about it.

Apparently, in such release, they're proud to announce their September 19 visit to Tempe, AZ to face the Arizona State Sun Devils.

As an ambassador for Sun Devil fans everywhere, let me be the first to extend a welcoming hand to our visitors from...

*shuffles papers*

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT a minute.

Louisiana-Monroe? Coming here? September 19?

WHAT?

For the past three years, the Devils 2009 non-conference schedule has been listed as Idaho State at home on September 5, Brigham Young at home on September 12 and Georgia in Athens on September 26. September 19 is a open date.

By my math, adding a game against ULM would give the Devils 13 games. That's only allowed for FBS teams if they make a trip to Hawai'i.

So, as I read this information put out so eloquently by Dan Zeiger in the East Valley Tribune, it's became pretty obvious to me that the Devils are trying to dumb down their 2009 schedule in the aftermath of a disastrous 5-7 season and in the face of the possibility of finishing sub-.500 again next year.

“At this time, I can’t deny that there have been discussions concerning schedule alterations,” said associate athletic director Mark Brand told the Tribune. “I cannot divulge any details because nothing has been confirmed yet.”

I'm all about winning games and boosting our win-loss record so our Devils can have an outside shot at the Poinsettia Bowl next season. However, if it's at the expense of dropping high-quality opponents off our schedule, which leads to the loss of experience for our younger players in playing against our nation's best teams, less national attention being paid to the program and *GASP* possibly not being on television, this isn't worth it.

Don't forget that this kind of dumbing down already happened TO the Sun Devils. Last offseason, Hal Mumme and New Mexico State paid ASU a six-digit sum to get out of their trip to Tempe. ASU replaced the Aggies with Northern Arizona for their season opener. How'd that work out for Mumme? Well, last I checked, the Aggies still sucked and Hal is out of a job right now.

I feel like you can't cancel this BYU game because of it's ties to the Valley. The overtones of Max Hall returning to Arizona State after transfering out years ago is a tremendous storyline; beyond that, the Cougars have an enormous following in the East Valley and I'd be willing to guess that at least 55,000 to 60,000 would file into Sun Devil Stadium for a game that would still most likely be a rout.

However, we might be out of luck with BYU anyway because they're reportedly trying to work out a home and home with Oklahoma, and if that were to happen, we'd probably be first on their chopping block.

On a complete side note, if you read a statement from Brigham Young (thanks for finding it, Dan Zeiger), you'll notice a curious statement that our game against them was scheduled to be a "neutral site" matchup at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. That's the first I've heard of that.

And how could you beg out of the trip to Georgia? First off, we already played the first half of this home and home. To cancel it after playing OUR home game would be cowardly and disrespectful. Begging out of this game would most likely cost a comparable amount to what we got from NMSU to call off that game, making that situation a wash.

Plus, how many times do us West Coast teams and their fans get to travel down and take in a game at an SEC stadium? Georgia didn't make it out here for 40 years and this would be Arizona State's first trip to a legitimately intimidating away stadium since 2002 (at Nebraska) and first trip to the Eastern Time Zone to play a good team (sorry, 2003 North Carolina) since going to Miami in 1997. That's the kind of experience where you never know when it will present itself again.

In effect, I'm lobbying the Devils to not be New Mexico State and wimp out of a game against a good team just because we might not be at our strongest. If you think the reputation of the program took a shot after dropping out of the rankings and out of national minds like a lead balloon this year, it wont get better by going up against Louisiana-Monroe.

Get YOUR Tickets for Saturday from PFN and Fanster

2008-12-17T09:12:00.000-08:00

The Stadium Shootout, matching Louisville with Minnesota and our Sun Devils with the BYU Cougars, is coming up this Saturday afternoon.

There's really no excuse to not go to these great games, especially since the vast majority of you all took last Sunday off as less than 1,000 Devils fans showed up to the game against IUPUI.

As if it were more incentive, we've teamed up with our friends at Fanster to give you a pair of primo seats to the doubleheader.

All you have to do is click HERE and leave a comment to the effect of "I Want Free Tickets!"

That's it. Really. Just go to the site and type in four short words and you could find yourself with ducats to the Stadium Shootout. It's pretty much the easiest contest in the history of contests.

Did I mention that you should click HERE to enter to win?

Hagan signs with New York Football Giants

2008-12-17T07:15:00.000-08:00

From the Star-Ledger, it looks like the Giants have added another "weapon" at wide receiver:

Well, their team added another potential weapon today. The Giants have signed former Dolphins wide receiver Derek Hagan, according to someone familiar with Hagan's signing who requested anonymity because the team hasn't announced the move yet.

Hagan, the Dolphins' third-round pick in 2006, worked out for the Giants last week. The 24-year-old, who had 53 catches for 645 yards and three touchdowns in three seasons with Miami, had been a free agent since the Dolphins cut him early last month.

The 6-2, 215-pound Hagan came out of Arizona State with a reputation as a solid route runner with decent speed. The problem during his time with Miami was his hands, as he dropped several passes. Hagan played the split end - or "X" receiver - position with the Dolphins, so perhaps that's where the Giants envision him playing. That's where Burress played and is now where Domenik Hixon most often lines up.

2008-12-16T21:02:00.000-08:00

While Kennard Watch 2009 rolls on, I am here to illustrate my excitement over another high school senior who has already said "I Do" to Dennis Erickson and Co.

Four-star recruit Jamal Miles from Peoria committed to ASU on Dec. 13.

I covered the 4A Division I quarterfinal game the article mentions, a contest in which Miles scored four touchdowns and ran for 203 yards. He has great feet and his field vision is very impressive. His most impressive run in that game was a 50-yard scamper in which he ran straight up the middle and was able to skate by every Millenium defender untouched.

With such an unstable running back corps last year, I think Miles may have the opportunity to make an immediate impact in the ASU backfield. Miles, who hails from departing senior Keegan Herring's high school, has tools similar to No. 24's, though from what I saw appears to be more of a vertical runner.

Photo Credit: David Wallace, Arizona Republic

Could Osweiler be next year's starter?

2008-12-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

Let's be realistic here for a few seconds. Isn't that what we do best here at PFN?

Rudy Carpenter is gone. After 3 1/2 years of gutting out injuries and battling through adversity (real or imagined), his caree is over. And on September 5, 2009, when Arizona State takes on Idaho State in the season opener, we'll have someone other than RC as the starter under center for the first time since October 22, 2005.

From what we've all seen and heard, we still have no idea who the heir apparent to the job will be.

Who's to say that Brock Osweiler, who has verbally committed to Arizona State out of Kalispell, MT, isn't as much in the running for the starting job as anyone else currently on the roster?

Let's take a quick look at his competition:

Danny Sullivan: His only legitimate, if you can even call it that, game action came long after RC was yanked in the 2007 Holiday Bowl. He threw two garbage-time touchdown passes, but in other clean-up action, hasn't shown any propensity to be a big time college QB. He sails throws, looks panicky in the pocket even in non-pressure situations and has done little in two years to cement his status as even a clear #2.

Samson Szakacsy: He's certainly the most athletic moving with the ball but he hasn't proven that he can be reliable OR healthy. There are still lingering questions about his arm strength as well.

Chasen Stangel: Has shown me no progress as a football player. His football IQ is questionable at best and I have a feeling that his field vision struggles as well.

Jack Elway: Clearly the wild card in this race, as we haven't seen him enough even in full speed practice situations to make a judgement on whether #7's kid will ever be a strong enough QB to start or play here.

When you think about the players who are leaving with Rudy as well...Keegan Herring and Mike Jones being the ones that come immediately to mind...there's definitely a complete lack of impactful players at the skill positions who made significant contributions in 2008 that will suit up in Maroon and Gold in 2009.

Chris McGaha and Dimitri Nance will have next season to redeem themsevles after down seasons while T.J. Simpson, Gerrell Robinson, Shaun DeWitty and a few others will step in with limited experience and be next year's go-to guys.

So in my mind, if you're pretty much sticking inexperienced and/or underwhelming players into the starting lineup next season, the time seems right to start completely fresh and go with the guy under center that will mesh the best with these other youngsters.

And in my mind, that's why I think it's not so farfetched that Brock Osweiler should get a serious, hard look at being the starter for Arizona State next year.

If you've watched his film, he's clearly going to be the most accurate and strong-armed signal caller in camp next fall. The kid has terrific footwork for a high schooler and, since he worked out of the shotgun for most of his time in Kalispell, has the ability when needed to move around throughout the backfield. That's going to help him out behind what...you know...is a pretty horrendous offensive line.

He'll also be by FAR the biggest prospect for the starting job; he's got an entire four inches of height over Stangel, who at 6'4 is the tallest QB left on the roster. His measurements (6'8, 230) and prospectus (quintessential pocket passer) are remarkably similar to those of a certain ex-ASU quarterback who ended up as the Pac-10's all-time leader in touchdown passes.

(If you haven't caught on, that was the 6'6, 230-pound pocket passer named Andrew Walter)

Unless your concerned about stunting his growth; and in this situaton coming off a 5-7 season and a restless fan base, there seems to not much patience; there's no reason to not consider Osweiler a candidate for the starting job.

This all changes, obviously, if the whispers are true about Dennis Erickson's staff going to California earlier this month to scout two top JuCo quarterbacks.

Just saying.

something big is coming

2008-12-15T22:50:00.001-08:00

details

Just By The Hair...

2008-12-14T21:52:00.000-08:00

The air at the US Airways Center during the 1st half of the Desert Classic doubleheader today hung with the aura of an upset in the making.

Good thing the Arizona Wildcats took care of that with their stirring win over #4 Gonzaga and left the duty of a win by a nationally-ranked team to Arizona State.

By no means it was pretty, but today's 59-58 overtime win over IUPUI is definitely the Devils most impressive yet nervewracking victory of the young season.

There's nothing good to say, obviously, about being down 34-18 at the half. I don't care how good or bad the Jaguars are; let's be realistic; IUPUI might not be Baylor, but they're definitely not Jackson State and, arguably, could have been a mid-major to watch if George Hill had stayed around; it's not like the Sun Devils were playing a total pushover.

In the first half, IUPUI simply outclassed, outplayed and outshot ASU. The Devils were disoriented, careless with the ball and generally numb while shooting 7-for-22 and falling behind by 16 by the end of the 1st 20 minutes. It was the kind of play we saw out of Herb Sendek's squad during his first season in Tempe.

In the second half, we saw the Devils everyone has seen so far this season and we expect to see throughout the rest of this campaign. Ty Abbott was poised, James Harden was dominant (that slam dunk even brought Amare Stoudemire out of his seat) and Rihards Kuksiks played maybe the best 20 minutes of his college career thus far. It was a 180 from the first half; the Devils played like a team that could drive deep into March.

As far as I can remember, when the Devils silpped into the that man-to-man defensive strategy that coach Sendek seems to consider taboo, it was the first time I've seen it since early...EARLY...last season. However, as I've clamored for before, ASU has seemed so stuck in the matchup zone on defense that they have had no ability to adjust when teams (aka Baylor) seem to have no ability to miss from the outside. When the Jaguars shot over 50% in the 1st half and nailed four three-pointers late, it was another one of those situations where you asked yourself why the Devils would stick to the zone.

Finally, this time, they didn't. And it worked, as the Devils clawed their way back into a tie and drastically reudced the Jags shooting percentage.

The other thing that I feel has been addressed over the last few games have been the complaints that James Harden has been controlling too much of the offensive production. Today, four of the five starters hit double figures. Surprise! James Harden only had 9!

On that note, I really feel like Kuksiks is really coming into his own as a force on this team and quite possibly this team's go-to scorer who isn't named James Harden (and if you haven't voted, vote in the poll about this). The Latvian was aggressive toward the boards, grabbing nine, and even showed some mettlle in the paint, driving the lane and forcing shots.

This was a gut check. Every college power or potential March darling has to fight their way through a rough game against an inferior opponent at some point during the season. Kansas had to fight off a pesky Arizona (ironic?) last season. Memphis, their opponent in the National Title game, barely slipped by UAB and Mississippi State. Kansas themselves just lost to lowly UMass this weekend and #8 Tennessee was blown out on the road by Temple.

Am I saying we should be thankful that the Devils barely eked out a win against an overmatched opponent? Of course not. Just take the struggle with a grain of salt; it was bound to happen at some point, and with the guts they showed clawing back from that 17-point deficit, it might just be a needed wake-up call as the time towards Pac-10 play quickly ticks down.

(edit) Just remembered a point I forgot to make when I first published this post. I know it's the holiday season, I know the Cardinals were playing, I know that the economy is rough and there are more things to do with your time on a Sunday afternoon, but it's pretty much a consensus amongst everyone that there were barely 2,000 fans in the building at tipoff. Are you SERIOUS? Come on, Pitchfork Nation! We've clamored for a relevant men's basketball team for years, and this is how Sun Devil Nation supports a long-sought after winner?

Off-Topic: HS Sports on Chopping Block in NorCal

2008-12-12T10:18:00.001-08:00

Totally off topic, but I feel that a story I've been chasing over the past 48 hours merits all the attention it can get.

I grew up in the Bay Area, and obviously, sports were a big part of my upbringing. That goes without saying. I competed for my high school teams as the majority of you probably did and cut my teeth in journalism by covering high school sports throughout California.

With today's economic woes, everyone is trying to cut corners. An 11-school high school district in San Jose, CA is now going about it the entirely wrong way. The East Side Union High School District passed a tentative budget last night cutting the entire $2.1 million athletic budget for all 11 schools, in effect, cutting every sports program.

It's not quite set in stone that it will happen, but if the economic climate for these schools, most located in run-down areas of San Jose, does not improve quickly...thousands of potentially at-risk students will be without the programs that keep many of them off the streets and out of trouble.

You can follow the story at my other blog, Beyond The Scoreboard. I'm trying to build attention to it down here in the Valley because this kind of situation is possible anywhere, and I'll be damned to see it happen here in Phoenix.

So, what WILL RC's legacy be?

2008-12-11T11:46:00.001-08:00

Let's get one thing out of the way here...does that Debacle in the Desert really need to be recapped?

Ugh.

A week of work and having to talk ad nauseum about this game makes me wretch over...and over...and over...

You knew from the start, when Rudy Carpenter sailed a pass about 7 yards too tall for Kyle Williams on the first play of the game, that it wasn't going to be the Devils night.

Either way, the loss to Arizona, their first since the infamous Matt Miller game in 2004, was ugly, heartwrenching and a despicable end to a disappointing and seemingly neverending 2008.

A 2008 that started with sky-high expectations for a repeat 10-win season.

A 2008 that started in the top-25 and picked to be the 2nd best team in the Pac-10.

A 2008 that was supposed to define Rudy Carpenter's legacy at Arizona State University.

That last one certainly happened. And unfortunately for RC, in my mind, it's not a good one.

Rudy put up some tremendously gaudy numbers throughout the first three seasons of his career, especially his freshman and junior seasons in Maroon and Gold. The other two seasons...in 2006 and 2008...were nothing short of a disappointment. So does that make it any easier to say that Rudy just had an average career?

That's a tough assessment to make based on his numbers...finishing in the top 10 in Pac-10 passing history, buoyed mainly by a pass happy offense (save 2006) and big play receivers (save 2008).

So, the question begs...what is Rudy Carpenter's legacy?

Here's my assesment: Rudy Carpenter will go down in ASU history as the toughest damn quarterback in the history of the football program, but his petulant attitude toward the media and the public, his temper and his failure to perform in the biggest games cements his status as someone who never lived up to whatever potential he had.

Rudy burst onto the scene in 2005 after Sam Keller went down with a busted hand and tore up the nation. We all know that he set an NCAA freshman record in passer rating that season, throwing 17 touchdown passes to only 2 picks; all but two of those touchdown passes coming after the start of that ridiculous game at Stanford where Keller left the game down 45-7 to the the lowly Cardinal and RC nearly bringing the Devils all the way back. He led the Devils to a last-second victory over Arizona to avenge the previous year's defeat and set all kinds of bowl game records in the shootout win over Rutgers in the Insight Bowl.

There was tremendous excitement in Tempe after that. Keller was healthy again and Carpenter was coming off of an unreal end of '05, leading the Devils and Dirk Koetter to what became the most bizarre quarterback controversy in recent memory.

And that's when it all started to unravel. That 24-hour period between the 2006 Friday night Fall Scrimmage and the conclusion of that Saturday's practice became, in retrospect, the biggest red flag about Carpenter's mindset and attitude. We might never know what exactly happened to make Dirk change his mind, prompting Keller to transfer to (and subsequently flounder at) Nebraska.

We've all heard the stories...RC lobbied the team one by one to tell DK to change his mind...Rudy's dad called Dirk to tell him that his son was to start or he'd transfer...the players were all on Rudy's side and mutinized to get Carpenter to start the job...we probably will never know what happened and what the actual true story is. What we do know is that after a strong start against weak opponents, Rudy imploded against Cal, Oregon and USC...throwing four picks against the Golden Bears and putting out the pathetic 33-yard performance against the Ducks.

He had a tremendous game against Arizona that season, throwing three first quarter touchdowns and vaulting the Devils to a 28-14 win over the Wildcats, sending the Devils to a drubbing at the hands of Hawai'i in their bowl game.

Then Dirk was fired. And all the while, there weren't any substantive quarterback recruits rolling into Tempe. Danny Sullivan started hanging around while Derek Shaw and other quarterbacks transfered out. It was pretty set that Rudy was going to be the starter for the long haul and that noone was going to challenge him.

2007 was, undoubtedly, the culmination of a strong running game, a fresh attitude in the locker room and, of course, a perfectly set up schedule. It's just unfortunate that Rudy was on his back for most of it.

Last season was the one that exacerbated Rudy's many glaring issues; his temper, his big mouth and his inability to throw the ball away when he's flushed and out of options. Rudy was sacked 54 times in that 10-3 season, 19 of those sacks coming in the Devils three losses to Oregon, USC and Texas. Even Stanford's pathetic pass rush got to RC 6 times. On so many of those sacks, we were all screaming at Carpenter to throw the ball away...a concept he just never seemed to grasp.

Like it or not, though, the Devils did win 10 games, boosted by tremendous performances by his supporting cast; Mike Jones, Chris McGaha, Ryan Torain and Keegan Herring all played out of their minds all season. However, in the three games the Devils lost, and in only the Oregon game was ASU in any way competitive, Rudy shut down. All the while, Rudy had issues running his mouth off the field. He likes to call it "swagger."

That swagger caught up to him in the Holiday Bowl, where he took every opportunity to rip on the Texas defense in the runup to the game. Then, RC threw for the least yards of any game that season, was sacked four times, threw two picks and was then serenaded by the Longhorns sideline in the waning moments of the loss.

The problems grew worse during that offseason.

During an ASU loss to Washington State at Wells Fargo Arena last January, we all remember Rudy showing up to the arena in a hot pink shirt and just walking around the student section as if he was waiting for someone to acknowledge his presence. He then...allegedly (since I didn't see it first hand)...chased a student down a ramp outside the arena, shouting homophobic slurs and making "WHAT SPORT DO YOU PLAY?" the hot slang term on campus in Tempe.

Then came this past disaster of a football season that we'll look back on and try to forget.

The win over Stanford early on looked promising...but of course, it was the last win we'd see for 2 months. During the Devils six game losing streak this season, RC threw just 6 TD passes against 6 interceptions...his highest yardage total was just 242 (and that was in the UNLV OT loss)...and he failed to even hit 200 yards against the teams that victimized him every year...Cal, USC and Oregon.

On the field, that swagger was gone. He began wearing a mouthpiece again, saying he didn't deserve to be able to talk that much and didn't want to give the younger players a bad impression.

Throughout the season, off the field, Rudy became more combative. He never was a quote machine by any means, but it became increasingly difficult to get fulfilling answers to questions. It came to a head during one press conference when, knowing he'd face a multitude of questions about his injury situation, told all of us that he didn't have any answers to our questions. He stopped doing interviews during the week, only meeting the media on Monday afternoons and after games. During the press conference after the Devils beat UCLA 34-9, with none of the credit due to Rudy's offense, he answered one question, alluding to the fact that his unit should just "punt on 1st down," and left.

Finally, only a few days removed from the biggest game of the year; a "season saver" for many fans and boosters; a game that would give the Devils an extra couple weeks of practice and a program record 5th straight bowl game....and so on....Rudy got himself kicked out of a girls high school basketball game.

Rudy, without any surprise, vehemently denied anything happened. However, who am I supposed to believe? Either:

A) the petulant starting quarterback who's underperformed all year and would deny any wrongdoing anyway...or

B) a respected Valley columnist who I know for a fact would not report anything unless he knew for a fact it was true?

100% of the time, I'm going to go with Dan Bickley.

I don't necessarily agree with Bickley that Rudy should be "at home with his playbook," but let's be realistic here...during UofA week...the last place I want my team's starting quarterback to be is getting himself kicked out of a high school basketball game.

Rudy told Bickley that he was an "innocent bystander" and that he was "tired of defending himself." Sorry, RC, but it's the simple matter of being a public figure and starting quarterback for a big time college program; everything you do will be scrutinzed and picked apart. Why even put yourself in that situation? As someone very smart once told me, "Athletes are never off limits, so be careful with everything you do."

Oh, and you want to play this game professionally? A world where EVERYTHING upon EVERYTHING will be scrutinized? Better get used to it.

After the game was over, three separate people told me on good authority that when he was approached by reporters after the loss in Tucson last week, he apparently shouted that columnists like Bickley and Scott Bordow of the East Valley Tribune never said anything nice about him.

Ahem. If I may quote.

"Under a backdrop of heightened pressure, ASU's football team responded with its best performance of the season. The defense was stout. The offense was aggressive and dynamic. And the Rudy Carpenter we all remember from last season finally took the reins." -Bickley, 11/12/06

"Rudy Carpenter is stress-free, and it shows. His unbeaten team has moved into college football's high-rent district. He no longer is required to run to the sideline between plays, as he did under the previous regime. Best of all, no one in Tempe is muttering a word about Nebraska or Sam Keller." -Bickley, 10/24/07

"A real football player never acknowledges his own toughness. Pain is simply part of the process, and pushing it aside is part of the warrior code. But in Arizona, we are lucky. These suddenly compelling, possibly exhilarating football seasons wouldn't be possible without the great moxie on display from the Cardinals' Kurt Warner and the Sun Devils' Rudy Carpenter, a pair of ask-no-quarter quarterbacks." -Bickley, 11/21/07

"There is an inordinate number of ASU fans who never have embraced Carpenter. When he threw two interceptions against Texas in the Holiday Bowl last December, and backup Danny Sullivan led ASU to two meaningless touchdowns in the fourth quarter, there was talk that Sullivan should be the starter this season. The criticism of Carpenter is inexplicable. He started every game last season despite playing with a torn ligament in his thumb and behind an offensive line that allowed 55 sacks." -Bordow, 8/3/08

You know...those sound pretty good to me.

All in all...the best single word I can come up with to describe Rudy's career at ASU is "tumultuous."

But I still have a feeling that we'll all be missing his better days when our new quarterback is struggling to grasp Dennis Erickson's offense.

I guess it all comes down to one of RC's last on-the-record quotes of his career at ASU..."What else am I supposed to do?"

If hindsight is 20/20...you had a lot of work to do, Rudy.

Lady Luck, Please Let The Dice Stay Hot

2008-12-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

"Bright light city gonna set my soul
gonna set my soul on fire...
Got a whole lot of money that's ready to burn
so get those stakes up higher...
There's a thousand pretty women waitin' out there...
And they're all livin' devil may care...
And I'm just the devil with love to spare...
Viva Las Vegas..."
-Elvis Presley

Anybody ready to hop in the car and take the 5 hour drive to Sam Boyd Stadium?

According to reports, officials from the Las Vegas Bowl will be at tomorrow's Duel in the Desert with a simple task: hand the game's winner tickets to Sin City.

The winner between Arizona and Arizona State, regardless of record (6-6 for ASU, 7-5 for Arizona) will be invited to the Las Vegas Bowl.

The Arizona Republic reports that, barring a catastrophic turn of events with USC losing to UCLA and Utah somehow (0% chance) gets left out of the BCS, the Wildcats or Sun Devils will face the Brigham Young Cougars, who would get the Mountain West Champion autobid since the actual champion, Utah, will be in a big money bowl.

I had a feeling earlier this week that the talk of the Devils going to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco was a bunch of hooey (hooey? I'm getting old). It makes perfect sense for California to stay home. In these economic times, bowls are looking to save as much money as possible and keeping the Bears and their fans a short 20 minute drive across the Bay Bridge is the perfect situation for the bowl and for their committee. They'll most likely play the Miami Hurricanes, but Wake Forest and Maryland also seem like viable ACC candidates for that game.

If Arizona State wins, the Republic says Arizona would go to the Hawai'i Bowl, the very game Arizona State went to after beating Arizona in 2006 in Tucson. Ironic, no?

The Las Vegas Bowl, just for the record, takes place on Saturday, December 20.

And, frankly, who wouldn't want to take a long weekend up in Vegas?

Mike Stoops...for what it's worth...Is Staying

2008-12-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

Breaking news from Tucson in the run-up to the Duel in the Desert: apparently, Mike Stoops is safe.

Stoops, as seen on the right in a file photo in his favorite posture (screaming at referees), is not on the hot seat.

According to John Moredich of the Tucson Citizen, a story will run tomorrow that says that UofA president Robert Shelton, along with "several prominent boosters," are fully in support of Stoops. They're apparently "not thrilled with a 6-5" record in 2008 but they reportedly like where the program is going.

I'm speculating that "several prominent boosters" means Jim Click still likes Stoops.

Little Brother is 22-33 in 4+ seasons at Arizona including a meager 15-25 in the Pac-10. He's beaten us just once in his career; his first game against ASU in 2004 was the one in which Andrew Walter suffered a career-ending injury and Matt Miller dropped that 4th down pass to secure an upset for then 2-8 UofA against then 8-2 Arizona State.

Pac-10 Roundtable: End of Season Edition

2008-12-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

Let's face it. We all REALLY wanted a December trip to frigid and windy AT&T Park for Christmas.

That's what the rumor is, folks. A win for Arizona State over Arizona this weekend will most likely lead to the much coveted bid to the December 27 game in San Francisco. It's a Pac-10/ACC matchup with the #5, #6 or #7 team coming from the woeful Atlantic Coast conference. That means ASU would probably take on the likes of Miami, Clemson, Maryland or Wake Forest.

Neat.

On the flip side, a win for UA reportedly will garner Wildcat fans a short trip to Sin City for the Las Vegas Bowl. Frankly, I'd take a trip to Vegas over SF (ed. note: my hometown) any day of the week.

Which leads to the main question in this week's roundtable; the last fully football themed one of the season.

Onward ho!

1) Is it better suited for the conference as a whole to send the most teams possible to bowl games or only ones that have a legitimate chance at victory...AKA teams that won't further embarrass the Pac-10?

The obvious answer relates to the idea that less is more. The Pac-10 has seven bowl tie-ins...in order of prominence, they go Rose, Holiday, Sun, Las Vegas, Emerald, Hawai'i and Poinsettia. The conference will have a maximum of six teams bowl eligible this season, leaving the lesser San Diego bowl in the dust and possibly the Hawai'i or Emerald in the cold as well if ASU loses on Saturday.

USC is more or less a lock for the Rose Bowl, Oregon will most likely be in the Holiday Bowl and Oregon State, after going belly-up against the Ducks, will find themselves in El Paso. California and Arizona could go either way for the Las Vegas and Emerald Bowls. A win for ASU pushes them into a bowl game as well.

But let's be realistic. I'll be very happy to see good matchups between USC and Penn State in the Rose and Oregon take on a game Big XII opponent, possibly Oklahoma State. However, I have my serious doubts that any other Pac-10 team can put up a fight in their bowl. If Oregon State were to play, say, Pittsburgh in the Sun Bowl, LeSean McCoy would have his way with the Beavers run defense. Since Utah is going to the BCS, BYU would get the MWC autobid to the Las Vegas Bowl, and I don't think Arizona can run with the Cougars. California and Arizona State would get either Hawai'i or one of the middling ACC teams...and in the ACC's case, I think they would beat either the Bears or Sun Devils.

That's the long answer to a short conclusion: the Pac-10 is in serious danger of closing the 2008 season on a disastrous note, possibly even with the conference losing ALL of their bowl games.

2) What's the deal, OSU? Look, I get it, ruin your own season, that's fine. Nobody cares about that. But to ruin Cal's season? And to cost the entire Pac-10 millions and millions of dollars? What's up with that? I mean c'mon!

As you probably can tell, that question was authored by our great friends at California Golden Blogs.

Oregon State's loss to Oregon in the Civil War was disastrous and a blessing at the same time. With the loss (and an impending USC jackstomp of UCLA on Saturday), TV ratings and revenue streams go up for the Rose Bowl with the Trojans coming. On the flip side, obviously, is that an Oregon State trip to Pasadena would have more than likely led to a very undeserving double BCS bid for the Pac-10 and, as stated, left upwards of $14 million for the conference in the dust.

As for the Golden Bears...sorry Berkeley...instead of complaining about Oregon State losing, sending you to a lesser bowl and screwing the conference out of a treasure chest of cash, maybe you should be more worried about why your Bears fell behind by 22 to Maryland, forgot to play in the 3rd quarter in Tucson and left the offense in the Bay when you faced USC. Too harsh?

3) Arizona State is one win away from becoming bowl eligible with a tough game at Arizona this week. Can the Sun Devils pull it out and get to the post-season?

It's not going to be easy, but of course we can. The fun thing about the ASU/Arizona rivalry is that you never really know which way their game is going to go until foot meets pigskin. Look no further than the 2004 game when a roaring Sun Devils team looked confused, disoriented and downright bad against an Arizona squad whose only two previous wins were over FCS Northern Arizona and FCS-resembling Washington.

ASU needs to win this game for their youngsters. I know that it's usually the correct thing to say that you want to win your last rivalry game for your seniors, but let's be real. The freshmen and sohpomores need those extra three weeks of practice. A loss in Tucson takes those away. I'm not even worried about ASU's potential bowl opponent or where they're going in reality; I'm more worried that a loss to the Wildcats will deprive the Sun Devils of three very important extra weeks on the practice field.

4) Over the weekend, a number of USC Trojan comments appearing on the InterWebs made mention of how disappointed they were to be going to yet another Rose Bowl (UCLA game notwithstanding). Has the Rose Bowl game gradually lost its luster under the BCS format?

InterWebs (n) - 1) a series of tubes interconnected to discuss and complain about movies and sports; 2) a forum for people to share pornography

Thought I'd get that out of the way.

I think the Rose Bowl has definitely lost it's way in the 10 years they've been involved in the BCS. However, I'm 99.9999% certain that USC fans, and rightfully so, have their eyes on the crystal football. So, when they fall short as they have for three seasons now, the Rose Bowl is just a consolation prize.

(Note: It'll be the 4th straight Rose Bowl for the Trojans, but the 1st one was the National Title game vs. Texas, hence why I refer to 2006, 2007 and 2008 as "falling short".)

The allure of the Rose Bowl started to fall in 2000, when Miami met Nebraska in the BCS Title game. Last I checked, that was Big East/Big XII matchup...the first time since 1946 that a team from outside the Big Ten or Pac-10 participated (it was Alabama, and they beat USC) and the first since 1919 where the game featured neither. In a five-bowl span between 2001 and 2006, the Rose Bowl saw only one Pac-10/Big Ten game. In that time, Miami, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas all found themselves in Pasadena.

That coming after eight decades of featuring SOLELY the champions from the Pac-10 and Big Ten. THAT'S where the Rose Bowl lost it's way.

5) Oklahoma jumped Texas in the latest BCS poll. Is this an example of the BCS getting it right or does it add more fuel to the growing calls for a playoff system

Wait a second. Isn't this the PAC-10 roundtable? Do we have a Big XII mole somewhere in here? CougCenter, I'm looking at you...*fist shake*...

First off, there will never be a playoff system. You can hold your breath until you're blue in the face. Just forget it. As long as university presidents and athletic directors like money (and last I checked, money was not going out of style, we're all just running out of it), we'll have bowl games.

Let's go back to last season. We all bitched and moaned at the end of the season when a 2-loss LSU team and overrated Ohio State met in N'Awlins for the National Championship and the two teams where were inarguably the best in the country at the time, USC and Georgia, pounded their opponents in other BCS bowls.

This year, Oklahoma is CLEARLY playing the best football in the Big XII right now at the end of the season, but everyone is bitching and moaning because Texas beat Oklahoma on a neutral field.

Which leads me to this eloquent thought:

YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH F---ING WAYS!!!

No one is right and no one is wrong here. The whole system is convoluted and disastrous but, frankly, it's the best we've got without a bracket, which we've already established will come when Western Kentucky plays for the National Championship. But in my mind, usually the BCS is designed to reward the teams playing the best football at the end of the season, and that's Oklahoma right now.

Walter's Records Are Safe, Folks

2008-12-03T07:54:00.000-08:00

I know it's pretty much a moot point, but it's at least worth bringing up right now as I try to wake up on this Wednesday morning.

I'm sure you've all noticed on the right sidebar, among all the useful schedules, polls and other information, that we've been tracking all year Rudy Carpenter's attempt to break Andrew Walters ASU and Pac-10 records for passing yards and touchdowns.

It's taken a lot of work for a guy who hasn't taken math since his senior year of high school. Adding and subtracting were never my strong suits, despite the fact that I can compute a pitcher's ERA or a goalie's GAA in seconds.

Anyway, as you can see, going into the Arizona game, Rudy needs 463 yards to break A-Dub's career passing yardage record.

Anything is possible obviously; Rudy has popped off before, but it's the longest of long shots for RC, in a season where he and his receivers have struggled mightily to matriculate the ball down the field, to drop 450+ on the UofA secondary.

And to just state the obvious, it's an even more staggering low percentage that he drops 8 TD passes on the Wildcats. Duh.

So, even though AW's pro career has stumbled at the Oakland Raiders Summer Camp For Kids Who Can't Read Good, his records in Tempe are safe.

Back in the Saddle

2008-12-02T12:10:00.001-08:00

There's been a major gap in my posting. I know. It's been a while. But can you blame me when I'm spending 9 days staring at this all day?

Didn't think so. Puerto Vallarta, along with bucket upon bucket of Negro Modelo, for a week was just what I needed to get through the rest of the year.

But we're back! And not a second too soon. More to come on ASU/UA, but for now, enjoy this weeks Pitchfork Podcast, where we talk about James Harden, the Duel in the Desert and my argument for Kevin Craft to be the next starting QB at Arizona State.

Beastin'

2008-11-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

Since ESPN decided to show women's basketball instead of ASU and its red-hot All-American on Sunday night, I thought an update was in order. In case you missed the late night game on Friday and tonight's game against UTEP, James Harden amassed 72 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals in just TWO games!

On Friday night against Baylor, ASU's trademark defense fell apart and the Devils could not get a stop in the second half. Despite the bad defense, Harden nearly brought ASU back single-handedly by scoring 24 points in the last 9 minutes of the game, finishing with a tournament record 32 points in a frustrating loss. That record would not last 48 hours as Harden poured in 40 points in the tournament's consolation game as ASU cruised by 30 over UTEP.

If you haven't gotten on the bandwagon yet, now is the time to jump.

Former Sun Devil Wakamatsu named Mariners Manager

2008-11-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

The Seattle Times has a great story on the rise of Don Wakamatsu, who played with the Sun Devils in the early 80's. You know, before most of our readers and myself were born.

Among other things, Wakamatsu talks about his relationship with Barry Bonds:

"It was one of those love-hate things," Wakamatsu told The Chronicle. "I loved watching the things he [Bonds] could do and I hated lockering next to him. That was more jealousy about what he could do and how easily he handled the pressure. He was so gifted so early."

Check out the rest of the article here.

Pac-10 Roundtable: Tempe is Basketball Country

2008-11-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. There are still two football games to go this season and ASU needs to win both to earn a trip to the postseason and, in my opinion more importantly, three more vital weeks of practice for all of these youngsters.

But let's be realistic for just a second here. We all waited with bated breath for last Friday's thriller with Mississippi Valley State.

Despite the fact that the only thrilling thing about the 80-64 win at WFA was waiting to see whether or not ASU would actually hit theier free throws, it was nice to see a Sun Devils team come out and live up to a billing, regardless of whether it was one game against a team from a town called Itta Bena (Fun Fact: Itta Benna is a Choctaw word for "camp together").

Anyway, because of my happiness about basketball season starting, I successfully petitioned the Men of the Pac-10 Table to start some hoops discussion.

Avast, mateys! It might not be Talk Like a Pirate Day, but I'm going to anyway. Roundtable!

1. The Pac-10 has 7 bowl contracts to fill and currently only 5 spots filled. Stanford, UCLA, and Arizona State all sit in the middle of the Pac with 6 losses. Out of those three teams, which, if any, will make it to post-season play?

I have to stick with the prediction that I made several weeks back and say that none of them will get to six wins. I don't think that Stanford has the firepower to get past a California team that will be hungry to get this win so they get to 8 after they beat Washington. I think UCLA will drop their matchup in Tempe on the day after Thanksgiving and then lose to USC to finish 4-8. Arizona State, as I just said, should be UCLA on their home turf next week but I have serious doubts about them being able to go down to Tucson and win this year.

2. Is there anybody NOT rooting for OSU to win out and go to the Rose Bowl? Anybody? I think even Pete Carroll has to have a spot in his heart for this story. And if OSU does win the Pac10, pushing USC to 2nd, do you think USC will make a BCS game or find itself in the Holiday Bowl?

Yes, there are, those people take up offices at the American Broadcasting Company.

Unless Penn State lays an egg against Michigan State on Saturday, they'll be the champions of the Big Ten and earn themselves a spot in the Rose Bowl. Obviously, if Oregon State wins out, they'll be the team the Nittany Lions face. I seem to remember a certain 45-14 embarrassment that Penn State laid on the Beavers...on ABC, nonetheless. The last thing the network wants for it's only major bowl telecast of the year is a rematch of a game that wasn't even a game.

Everyone else is, that's for sure. The Rose Bowl committee certainly would love the extra revenue from having two out-of-town contingents for the first time in years.

For USC, as the BCS complexion takes shape, the fact that it still includes Utah and Boise State makes it very difficult to believe that the Trojans will go BCS bowling this season. These games salivate over having Ohio State in their stadiums because of how well they travel and the potential to have a star like Terrelle Pryor on their field. The loser of the Florida/Alabama SEC Championship game will almost certainly find themselves with an at-large bid as well. USC's best hope is for BYU to beat Utah or for the Smurf Turf Gang to drop a game down the stretch.

3. Let's take a stroll down basketball lane. What are your Pac-10 rankings for 2008-09?

1) UCLA Bruins: Still too much firepower, led by Darren Collison and super-frosh Jrue Holliday.
2) Arizona State Sun Devils: Not enough room here.
3) USC Trojans: DeMar DeRozan is going to be a beast in this league. A one-and-done beast.
4) Washington State Cougars: Lost talent on offense, but can still D up with the best of them.
5) Washington Huskies: Lorenzo Romar finally has some talent to work with again. Jon Brockman is an All-American
6) California Golden Bears: Mike Montgomery will give the program a shot a badly-needed jolt.
7) Arizona Wildcats: Probably will be better than Cal, but the Olson debacle leaves the program in a tizzy.
8) Stanford Cardinal: No Lopez twins means little success for first-year coach Johnny Dawkins.
9) Oregon Ducks: They already lost to Oakland this season...enough said.
10) Oregon State Beavers: At least their players can say, "I know a guy who knows Obama!"

4. Now that we've seen your B-Ball Top 10 (with assuredly UCLA at the top and OSU at the bottom), who is your surprise team this year? And why is it Cal?

First off, CGB, it's not Cal. Sorry. Max Zhang and Jordan Wilkes just don't inspire me to say, "Wow! Cal is going to be great!"

Can I say there won't be one? I really feel like all of the top teams will be very good, the bad teams will be very bad and the middling teams will be very...middling. Washington and Washington State are nice but they don't seem to have the youthful talent or spark to pull upsets this season.

In place of naming a surprise team, I'll give you a team that will make the most upward progress since last season and that will be the Huskies. I really, really...REALLY...like what Jon Brockman brings in terms of size and leadership, Justin Dentmon and Venoy Overton are both competent options at PG and freshman wingman Scott Suggs has the chance to make an immediate impact.

5. With the legendary Lute Olson out at Arizona, what are their chances of making the tournament this year?

Slim to none. Sure, Chase Budinger is still inexplicably hanging around, but the players around him are nowhere near the caliber of talents to lift this team into another postseason. Frankly, I didn't think this was a tournament team before Lute retired/quit/lost his key to McKale Center.

Russ Pennell has already established himself as a strict disciplinarian and it's rubbing players the wrong way; Nic Wise and another unidentified teammate are apparently still burned about being held from the starting lineup in an exhibition game because they were one minute (yes, literally one minute) late for shootaround that morning.

The thing that will keep UofA out of the tourney this year is their inability to lock down in clutch situations. A trait that was taken for granted for the past two decades, the Wildcats have stunningly lost their ability to close out games. One might trace it all back to the 2005 Elite Eight collapse against Illinois, but it's a consistent problem that Arizona has faced over the past three years.

Staying alive

2008-11-16T13:14:00.000-08:00

Is it possible to win 31-0 and still be unimpressive?

The Sun Devils answered that question with a clear YES on Saturday in their win over Washington State. You can't take anything away from the ASU defense, which recorded its first shutout since 1996's storied 19-0 win over top-ranked Nebraska. But offensively, the Sun Devils continue to struggle to find any sort of rhythm. Rushing for 106 yards against a team giving up nearly 300 hundered per game can hardly be considered a rousing success. Giving up two sacks in a two-play span against a team that had only seven coming in doesn't bode well either.

With all that being said, the Sun Devils kept their postseason hopes alive and have set up the possibility of the Territorial Cup meaning just that much more on Dec. 6. Style points don't matter when the goal is becoming bowl-eligible, but wins -even if they come against two of the nation's most pathetic programs -do.

Photo credit: Rob Schumacher, AP

ASU at 1600 Pennsylvania

2008-11-13T14:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the commentor that led me to this today...

ASU's national championship Track & Field and Softball teams were greeted at the White House by Bush 43 yesterday. It's a repeat trip for the tracksters.

Hard for me to identify most of the people in the picture, but the ones I can pick out are AD Lisa Love (white pantsuit on the left), shotput national champion Jessica Pressley (directly to the left of GWB) and SID Alex Ryan (our friend and yours!).

Congrats to our champs! Also nice to see that Bush has found some stuff to do to keep busy as Barack starts redecorating.

One Step Back, Two Giant Steps Forward

2008-11-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Just after Jared Cunningham pulled a 180 and decided not to come to ASU, the Sun Devils landed two more solid recruits on the first day of the early signing period.

First, the Devils received a signed letter of intent from 6'5" guard Trent Lockett out of Hopkins High School in Minnesota. Lockett is apparently a dynamo of a shooting guard, ranked 25th among SG in the ESPN rankings and hovering around the same in other rankings.

Just a few moments ago, ASU added some much needed size to their future lineup. Ruslan Pateev, a 7-foot man-beast of a Russian from Monteverde Academy near Orlando, FL, put on an ASU hat at a press conference in central Florida.

ASU loses a verbal commit

2008-11-12T12:22:00.001-08:00

Not a whole lot of analysis for this one...would have been nice to get Jared Cunningham in the mix in coming years, but I guess you can't win them all.

He gave a verbal to Herb Sendek and ASU last October but apparently informed the Devils today that he will not be coming to ASU. He's got other options that he's considering across the West Coast.

Apparently, Cunningham was going to have eligibility issues anyway.

Doug Haller at The Republic can explain it all better than I can today.

Yes We Can!

2008-11-11T19:10:00.000-08:00

2008-2009 Men's Basketball Season Preview

After enduring one of the worst football recessions in the collective memory of ASU fans, it’s time for change. We need a team that can inspire the nation! We need a team that can offer hope to the common fan! We need a team that has not been corrupted by years of NCAA experience and policies! Can you feel the excitement?! Well America (or maybe just Arizona), we have found that team. A team that you can follow into conflict and feel confident about. A team that you know will make the correct decisions in times of need. A team that will bring young people and old people together under a common cause. This team is an unlikely hero. A young, fresh team that gained recognition at the 2008 NCAA Selection Show and started a buzz across the United States. A team that has gained momentum among the talking heads in the media and offers an overwhelming message of hope. Who is this team? Your 2008-2009 ASU Men’s Basketball team!!

Now you may be saying to yourself, “Wow T.J., that was a bit overzealous. Maybe you should sit down before you hurt yourself.” If so, you’re probably correct, but after six straight games of ASU football where I felt like an altar boy leaving a private meeting with a priest, I deserve something to get excited about. (Okay, that analogy was a bit extreme and most likely offensive but it got the point across didn’t it?) Anyway, basketball season is just around the corner and ASU fans should be reminded that we have something to be proud of. Recently, as I was talking to a friend about ASU football, we were discussing the (strong) possibility that we would lose to Arizona in football this year and we realized that this may be the first time since 1769 that ASU fans would be the ones chanting, “Wait ‘til basketball!” at that game. As sad as that thought is, the truth remains the same: ASU basketball is primed for its best season in years, and unlike football, this team is for real.

Bringing back its top eight players, including all five starters, ASU is looking to improve upon the 2007-2008 season that saw the Sun Devils start off slow but make giant leaps in progress, finishing the season 21-13 and unfairly shut out of the NCAA Tournament. Coming off such a season, with an excellent coach, and a load of returning talent, it’s no wonder that ASU is finally receiving national media attention. Of course the main reason for this is one James Harden.

ASU’s most prized athletic possession spent the summer not only working out with - and impressing the likes of - Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James, but also has been accumulating media accolades. Gracing the pages of Sports Illustrated, SLAM, Athlon, POST, Sporting News, and any other basketball publication known to man, James Harden has officially arrived. Flying mostly under the radar last year, James Harden had one of the greatest freshman seasons in ASU history. One can understand how Harden may have been lost in the Pac-10 shuffle last year among O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love, Jerryd Bayless, and all the other conference players drafted last year. What some may not understand is how good this guy actually is. If you somehow missed the entire season last year and didn’t get to see Harden play, go ahead and invest in some season tickets or ESPN Full Court so you can see him play every game this season.

Coming off a freshman season, where he averaged 17.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.2 apg, and 2.1 spg, James Harden is poised to take the nation by storm. Look for his statistics to improve across the board as he heads into his second season under the tutelage of Herb Sendek. There were times last season where Harden sat back and unselfishly tried to let his teammates lead the team. I expect that we will see a more aggressive offensive game this year from Harden. The great thing about Harden though is that his game never seems forced. It doesn’t ever appear that he’s struggling or over-exerting himself. The game flows naturally through him and he can simply take over in the clutch. All of those overtime wins last year? Mr. Clutch himself took over each of those and led the Sun Devils to victory.

While Harden has been named as a pre-season All-American by several publications, the Sun Devils have also been subject of media attention. Since there are more pre-season basketball rankings than there are celibate ASU freshmen, the Devils have been ranked anywhere between #12 and #25, depending on where you look. The reason for ASU achieving its second highest AP pre-season ranking (#15) in school history, is not just James Harden. Along side Harden comes six more returning starters. That’s right, ASU has seven returning starters. How does that happen? Well, depending on the game, Harden, Jeff Pendergraph, Ty Abbott, Jerren Shipp, Derek Glasser, Jamelle McMillan, and Rihards Kuksiks all started a number of games last season. All of these players are back and should see significant minutes this year. It is rare that a team returns its top seven guys, so let’s take a minute to look at each.

James Harden

I’ve already said plenty about this young stud, but really I could write articles for days about how good he is and how key he will be for the Sun Devils this year. Teams will be keying on him even more this year so his numbers may be harder to get but there are several things working to his advantage. First, the Pac-10 is weaker this year than it was last year and he should thrive in conference play. Second, with his supporting cast being much more experienced this year, they should be able to keep defenses a bit more honest, allowing him more freedom. Finally, with a summer of working with the aforementioned Bryant, Pierce, and James, along with brilliant coach Herb Sendek, James Harden is just that much better coming into this season.

Jeff Pendergraph

The senior big man should be a perfect complement to Harden’s swing game. A mobile big man with excellent defensive capabilities, Pendergraph should be much more comfortable this year as he is no longer looked at as ASU’s first option. In the past, he was the go-to man and I found him to be somewhat underwhelming. For a guy that has had NBA buzz in the past, I’ve always been left wanting more out of him. While he has been continuously solid for the Devils, averaging 12.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg, and 1.6 bpg, he has not been as good as he could be. He sometimes looks as if he is unsure of his footwork in the post, which worries me for a guy that could potentially dominate the post every night. Of course, I am being very critical as Pendergraph has a lot of great things that this team needs. Pendergraph is a strong shot blocker and is the emotional leader of this team. He is a guy that clearly wears his emotions on his jersey and when he is fired up, the Devils are a much better team. In games where Pendergraph scored early, he was much more effective as he was able to gain comfort early in the game before his emotions could start playing with his head. If Pendergraph can average close to a double-double and stay out of foul trouble, the Devils should have a good chance to win every game this season.

Ty Abbott

The sophomore shooting guard should be the X-Factor for the Sun Devils this year. One of the streakiest shooters I’ve ever seen, if he is able to be more consistent from the outside, he should be able to keep zone defenses in check and open up Harden for more man-to-man coverage. While Abbott was often great from behind the arc, what I really wished he did more of was slashing to the basket. He did this on rare occasions last season and showed some skill that I think could be better utilized. If Abbott and Harden both had the green light to slash inside, they would open each other up for outside shots and could collapse the defense to give Pendergraph open looks as well. My biggest hope for this season may be that Abbott opens up his offensive game and gains a bit more consistency from three point range.

Derek Glasser

Excellent at protecting the ball, Glasser has proven himself to be a very reliable floor general. With one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the nation, Glasser works mainly as the man that brings the ball up, sets the offense, and then gets out of the way for the scorers to operate. While Glasser doesn’t shoot much, he has shown the ability to knock down shots when needed. A smart ballplayer, Glasser’s best asset is his consistency and his willingness to operate as an unsung hero. There were several games last season where his ability to do all of the little things on the court ensured ASU victory. Don’t expect much difference in his numbers this year, but another year of experience should serve Glasser and the rest of the team quite well.

Jamelle McMillan

A true coach’s son, McMillan showed great ability to pick up the offense quickly last season and worked his way into the starting lineup early on in the season. While his numbers don’t jump off the page, McMillan is a good defensive complement to Glasser and should improve across the board this year statistically. It should be interesting to see if McMillan begins to take over any more of Glasser’s minutes this year. Glasser was the PG at the end of games last season and if McMillan continues to improve, Sendek could have a good dilemma on his hands this year when it comes to point guard.

Jerren Shipp

With the exception of his ASU debut, Shipp has been almost exclusively a quiet role player. Shipp has the ability to score in several ways, but seems content to live in the shadows of Harden and Pendergraph. Shipp comes from a family of ball players and has a good basketball IQ. He is many times asked to play as an undersized post player and has done reasonably well defending opposing bigs. Shipp does a lot of the things that don’t show up in the box score and is an important part of this team.

Rihards Kuksiks

The Latvian-born sophomore came on strong at the end of last season and gained a lot of minutes as the season wore on. Kuksiks is the second-best returning outside shooter after Harden. Kuksiks is another guy that will benefit largely from logging significant minutes as a freshman and should show marked improvement this year. If his defense improves, he will find himself on the floor in clutch situations.

The Rest

Eric Boateng – I left him off of the key returning guys because, well, he has been a huge disappointment. At times last year he was so bad that a friend and I started calling it “pulling a Boateng” when someone did something dumb on the court or turned the ball over. With his size, he really gets your hopes up but he just hasn’t come through. ASU could really use him to give Pendergraph a break in the post but he has been mainly a liability. Any improvement out of him would be huge for the Devils.

Kraidon Woods – I want so badly for him to be good. He is one of those guys that you love watching because he has so much raw potential but also hate watching because he just hasn’t realized it yet. Still one of my favorite players on the team, but for no good reason.

Johnny Coy – The Devils’ top recruit this year had some buildup but I don’t anticipate seeing much of anything from him this year. Sources have told me that he has been unimpressive in practice and not the shooter he was expected to be. Don’t get your hopes up here. That being said, I would love to be wrong.

Taylor Rohde – A Phoenix product and very similar to Johnny Coy in body type and high school statistics. I think Rohde and Coy will be the only freshman with a chance to play any this year and should get buried on the bench once the conference season begins.

After looking through the roster and knowing how the Devils performed last year, it’s easy to see why pundits have chosen ASU to finish second in the Pac-10 this year. UCLA is still clearly above everyone else in the conference, but the Sun Devils should be able to beat everyone else in the conference. I even expect that ASU could give the Bruins a run when they come to Tempe this year. Look for ASU to win 25-26 games this year and easily make their way into the NCAA Tournament. Without having seen them play a minute this year, I’m calling at least a Sweet Sixteen berth. The only thing that worries me is ASU’s glaring lack of post depth but thankfully the Tournament is dominated by guards and wing players and the Sun Devils just so happen to have one of the best in the nation.

ASU kicks off the season this Friday, November 14 at home against Mississippi Valley State. The game begins at 8pm. Continue to check out Pitchfork Nation for analysis throughout the season and I’ll be back with improved podcasts as the season gets going.

Sun Devil Basketball. Yes we can!

Oh boy.

2008-11-11T13:13:00.001-08:00

*nervously looks around*

Oh boy.

Any good ideas for a jinx-breaker?

Pitchfork Podcast: The Justin Isn't There Edition

2008-11-11T12:15:00.001-08:00

Since I was off doing my day job last night, I didn't get a chance to join Todd and Brett on The Stretch for our weekly look at ASU sports.

They found someone nice to fill in for me though.

The guys at The Blaze got to chat with men's basketball coach Herb Sendek last night for a while in anticipation of this Friday's season opener with Mississippi Valley State.

And even if I hadn't been watching my beloved 49ers embarrass themselves at the UOP last night, I'd gladly step aside for Unkie Herb any day.

Take a listen.

The 11/11 Pac-10 Roundtable: "Everybody Love Everybody"

2008-11-11T11:14:00.000-08:00

It's apparently Will Ferrell reference week here at PFN.

Not that this is a bad thing...as long as we stay away from that Stranger Than Fiction disaster. I'm waiting for those two hours of my life back.

Anyway, we had another new and welcomed twist to the Pac-10 Roundtable: the "everyone hosts" edition!

Five of us (including yours truly) submitted one question to the pot and we came out with the best five. Don't forget to check out the other Square Table member blogs to check out their answers as well.

And now, in the spirit of spreading the wealth, it's this week's roundtable.

1. USC and OSU win out. OSU wins the Pac10 and goes to the Rose Bowl. USC doesn't win the Pac-10, but due to the Big XII and the SEC cannibalizing themselves, manages to get into the National Championship game. Discuss.

Forgive me, but I'm a little verklempt thinking about USC being, once again, where they shouldn't. The scariest thing here is that this could actually happen. Don't forget that back in 2001, Nebraska didn't even WIN THE NORTH DIVISION in the Big XII yet still went to the Rose Bowl/National Championship (and got jackstomped by the Fighting Dorseys).

That 2001 season, with Oregon and Colorado having better cases than Nebraska to get to the title game, was clearly the strangest season the BCS has ever seen, but 2008 has a chance to be almost as weird.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that the winner of the SEC Championship will be in the National Title game, so throw Florida/Alabama in there. That leaves USC, the champion of the Big XII and, as the longest shot, Penn State.

It's easy to say that if Texas Tech wins out, and that's far from a certainty since they'll have to beat Oklahoma and most likely Missouri in their conference championship, they'll be in Miami to face Florida/Alabama.

If the Red Raiders lose, all hell will break loose. Then you've got Texas stating their case to move up if they can win out and take the Big XII, Penn State wanting to vault USC and Utah into the top two and, in a repeat of 2006, even the loser of Alabama/Florida claiming in Michigan-esque fashion that they still deserve a chance at a rematch.

Oh, and about those pesky Utes. Don't forget them. They're hovering at #7, and a perfect storm of losses could hasten their ascent to the top two. And frankly, none of us want that.

But about USC. Absolutely possible. If the Trojans can win out, Texas Tech loses and Texas loses the Big XII Championship game, then the Men of Troy will most likely be #2.

2. Oregon State is the only team that controls its Pac-10 destiny due in large part to freshman phenom Jacquizz Rodgers, but their next 3 games will be their toughest stretch of conference games. What are their chances of winning out and going to their first Rose Bowl since 1965?

Very possible, but it wont be easy. California has steadily gotten better over the course of the season but they've struggled away from Berkeley, going 1-3 with that only W coming in Pullman, so it really doesn't count. What's more disturbing is that the Bears offense nearly shuts down away from home (6 points in the first three quarters at Maryland, 2nd half stagnation at Arizona and the debacle in LA).

Arizona will be a stiff test because now that they are guaranteed a bowl game, they wont be content to just stand pat with their six wins. They'll also have to find a way to shut down Rob Gronkowski and Keola Antonin, who have established themselves as the offensive pacemakers for the Wildcats.

Anything can happen in that Civil War. Nothing more needs to be said.

3. It's pretty widely accepted as of now that the Pac-10 is having, across the board, its worst season in years. Give us your #1 reason for this sudden downturn in quality.

The quality of quarterback play in the Pac-10 has been completely diminished over the past four seasons and I relate that directly to the downturn in quality of play in the conference. In fact, I've been working on an enormous project which I'll unveil between the UA game and the start of the bowl season here on PFN showing you exactly why.

Consider this a Cliff's Notes version of it.

Just four years ago...the good old days of 2004 when I was a sophomore at ASU and the world was my kegger, the Pac-10 had the nation's 7th and 8th rated passers (Matt Leinart and Aaron Rodgers) with Andrew Walter of ASU coming in at 22nd. The conference also had six of the nation's top 40 in passing yards (Leinart, Rodgers, Walter, Derek Anderson, Drew Olson and Kellen Clemens). Anderson was 4th in the nation that year.

This season, the conference's highest rated passer is Mark Sanchez in 12th and Arizona's Willie Tuitama comes in at 18. Another Pac-10 QB doesn't show up until #38. Sanchez has the most passing yards in the Pac-10 with 2,122...good enough for 29th in America.

Even beyond stats, that generation of quarterbacks in 2004 were more mature, had better decision making skills and better field managers than this crop is. It's fair to say that there's a gap in age between the two seasons, but these youngsters have a lot of ground to make up.

4. Each season can bring significant change to a college football team, whether from graduation or a change in starters. Now that we've seen the majority of the 2008 season, what do you think will be the significant changes for your team to contend with in 2009?

The first major change will be at quarterback, where I'm now convinced that none of the undergrad signal callers currently on the ASU roster (Sullivan, Szakacsy, Stangel, Elway) will be anywhere close to being Pac-10 caliber starters in 2009. I'm convinced that ASU will hit the JuCo quarterback market to find a spot starter for next season and wait for Jack Elway or another QB recruit to develop.

At the same time, I'm not sure who is going to be in the backfield for the Devils next year either. Keegan Herring is out of eligibility, I'm really sketchy on Dimitri Nance or Shaun DeWitty being the full time starter and, sadly, we haven't seen enough of Ryan Bass in game situations to know if he's going to be a difference maker yet.

5. Will USC ever suck again? EVER!?!

Of course! The beautiful thing about college football is it's ebb and flow, regardless of how long change might take.

Every major power in college football eventually takes a step back, however brief. It can be for a number of reasons; a coaching change, a string of weak recruiting/disappointing recruiting classes, strength of the conference and other factors can all signal a temporary downfall of a major NCAA football powerhouse.

You need to look no further than teams like Miami, Florida State, Nebraska, Colorado, Alabama and, most recently, Tennessee and Michigan as programs where mitigating factors have led to all of these programs to briefly take a step back in power in the past decade and have, well, a "regular" or even a "bad" season. Yet, at their time at the top, we all wondered if they would "ever suck again...ever."

Eventually, Pete Carroll will leave, the allure may wear off and the Trojans may suffer a 9-3 or 8-4 season. Don't forget that this was the team that lost the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl after going 6-6, so it wasn't that long ago that USC was a program treading water in the Pac-10. This all may take 25-30 years, of course, but it will happen. Trust me.

We might be bad...but not WSU bad...

2008-11-10T14:27:00.001-08:00

You have to give it to Paul Wulff for trying to keep his troops optimistic. After all, they still have more wins than that team in Seattle!

Granted, it's over an FCS team, but still, it's better than the 0-for that the Huskies are laying right now.

This is what he had to say after his Cougars lost to Arizona this Saturday. Courtesies in order to KVEW in Kennewick, Washington for the video hookup.

I'm sure what he really means is: "we're going to put 11 men out on the field and...you know...see what happens."

It's been a while...but I'm back.

2008-11-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

Life and work got in the way again, so sorry about the silence from PFN this week. I promise that it will not happen again.

For the next two weeks at least. I'll be taking a well-deserved week away from Arizona that will take me through the UCLA game.

Either way, I feel like we didn't miss much anyway. I've just got a few simple observations from the 39-19 win over Washington.

-Washington is terrible, but for 2 1/2 quarters, they looked downright competent. That trick play from Ronnie Fouch was a gutsy call and I was impressed with the ease in which they pulled off the Homerun Throwback (There it is folks, your shameless Tennessee Titans reference).

-Nice to see some production out of the wide receivers, most notably Mike Jones. It's safe to say that our WR's have had their share of struggles and dropsies this season, but #1 looked like vintage MJ with his acrobatic catches, sharp routes and 146 yards.

-Hello, Keegan Herring! Not sure what it is about Husky Stadium, but it has brought out the best in Keegan in his two visits there; both times the Devils have played in Seattle with Herring on the field, he's broken a frenetic run to seal a victory for Arizona State. Granted, this game and the next one are against the Washington schools, but Herring looked like normal, healthy Herring on Saturday night.

-Defense stepped up again with a momentum changer. Troy Nolan followed through on his instincts in following the play and scooped up a fumble to take to the house for his second straight week with a touchdown return. His return to form has energized this defensive unit.

Thankfully for myself and anyone with a pair of eyes, thanks to the win, I will NOT have to run across the ASU campus in my Joe Boxers. And thank goodness for that, because that cold snap that rolled through would have most likely caused an unfortunate and likely hilarious (for others) situation.

However, since it is getting cold out and it is getting close to the holidays, I'm going to and I encourage ALL of you out there in Sun Devil Nation to take some time to think of those less fortuante at this time of year.

I'm sure that you read that as a part of my promise to Will Ferrell myself across campus that I would donate whatever clothing I shed to a local charity, and I'm still going to do that and I want all of you to consider doing so as well.

I've decided to make my donation to the Child Crisis Center of the East Valley and encourage you to do the same. Here's a list of locations to make your donation, and let us know at pitchforknation@gmail.com when you do so we can give you some love on this here blog.

Anyway, plenty coming up this week, including a look ahead to Washington State and the men's and women's basketball season openers.

Happy Election Day, Everyone

2008-11-03T23:28:00.001-08:00

After so many days and months of stumping, political speeches, mudslinging, maverick-ing, Joe-the-Plumbering and wishing kids on our youth hockey teams had hockey moms that looked like Sarah Palin, it's finally time to vote.

It's your privilege as an American to have a voice in our political system, so whether you're voting for Barack Obama or John McCain, make sure you vote. It's your duty.

What Has My Big Mouth Gotten Me Into This Time?

2008-11-03T18:44:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, I really need to remember that when I say something, not only are people actually listening, but said people will hold me to what I say 99% of the time.

Which leads me to tonight's...situation.

You'll hear the comment in this week's Pitchfork Podcast tomorrow but I might as well let you all know now, so you can prepare yourselves for the potential carnage.

During my appearance with Todd and Brett on The Blaze 1260 AM tonight, the guys asked me if this Saturday, in fact, would be the day that the Sun Devils finally get off their slide and win their 3rd game of the season.

And I was apparently so confident about it, I said that I'd run across the ASU campus (specifically down Palm Walk) in my skivvies if the Sun Devils were to actually suffer a loss to the Washington Huskies. The 0-8 Washington Huskies, who have been outscored 89-7 in their last two outings.

Here's the rub: Todd and Brett, two guys whom I know very well, will not let me chicken out of this.

So the gauntlet has been thrown. ASU plays Washington in Seattle at 5:00 PM on Saturday. If the Devils suffer an unthinkable loss to the Huskies and LDCTW (Lame duck coach Ty Willingham), I'll dash the length of Palm Walk. Better yet, to sweeten the deal, I'll even donate my clothes to a local charity. We're just those kind of people here at PFN.

No, not ones that enjoy making asses out of ourselves. I know you were thinking it. I'm talking about the part where I'm kindhearted.

I do need suggestions to where to donate though, so leave a comment with some ideas should the unthinkable happen.

And get some sunglasses. If this comes to fruition, the loss and I will be unbearable to look at.

It wasn't quite FIU/Miami...

2008-11-03T11:36:00.000-08:00

...but it sure wasn't something that I was happy to see.

It was a simple call, really. Jacquizz Rodgers, whose older brother is on the team and is more strongly protected by teammates than the POTUS, got hit after the whistle and out of bounds by Terell Carr. Naturally, the Beaver sideline was up in arms about the incident and swarmed to Carr, who was pulled away by teammates.

Quizz was restrained by his own teammates, Carr was out of the picture, the flag for unnecessary roughness was thrown and all seemed to be OK. Until Tank English showed up.

What happens next is a bit muddled because of the obvious limitation: I wasn't in Corvallis, I didn't see the incident first hand and was limited to the camera angles and replays that FSN decided to run with.

But what I saw was a hot headed defensive lineman willingly go onto the opposing sideline. Maybe he was acting as a peacemaker. Maybe he wasn't. I'll never know what his mindset was. What I DO know is that all would have been peaceful had an Oregon State assistant coach not stepped in.

The replays show that there was a clear shoving match between English and the unidentified coach, and the contact from the coach to Tank clearly had more "oomph" behind it. Simply put, it really looked like the members of the Beavers staff lost his cool and decided to show it physically.

That coach/staff member needs to be suspended immediately. The role of the adult in that situation, whether it be football or anything else, is to be the level-headed peacemaker. What that coach did was a clear escalation of a situation that referees and other coaches were trying to resolve and he decided to take his frustration into his own hands and go after an opposing player. It obviously was no Woody Hayes punching Charlie Bauman, but it was a completely unacceptable act by a non-player.

Before it was over, though, ASU had its own shameful moment. All of a sudden, Steve Physioc comes out and says "There must be 20 ASU players off the sideline near midfield...Dennis Erickson is PAST midfield!"

Great.

As soon as he said that, I started counting ASU players. All of a sudden, I saw 13 maroon and gold bodies. Two too many. Ryan McFoy made it all the way across without his helmet (a sure sign that he...uh...WASN'T on the field on the previous defensive play) and so did PFN's favorite goat, Nate Kimbrough.

The ONLY person that should have been off the bench for Arizona State was Erickson. In those tense situations, I think it's the responsibility of the coach to play peacemaker. Not other players, especially those who are on the bench.

I'm not laying blame on anyone here; this, frankly, was a very minor situation. No one was ejected and there was no retribution on either side. Both teams got personal foul penalties and the rest of the 4th quarter progressed without incident.

However, it's worth mentioning here, because if it's frustration that's starting to boil over for 2-6 Sun Devils, someone needs to step in and rein it in.

Better Effort, Same Result

2008-11-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

It's simple now, really. Even as a journalist who took his last math class 5 1/2 years ago, I can put the numbers together.

Four games left. Four wins needed to get bowl eligible.

The worst part about this one was the marked, drastic improvement of the Arizona State Sun Devils performance across the board in their 27-25 loss at Oregon State tonight.

This was, by an extremely wide margin, the Devils' best effort of the season. I'm serious. The only problem was that this tremendous effort was only present on about 90% of the plays at Reser Stadium.

On the other 10%, ASU looked like the same-old-sorry-ass Sun Devils.

Yet on a day where wild finishes and upsets were the norm across the board, our Devils almost pulled off a miracle of their own.

Rudy Carpenter deserves a lot of credit for his performance tonight, regardless of his less-than-stellar numbers. On the day that RC took over as America's College Ironman at QB (Curtis Painter didn't start for Purdue today, in case you missed it), Rudy kept ASU afloat early in the game when, as usual, his running backs couldn't move the ball. He started 7-of-10 and kept his offense moving, albeit slowly, and kept the game close through the first 25 minutes.

RC came up with a VERY gutty effort today. The calls were going mostly against ASU (that gripe coming in a later post), his receivers were well covered and defended all night and he had to fight his own offensive line jumping the snap count pretty much every other play. However, that final drive, he was able to keep it all together and at least put the Devils in a position to tie the game.

Then, of course, he waited too long to pull the trigger on the 2-point conversion.

However, it seems as if Dennis Erickson and Rich Olson are set on running between the tackles until it works. Here's the funny thing though: it actually almost worked. Shaun DeWitty remarkably got free for 111 yards on 16 carries, a mindblowing (for him) 6.9 YPC. The bad news is that DeWitty's runs came at times where they were less than opportune. None of the dashes were considerably clutch or at times when the Devils needed him to break a big one.

On another bright side, Dimitri Nance touched the ball once and didn't fumble. Good for him!

The offensive line...guh. Not much to say here. You all saw it. Three drives, including the first two of the game, started with false start penalties...basically canceling any sort of momentum before the drive even started. I'm sure it was loud and rowdy at Reser Stadium tonight, but that was ridiculous. I'll have to go back and look, but I'm pretty sure every member of the offensive line jumped at some point, and that includes Andrew Pettes. The difference between the line and Pettes is that he redeemed himself on the same drive by grabbing the TD that led to the potentially tying two-point conversion. The bad news is that the rest of the guys up front did their best impression of a colander as the Beavers D-line came through unchallenged on the roll out.

On the defensive side, it was another typical ASU effort. By that, I mean, they forced a tremendous pick six by Troy Nolan. Unfortunately, it was the only turnover forced throughout the game.

Tackling wise, it was all or nothing. Either the Devils got to Jacquizz Rodgers immediately at the line or he stomped all over the Devils front seven. Quizz joins Frank Summers, Knowshon Moreno and Joe McKnight as RB's that have cracked 130 on the ground against the Sun Devils. For the most part, the diminutive freshman ran roughshod over the Sun Devils; at times, it took 3 or more ASU defenders to take him down.

The Sun Devils were able to take out starting QB/professional eater Lyle Moevao before the half. Unfortunately, that may have been a blessing in disguise for the Beavers. Backup Sean Canfield came in and ran the OSU offense like a charm, continually putting his offense in the right place at the right time. His mobility may have been what saved Oregon State on a few plays; Luis Vasquez and Lawrence Guy had really good games and were getting into the backfield all night.

All told, I can't say I was overly disappointed with the Devils effort tonight. They came out to play and kept it close with a far superior opponent who truly have the Rose Bowl in their sights. But it's games like this that teams with a senior quarterback and veterans on defense should pull out. That inability is what makes the Devils a poor football team in 2008.

I've got plenty of more analysis that I'll spread out through the weekend, including my first ever gripe about officiating. I really don't think I've ever posted on PFN about poor referee work, but this game was so terribly officiated that it deserves its own article.

I've also got some thoughts on that little skirmish on the OSU sidelines, and here's a warning: it's not complimentary toward our guys.

Off Topic: For Once, I Guess I'm Wrong

2008-10-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I'm allowed to be wrong.

Not factually, of course. Well, maybe sometimes.

Anyway.

Earlier this week during the Pac-10 Roundtable, I voiced my thoughts on who would be the frontrunners to take over the job at U-Dub, and I said my two top contenders were Jim Mora, Jr. and the lovable and often quotable Lane Kiffin.

Well, scratch Mora from that list.

Obviously after seeing his name on PFN, which of course is the most popular web site on these her internets, he told reporters through a mouthpiece of the Seattle Seahawks that he's not going to be the next head coach of the Washington Huskies.

Drat.

Well, I still want Kiffin to get the job, so that one day, Washington athletic director Scott Woodward can detail, projector and all, why Lane's getting fired for cause.

The Saturday Viewing Guide - November 1

2008-10-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

We heard the echoes. The writing was on the wall.

"We need our Saturday viewing guide back!"

The last few weeks have been so chock full of good football that I felt it rendered the college football junkies TV Guide useless. If you couldn't figure out which games to watch and which to not over the last two weekends, here are the listings for the Fox Soccer Channel; that might be what you're actually looking for (GO MAN U!)

I've created a supplement for the SVG, and it comes disguised as a clever shameless plug! Check my other all-sports blog, Beyond The Scoreboard (courtesy of my friends at The Fan AM 1060), for your guide of exactly what NOT to watch...that being what I call the ESPNU Trifecta.

The Morning Slate
Northwestern Wildcats at #17 Minnesota Golden Gophers (9:00 AM, ESPN2) No, I'm not joking. Tim Brewster has got a fun Gophers team to watch...in fact...I was glued to their game against Illinois last week. They go up and down the field and when their defense is on their game, they're pretty hard hitting. Don't forget that Northwestern has been a nice story thus far as well, despite the fact that stud RB Tyrell Sutton (who we saw as a freshman at SDS in 2005) is out for the season.

During your...road game...tailgate?
#8 Florida Gators vs. #6 Georgia Bulldogs (12:30 PM, CBS)
It's the annual "we don't want to officially call it the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party but it is the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party." And it really needs no more hype than that. The winner of this game, as always played in Jacksonville, will move to 5-1 in conference and will all but wrap up a matchup with Alabama in the SEC Championship. Plus, you never know, Urban Meyer might clear HIS bench this season.

#24 Oregon Ducks at California Golden Bears (12:30 PM, ABC)
It's the only decent Pac-10 match-up of the day, and I'll always advocate catching at least some quality West Coast football every week. Flip to it during commercials of UGA/FLA.

Washington Huskies at #5 USC Trojans (3:00 PM, FCS Pacific)
Washington football: it's Lame Duck Coach-tastic! No real reason to watch this game; in fact, don't. Burn your cable box before turning to Cox 172. I just wanted to sneak in one more shot at Ty.

The Nightcap
#1 Texas Longhorns at #7 Texas Tech Red Raiders (5:00 PM, ABC)
Before the season started, I didn't pick T-Tech to be a darkhorse in the Big XII South. I picked them to win it outright. Now we'll see if we can trust Mike Leach's defense against what will obviously be their toughest challenge. Don't forget that late last year, Oklahoma went down to Lubbock (what's a Lubbock?) with national championship dreams and they were crushed by Michael Crabtree. A solid performance from Colt McCoy, though, should be the icing on top of his Heisman resume.

Arizona State Sun Devils at Oregon State Beavers (7:15 PM, FS Arizona)
Let's go, folks. It's a 5-game losing streak, it's all dire straits from here on out, but admit it. You still love your Devils and we're all still going to watch. GO DEVILS!

No Pressure or Anything...

2008-10-30T11:59:00.001-07:00

The highest ranking in program history in the Pac-10 Preseason Men's Basketball Media Poll was 3rd in 1991.

The Sun Devils haven't been ranked in a preseason national poll since then as well, when they were voted #24 in the nation before the season started.

That season, the Devils finished 19-14, didn't go to the NCAA Tournament and have only visited the Big Dance twice since then.

Those droughts are supposed to end this year, and the preseason accolades show that the nation and the rest of the conference expect just that to happen.

The USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll was released last night and it ranks Arizona State #15 in the nation, their highest such preseason ranking since joining the Pac-10. The Devils were ranked 18th in the AP poll in 1975-76.

As if that wasn't notable enough, the gathered Pac-10 media believe that the Sun Devils are going to be second to only UCLA in the conference in 2008-09, and some gracious soul actually gave ASU a first-place vote.

Here's the rest of the Pac-10 Poll:
1) UCLA
2) Arizona State
3) Southern California
4) Arizona
5) Washington
6) Washington State
7) Oregon
8) California
9) Stanford
10) Oregon State

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

2008-10-29T12:50:00.001-07:00

Click on the image to blow it up. But just looking at it there pretty much explains it.

I never advocate for teams, players or fans to look past one opponent to another, but with the Devils 2-5 and quite possibly barrelling toward a date with 2-6, you can't help but wonder when the next win will actually come.

To ease your weary minds, Washington and Washington State, our two next opponents after Oregon State, were ranked #2 and #3 respectively in this week's ESPN.com Bottom 10.

On the other hand, an ungodly loss to one of them might land our Devils in that ranking.

More Bass!

2008-10-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

For many, this news falls into the category of "It's About Time!"

At this point though, in my mind, how much will it really help?

Last night, Dennis Erickson told the gathered media that he's thinking of giving freshman phenom RB Ryan Bass more carries. It's something that a lot of fans clamored for and I secretly hoped would happen, but only for the fact that ASU wasn't redshirting him.

In my mind, if he's not going to burn his redshirt, it's of no use to keep him sitting on the sidelines. He only had carried the ball eight times going into the Oregon game, and all of those carries came in garbage time.

It goes without saying that the running game needs a jump. There are crooked numbers, but 117 is one of the most crooked of them all. That's the Sun Devils' national rank in YPG on the ground. So obviously, this will be some sort of a shot in the arm?

Right?

Or will Bass just get a pounding because this offensive line can't open up a big enough hole for Eddie Gaedel to run through? Even with sparkplug Keegan Herring back on the field, starting and seemingly as healthy as could be expected, the Sun Devils got nothing going on the ground.

Guess it will be a wait and see. It might actually be a good game to get Ryan more touches; Oregon State gives up an average of 126 rushing yards per game.

The Roundtable: Under New Management

2008-10-28T14:29:00.001-07:00

That's the chair we all esteem to be in one day.

If you're a member of the Pac-10 Roundtable, that is.

OK, so MAYBE that's not EXACTLY the throne that the leader of the Pac-10 Square Table rests his laurels on, but if there was an actual table, I assume that's what it'd look like.

Maybe with a 19" flat screen attached to one arm rest and a beer holder on the other.

Either way, welcome to your new Pac-10 Roundtable, now headed up by California Golden Blogs.

1) The Ty Willingham experiment at UW is mercifully over. What went wrong? Why couldn't he replicate the success he had at Stanford?

The real question here is, what didn't go wrong? The dynamic duo of Rick Neuheisel/Keith Gilbertson was unceremoniously deposed after Ricky N's Bracket Challenge went public and everyone realized that Gilbertson was only one part football coach and four parts NutriSystem Poster Child.

Talented players in the Seattle-area shunned the program as unstable and featuring deteriorating facilites, instead bolting for out-of-state programs that showed more progress and prowess. Willingham couldn't coach up the talent that he had and, even after landing the dynamic Jake Locker, he didn't fill out the offense with recruits that would develop alongside Locker.

The strength of the Pac-10 over Willingham's tenure at UW is partially to blame for why he couldn't replicate his success with Stanford. While on The Farm, the Pac-10 didn't have a dominant team like USC and talent across the board at all 10 institutions like it does now (save Wazzou, of course). Stanford and Willingham's 1999Pac-10 title and Rose Bowl trip came in a season when the Cardinal finished an ordinary 8-3 and only four other teams in the conference finished with more than six wins.

2) Who do you see as a possible replacement for the Huskies? Any idea how close this team is to being relevant again?

The first two coaches that immediately come to mind are Jim Mora Jr. and Lane Kiffin. I feel like the Huskies wouldn't go wrong with either of them.

In Mora, you get a young, fiery character that is on record for wanting this job. In fact, I feel like the ulterior motive for taking the Seattle assistant's job a few years ago was because he wanted to be all set up to take over at Washington once Willingham's ouster inevitably came.

Despite Kiffin's tumultous tenure with the Oakland Raiders Semi-Professional FC, he had so much defensive success at USC that I feel like he'd find eventual success at Washington. We've seen the whole college-to-pros transition fail miserably in the past...Lou Holtz, Dennis Erickson and Pete Carroll all come to mind...but all of those guys returned to college and were incredibly successful.

3) As a visiting fan following your team, what do you think is the best venue in the Pac-10 to attend a game? What is the worst? Don't consider travel distance, but everything else is fair game.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell everyone that I can only judge this question on the six Pac-10 venues that I've personally visited: Arizona Stadium (UA), Sun Devil Stadium (ASU), Memorial Stadium (Cal), Stanford Stadium, the Rose Bowl (UCLA) and the Coliseum (USC).

Among all of those, I'll have to be a homer and say that the atmosphere around Tempe, the tailgate scene, the amount of unrestrained enthusiasm throughout the stadium area and around the town makes Arizona State my favorite place overall to see a football game in the Pac-10. Judging by Sun Devil Stadium's standards, though, it's near the bottom.

On those standards, the new Stanford Stadium is magnificent, and if they ever could fill it up and field a competitive team, that's going to be a loud, intimidating place to play football as a visitor.

The worst is by far are the venues in Los Angeles.

Obviously, the LA Memorial Mausoleum is falling apart, has terrible acoustics and sightlines, the bleachers are so crammed you need a shoe horn to wedge yourself in and out and every time I'm there, I feel like I'm going to suffer through a combination of carjacking and other general unpleasantness.

It's beyond impossible to find parking near the Rose Bowl. I had to wait in line for 2 1/2 hours once to board a shuttle back to my car; it's fairly hard to get to.

Mark my words though, I will visit every stadium in the Pac before I'm 30...which is 6 years away. And from everything I've heard about Autzen, that's soon going to be my favorite.

Actually, here's an idea. The four I haven't visited are Autzen, Reser, Husky and Martin. Leave me a comment with your recommended order of visiting.

4) Besides your own team's, of course, who's got the best mascot in the Pac-10? Lamest?

I'm personally a big fan of The Duck. For some reason, that goofy-ass thing makes me laugh every time.

I hate mascots as a general rule of thumb. Even when I go to games of my favorite team of all time, the San Jose Sharks, I hope that S.J. Sharkie crashes to the ice when he rappells down from the rafters.

Lamest? Easy answer is Wilma and Wilbur, the couple (siblings?) at the UA. That's too easy though for an ASU blog, so let's talk about how much I hate The Tree and Oski.

The Tree is self explanatory. Trees don't dance. They don't cheer. They just live for ridiculously extended periods of time and take in all the carbon dioxide that pollutes our air.

That said, I still think The Tree (and even possibly a gang of sugared-up five-year-olds) could kick the living crap out of Oski. The thing just oafs around the sidelines of football and basketball games and looks disinterested at the world around him.

Can't we just replace both Stanford and Cal's mascots with giant, walking pocket protectors?

5) Male cheerleaders: yea or nay?

This is the part of the roundtable where I disclose potentially embarrassing information about myself.

For 2 1/2 strange weeks during high school, I stunted.

That's right. The well-spoken, well-liked and always affable writer here on PFN was, for about 17 days, a member of the Cupertino High School cheerleading squad. They needed guys to help them train and practice different stunts for a national competition, and since I was friends with a couple girls on the team, I was coerced into helping them.

Alas, for those 2 1/2 weeks of an era in which all of us were acne-ridden, horny-as-hell teenagers, I was told repeatedly by these girls to "not be afraid to get a handful of my ass" and was forced to transport the most attractive girls at my school on my shoulders.

Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing.

Either way, get those dudes off my sidelines. During 54-20 losses in which there's less-than-zero good things to look at on the gridiron, my wandering eye always takes me to the lovely ASU cheerleaders and dancers, and there's just too much dude involved. Not a fan.

Give me 100 Lauren Thompson's any day of the week.

Pitchfork Podcast...The 2-5 Edition

2008-10-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

PFN caught up with Todd and Brett from The Stretch on The Blaze 1260 AM last night...and like usual...definitely not a lack of things to talk about.

We caught up on such topics as the Saturday night loss to Oregon, the Devils lack of opportunism, a very (VERY) early look at 2009 and our first discussion preceding ASU basketball season.

By the way, it should be known that there is some breaking news in the world of the Pac-10 Blogdome. Apparently, at some strategical point last night, our buddies at California Golden Blogs launched a bloodless coup on Addicted to Quack and are now the owners of the Pac-10 Roundtable and most likely now assume the throne at the Pac-10 Square Table.

So, this week, you'll see the changes...um...a much more lighthearted look at what's up in the Pac as we all finally realize that the conference is terrible.

A New Low

2008-10-27T02:40:00.000-07:00

You know what the funniest (or saddest) thing about Saturday's 54-20 loss to Oregon?

It was the fact that even when ASU was down 20-0 midway through the 2nd quarter, I actually couldn't kick the thought that the Sun Devils were still in the game.

You heard me.

Remember a few weeks ago when we discussed the Sun Devils' lack of opportunism? It was just after the Georgia loss when I brought up the fact that the Bulldogs trend of taking penalties and such let ASU hang around for much longer than they should have, yet the Devils couldn't capitalize.

For a while, the Ducks were matching Arizona State mistake for mistake...and there are a multitude of examples to prove this:

-Jarius Byrd picks off a Rudy Carpenter pass inside the five, then follows it up with a Jeremiah Johnson lost fumble. Down still only 7-0, any competent offense would have punched it in and tied it. Instead, the Devils moved back three yards in two plays and then RC threw another pick.

-On the ensuing drive, the Ducks drove from their own 2 all the way down to the ASU 16, then missed a field goal. Upon getting the ball, the Sun Devils went three and out, gained only one yard and Trevor Hankins kicked such a poor ball that I was convinced it had been blocked. It took Oregon only 1:40 after that punt to score another touchdown. Even after THAT, a botched snap resulted in a botched extra point!

-Then the unforced errors started. After a good return and the most sustained drive of the game so far, the Devils decided to go for it on 4th and 1. The box score on that play will always say that RC was sacked for -8 yards for a turnover, but we all know that we saw him trip over the 48 yard line and go down. At that point, I called ballgame.

-One minute later, it was 20-0. Next drive: ASU is forced to punt, Jarius Byrd muffs it and the Devils jump on it. ANOTHER chance for the Devils to seize some momentum...any momentum...midway through the 2nd quarter. Negative-16 yards later, the Ducks had forced another punt.

It was off and rolling from there. Oregon kept giving the Sun Devils chances to get back into the football game and ASU, as we've become accustomed to, made it a habit to shoot themselves directly in the foot.

That's a lot to digest, but I've got plenty more.

This group of receivers simply cannot catch the ball anymore. I don't know what happened to Mike Jones, Chris McGaha and the rest of these guys, but they all caught a serious case of the dropsies just before the UNLV game and apparently haven't gone to see the doctor that, you know, cures dropsies. They were once again bumbling all over themselves and dropped passes on several of those drives mentioned earlier.

It was great to see Keegan Herring back on the field, obviously, but watching him play behind that offensive line just proves that even the most elusive of ASU's running backs need some sort of minimal protection to move the ball. Herring, easily the most dynamic of any RB on this roster, gained a measly 15 yards on 8 carries...1.9 YPC. Welcome back, Keegan. Sorry there aren't any holes for you.

I could keep harping, but it's honestly not even worth any of our breath anymore. It's just time to realize the grand scope of what we're seeing at Sun Devil Stadium right now.

The 2008 Sun Devils are beyond underachieving. I'm now willing to say that this is simply just a bad football team. Through this five-game losing streak, I've seen no sign of an offensive rhythm, tangible regression on the offensive line and baffling inefficiency by wide receivers. The defense, who we gave so much praise to by forcing five turnovers against Southern California, apparently can't carry momentum from week to week, because the unit that performed admirably by "facing USC" standards left SDS last night with egg all over their face.

The fun keeps going, folks. This is always the time that Oregon State starts to kick it into high gear, and now the Devils get the Beavers in Corvallis next Saturday night. The Sun Devils have now been burned by Joe McKnight and Blount/Johnson in consecutive games, and it gets no easier in containing Jacquizz Rodgers.

I'm really trying to stay positive, despite what you may read from me day in and day out. What I saw on Saturday night, however, should suck the wind out of even the most ardent of ASU supporters, of which I am one. I wouldn't write blog after blog here on PFN if I didn't care about our Sun Devils. The two things I pride myself most about here on Pitchfork Nation are my undying love of ASU athletics and the objectivity that I bring from years of journalistic training.

It's the objectivity that has to overwhelmingly be exposed this season, and what they say is true: the truth hurts.

I guess this is where we start the countdown: 19 days until Mississippi Valley State visits Wells Fargo Arena and I can start building my optimism back. Welcome back, TJ.

A Glimmer of Hope...

2008-10-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

Since the football season has become unwatchable and depressing, it's about time we got excited about another ASU team. Coming later this week, Pitchfork Nation will offer its take on the upcoming Sun Devil basketball season with its 2008-2009 Basketball Preview. Stay tuned...

Atrocious

2008-10-26T01:23:00.000-07:00

You know all those times over the last few weeks where I said that I didn't have a whole lot to say about an ASU loss but then would go on for about 12 paragraphs about said ASU loss?

This time, I'm really out of words. If you were there, you saw it.

In the morning, I'll have something insightful to say.

But for now, I'm going to go to sleep and pray that when I close my eyes, I wont see LeGarrette Blount running by me. Again.

54-20. Wow. If you'll remember, this is what I posted on September 28, the day after our Devils lost to Georgia:

"The consequences of losing (to Cal) are obvious. The Devils drop to under .500 and will most likely have zero belief that they can go into the Coliseum and knock off an all-of-a-sudden vulnerable (maybe? maybe not?) USC team. Plus, after USC, Oregon comes to town, a program while very much different on paper in 2008 yet the Sun Devils have been unable to beat since 2004. That brings about the possibility of the Sun Devils being 2-5.

2-5.

Gulp."

Hate to toot my own horn, but I was right. Welcome to the Devils first five-game losing streak since 2001.

In short, we all were optimistic that the Sun Devils were a mediocre team. We were wrong. Sadly, sadly wrong. Mediocre is giving the 2008 Devils too much credit.

Sorry PFN, but I'm picking against our Devils

2008-10-24T10:38:00.001-07:00

I took a shake of the Arizona State Sun Devils Magic 8 Ball this morning.

I asked it, "How will the Sun Devils perform tomorrow against Oregon?"

Answer: Outlook not so good.

OK, so maybe there's no Magic 8 Ball. But there's my wealth of knowledge about both of these teams, and my optimism about Arizona State getting off this slide and back in the win column is pretty low this week.

I keep going back and forth across both depth charts, thinking about each team's performance in big games and the direction each team has been going over the past few weeks, and I keep coming back to my opinion that the Ducks are going to come out of Sun Devil Stadium with a win tomorrow night.

I hope Rudy Carpenter has become fast friends with Nick Reed and Will Tukuafu (pictured above just before eating Jake Locker) because they'll be in the backfield a lot this week. The Sun Devils offensive line, as I've said previously, has regressed this season due to injury and general ineffectiveness. They couldn't do anything to stop the mammoth USC pass rush and they'll do none the better against what I think is an even better defensive line than the Trojans unit.

It will certainly be nice to have Keegan Herring back in the starting lineup. Keegs will make his first start and only fourth appearance of the season, but it's yet to be seen how he'll perform at full speed against easily the best defense he'll have faced this season. Sure, he looked terrific in spot action against the inconsistent Stanford front seven, but now he and the rest of the ASU backs will have to face down a tremendous defensive unit.

Then there's the problem of stopping the Oregon spread option. It's proved to be a futile effort over the past three match-ups; games in which the Ducks have picked apart the Sun Devil defense; especially that 2006 embarrassment which led to this equally embarrassing scene at SDS.

Arizona State's front seven needs to step up big time for the Devils to have any chance at staying in this game. They've done a tremendous job over the past few weeks getting pressure and, especially against USC, forcing turnovers, and they'll need to do the same against Oregon. It's going to be a lot different than what they saw at the Coliseum, though, as LeGarrette Blount and Jeremiah Johnson are a two-headed running beast that every defense they've faced so far have been hard press to contain, hip flexor problems or not.

Bottom line - it's going to take a herculean effort for the Devils to not drop to 2-5.

The Pac-10 Roundtable: Goodbye Lute Olson? Edition

2008-10-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Despite the Men of the Square Table only discussing matters of the gridiron at this point in the year, we'd be remiss to just completely ignore the big news of the day.
Before the AZ Daily Star's midday confirmation of the story hit, we learned of the story first thanks to this exclusive "excerpt" of a conversation between Dickie V and UofA spokespeople:

Dick Vitale: Lute Olson is stepping down...baby! Go Rays!
Arizona SID Tom Duddleston: Not true! No press conference! Go away! Nothing to see here! (All while a scene resembling this is in the background)
Dick Vitale: He's sick and skinny as a rail! He was awesome, but now he's gone...baby!
Tom Duddleston: Leave us alone! There are no American troops in Baghdad!
Dick Vitale: There's going to be a new sheriff in Tucson...baby! A diaper dandy! Almost as good as Evan Longoria in the ALCS!
Tom Duddleston: I swear to god, if you don't go away, I'll put on a Phillies jersey.
Dick Vitale: Changing of the guard for Chase Budinger...the elevator man!
Tom Duddleston: Does anyone even REALIZE our football team is 5-2?

Either way, Lute is out after a career that even us at Arizona State can (grudgingly) recognize was pretty amazing.

Plenty going on around the Pac-10 in regards to football this weekend. Washington and Notre Dame face off in "Ty Willingham Bowl II," Oregon travels to ASU who is trying to save their season, surging Arizona hosts USC and Washington State is a 37.5-point dog to the bye week.

1. While Arizona's victory over California certainly caught most of us by surprise, perhaps even more surprising was the 42-27 score. With many of us thinking that Cal was the second best team in the conference, this result throws a huge twist into the Rose Bowl race. Is Arizona really that good?

*supresses vomit* Yes, Arizona is a good football team. In fact, several times on this here blog, I've said that the Wildcats would be bowl eligible in 2008. No one wanted to believe me, but here they sit at 5-2. However, they did exactly what I thought they would do: take advantage of a very soft early season schedule. Now, a late season string of tougher opponents will really test this team's mettle. Their offense, with a startling amount of depth for UA standards, is performing well but their defense still needs some tweaking.

Let's readdress this question after Saturday's game against Southern Cal.

1a. Is Cal's defense really that terrible?

Sorry to my friends at California Golden Blogs, but yes. It is.

2. USC's 69-0 beatdown over Washington State rates among the worst losses in the history of the sport. The Cougars had a total of four first downs, three turnovers, and 28 passing yards. If there are any Washington State fans left out there, what do you say to calm their existential crisis at this point?

Aleve will take care of most of the physical pain. As for mental anguish, I don't think there's even a hallucinogen strong enough to take care of that.

I wish I could even say that USC had some lean years before starting their current run as champions, but it never got close to this bad.

So, my pep talk would consist of telling Wazzou fans that at least they don't have to pay to travel for this year's Apple Cup.

3. Oregon State is at it again. Despite being the butt of jokes at the beginning of the year, the Beavers now look to be rolling and headed toward another top three finish. Are the Beavers primed for another late season run, or were victories over the Washington schools just smoke and mirrors?

First of all, you cannot judge a team's progress in the Pac-10 this year on wins over Washington and Washington State. Games against those teams are neither measuring sticks nor smoke in mirrors. They're just W's.

Mike Riley always has this team rolling right when they should be; that's why he's one of the best head coaches in the conference. They're always at the peak of their performance once the leaves change colors, and this is looking like another typical year in Corvallis.

Tough tests remain for the Beavers...Arizona on the road and Oregon at home in the Civil War present the largest challenges for Oregon State down the stretch. I don't see them, however, stumbling in their next three (Arizona State, @UCLA and Cal). I still think that they're more talented across the board than Arizona and anything can happen in a rivalry game. I'd say this team goes no worse than 3-2 to end the season and there's an outside shot at winning out.

4. Stanford's bowl dreams just took a major hit when they laid an egg at the Rose Bowl. While Stanford is 4-4 at this point, Washington State looms as their only easy game, and they still must play at Oregon, at home versus an SC team that will be looking for revenge, and the Big Game in Strawberry Canyon. Given the brutal schedule, is it too early to bugle 'TAPS' on their bowl chances?

I said last week that Stanford wouldn't be bowl eligible and would finish 5-7 this season. I'll stand by it. Their last win of the season will come next week at home against the Cougars before hitting a devestating end of season stretch which includes Oregon, USC and California. The Cardinal have made major strides in changing the attitude within and atmosphere surrounding Stanford football, but they're just not quite postseason material yet.

5. At this stage in the game, USC is Barack Obama, and the field is John McCain. Make the best case that you can for SC not winning yet another conference crown.

Ha! A political joke! Don't forget to vote in 11 days, folks. It's your duty as an American. By the way, in case you're curious, I'm voting for Ric Flair.

Well...if that awful case of Jock Itch returns...combined with an untimely visit from Kellen Winslow Jr....combined with an earthquake hitting the Los Angeles basin...then Oregon/Cal/Oregon State/Arizona is still in the hunt!

Or not.

We've Got Our Winner!

2008-10-21T13:08:00.002-07:00

Thanks to everyone that entered our Pick'em contest. The response was terrific and we're very happy that all of you enjoy reading our stuff on PFN.

And we all appreciate that you like free stuff.

*drum roll*

KOLBY KEARNEY was our winner!

Kolby went a stunning 9-1 on the week, only missing the Georgia Tech/Clemson game.

Congratulations Kolby! You're getting a pair of tickets to the ASU/Oregon game. You still don't get the cheerleader. We checked with her, and she's gonna hang out with me. I wish.

Pitchfork Podcast - October 20

2008-10-20T23:05:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lag in posts this weekend. Obviously, it's been a slow bye week...plus I took a weekend off and headed back to the homeland. I mean, the SF Bay Area.

Anyway, that doesn't mean we missed our appearance on The Blaze 1260 AM.

This week, we talk about this team's mental status, where they go in the 2nd half of the season, who needs to step up against Oregon and the status of Rudy Carpenter...now boot free!

NCAA Reprimands Muprh, Wally and Ike

2008-10-15T15:09:00.001-07:00

For whatever it's worth, the NCAA finally reacted to the debacle that occured at Packard Stadium before Game 3 of the Super Regionals against Fresno State this past May.

We all saw the video and communally thought, "What the hell?"

Apparently, so did the people in charge of college sports.

"There is no question that the actions of the three individuals constitute misconduct as defined in the NCAA bylaws," said Jeff Schemmel, NCAA Division I Championships/Sports Management Cabinet chair. "In addition, the public nature of the incident justifies the assessment of a public reprimand."

However, no other penalties were assesed to ASU in reaction to the staged melee between Brett Wallace and Ike Davis before the Devils lost 12-9 to the Bulldogs in the elimination game.

So basically, Mr. Schemmel grabbed the nearest rolled up newspaper and smacked the Sun Devils on the nose while repeating, "NO."

We're all on record here of thinking that what Murphy, Wallace and Davis conspired to do before the elimination game was ridiculous. I still don't think that it was a matter for the NCAA to step in and place sanctions on the program, but still, it makes the organization look silly if their only action is to reprimand the team through a public statement.

Just more proof that sometimes, the NCAA is full of jokers.

You want free ASU/Oregon Tickets?

2008-10-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

Golly! Christmas has come early!

I got your free ASU/Oregon tickets...right here!

No, that wasn't a graphic reference. I meant right here, at Pitchfork Nation.

Cheerleader in Santa cap not included.

The fine folks at Fanster.com (formerly AZ Sports Hub) and PFN have teamed up and we're having a Pick'em Contest this week.

It's just as easy as this: there are 10 October 18 college football matchups listed below. Just pick the winners and post them as a comment on this blog. After you do, e-mail pitchforknation@gmail.com and admin@fanster.com (both e-mail addresses or your entry wont count!) with your name and e-mail address.

The winner gets two tickets to the ASU/Oregon game on October 25. You want them because you love ASU football, but mostly because the game isn't televised.

Here are the games to pick:
1) Purdue Boilermakers at Northwestern Wildcats
2) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Clemson Tigers
3) Vanderbilt Commodores at Georgia Bulldogs
4) Kansas Jayhawks at Oklahoma Sooners
5) Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan State Spartans
6) Stanford Cardinal at UCLA Bruins
7) Missouri Tigers at Texas Longhorns
8) UTEP Miners at Tulsa Golden Hurricane
9) LSU Tigers at South Carolina Gamecocks
10) California Golden Bears at Arizona Wildcats

TIEBREAKER: Total score of Missouri/Texas

Pac-10 Roundtable - The Bye Week Edition

2008-10-15T11:08:00.001-07:00

So, like usual during a bye week...it's a little quiet over here at PFN.

But not to fear! The men of the Pac-10 Square Table are back!

California Golden Blogs is our host this week, and when we arrive, we'll be forced to provide all the beer and then leave with no women after the 24-14 lashing they doled out on us.

Drat.

To the roundtable!

1. Although it's still too early to make bowl predictions with any sort of accuracy, it seems at this point in the season that the Pac-10 is unlikely to fill its 7 contractual bowl slots. How many Pac-10 teams do you think will eventually become bowl eligible?

First of all, seven bowls is far too many, especially when only one of them is on New Years Day. Thanks, Tom Hansen!

Right now, USC, California and Oregon are the locks to go to the postseason. That takes care of our BCS spot, the Holiday Bowl and the Sun Bowl. Three cheers for El Paso!

After that, I think that Arizona, Oregon State and Arizona State will be the only three others to get bowl eligible, and that the Beavers and Sun Devils will barely scrape in with 6-6 records. Stanford's last five games include trips to UCLA, Oregon and Cal and a home game with USC. Those four losses and their token win over WSU gets them only to 5-7. UCLA has six left...I've got them losing at Cal, vs. OSU, at ASU and home to USC, dropping them to 4-8.

It's still a sad year when the Pac-10 doesn't fill the slots that it signed contracts for and that two of those teams, in my opinion, won't even get to the magical 7 to guarantee a bowl trip.

2. After dispensing with Oregon and Arizona State, USC seems to have righted itself back onto the path towards another Pac-10 championship. Obviously everyone's looking to Cal as the last serious challenge, while no one expects this weekend's trip to Wazzu to be anything but ugly, but 3 potentially tricky road trips remain: Arizona, Stanford, and UCLA. Where are the Trojans most likely to be tripped up?

This is going to sound strange, but their toughest trip will be to the Farm. The Wildcats have all but proven that they fold under pressure (losses to lowly New Mexico and mildly better Stanford) and UCLA doesn't have the magic that took them to the 2006 13-9 upset.

Stanford has a very balanced defense with a couple strong linebackers, they've established their ground game with Toby Gerhart and seem to have found their QB of the future in Alex Loukas.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think the Trojans will lose any of those games. Frankly, they should roll up on each of them. However, if there's one of those teams that could pose a bit of a problem, it's the team in Palo Alto that could cause some flashbacks to last season.

3. The season is 7 weeks old, nearly half over. What's the biggest surprise in the Pac-10 so far this year?

I think the biggest surprise is not that the conference as a whole has declined in quality in the span of one season but the swiftness and sudden nature of how bad conference play has become across the board.

No one expected how badly this conference would perform against Mountain West. No one could forsee just how bad the quarterback play would be outside of the Coliseum. And no one...NO ONE...could really know just how bad Washington State would be this season. Seriously.

4. Is it possible that USC puts itself back in the national title race? Is it deserving to be back in the national title race?

Without a doubt, USC should be still in the conversation.

Let's get this straight immediately. With the amount of parity and with the talent level improving across the board significantly nationwide, it's going to be a long time until we see another Perfect Storm like we had in 2005 when both USC and Texas ran the table. It's the only way we can explain Vanderbilt, North Carolina, Kansas and other non-traditional football schools finding success on the gridiron. Last season, LSU won the national title with two losses on their resume.

As long as USC can win out the rest of their games, they should definitely be in the mix for the BCS Title Game. Frankly, with the way top-five teams have been falling in the last year and a half, all it takes is one more wild weekend for Southern Cal to be back on top.

5. Arizona State has obviously been a massive disappointment so far this year. Dennis Erickson has never been one to stay in a "rebuilding situation." How long do you anticipate Erickson staying for and what can be done for next year to rebound from the disaster that is 08?

If you listen to this week's Pitchfork Podcast, you'll hear my answer to this question in detail. Here's the Cliff's Notes:

It all depends on how this situation pans out at quarterback. Rudy Carpenter is gone after this season, ending his illustrious 11-year career with the Sun Devils (or so it seems). None of the guys behind him; Danny Sullivan, Samson Szakacsy, Chasen Stangel or Jack Elway; have emerged as the clear heir apparent to the Under Center Throne.

There are, and I'm being told this as I've had no time to research it myself, apparently a bunch of highly talented junior college quarterbacks looking for D-1 homes this spring.

If DE is in this thing for the long haul and is intent on making Arizona State his last coaching stop, then we'll see Szakacsy/Stangel/Elway (not Sullivan, he's terrible beyond terrible) and have a lean year or two in the desert. If Dennis wants to make 2009 his last go around and have one more chance at a top-2 Pac-10 finish, we'll be seeing a brand new BMOC next season.

10/13/08 Pitchfork Podcast

2008-10-13T23:46:00.001-07:00

Another week, another appearance on The Blaze with Brett Harmon and Todd Weber.

We hit on it all this week after the 28-0 drubbing at the hands of USC.

I've finally learned how to embed audio onto the site, so enjoy!

A Shameless Plug from your Favorite Writer

2008-10-13T17:15:00.001-07:00

As most of you can tell, I'm pretty obsessed with ASU and college football as a whole.

What most of you might not know is that I'm pretty good at talking about sports that aren't ASU football.

If you're so interested, my employer has allowed me to keep my own all-encompassing sports blog on their website. It'll touch on everything from the world of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and college sports. The blog is called Beyond The Scoreboard; the title spawning from my desire to bring you the story of sport without crunching useless numbers.

You can get to the blog directly by visiting bts1060am.blogspot.com or through our station's site, www.thefan1060.com.

TV Says No to ASU/Oregon

2008-10-13T10:50:00.001-07:00

The October 25 game between ASU and Oregon will kick off at 7:00 PM and will not be televised.

Guess that's the nice little side effect of losing four straight.

The Sun Devils' last non-televised game was last year's game against San Jose State.

ASU has not had a non-televised conference game since October 21, 2006, when the Devils beat Stanford 38-3 to snap a three-game losing streak.

Rock Bottom

2008-10-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

Any way you slice it, there's very little good that came out of the carnage that occurred at LA Memorial Coliseum yesterday. I was hamstrung by how many characters I could fit into the title of this blog.

Before I go on, sorry it took so long to get a recap up. I had to:

A) Cover the Phoenix Coyotes last night
B) Cover the Arizona Cardinals today
C) Give myself a day to cool off and refrain from saying something I might want to take back

That wasn't a multiple choice, it's all of the above.

Yesterday was shameful. A shutout to extend this losing streak might be rock bottom for the Sun Devils. It was the first time the Devils have been shut out since 2004, but at least that team had some offensive firepower.

This one seems to have lost it all. And after a 4th straight loss, we're once again forced to ask ourselves, where do we begin?

Let's this time actually start with the positive...that being the defense. This defensive unit, inexplicably, has improved greatly over the four game losing streak, and yesterday was arguably their best performance of the season considering the machine they were facing in USC. The third quarter may have been the best defensive showing I've seen since I began covering ASU football back in 2003.

I was very impressed with the play of James Brooks and Jamarr Jarrett. They were buzzing off the defensive end positions and were consistently getting in Mark Sanchez' face all day long. It's refreshing to see them play well so early, especially since Luis Vasquez and Dexter Davis have not really come close to their production of last season. For kids that are new to this program, they look like mature vets. Speaking of Davis, nice to see him make a play when he sacked Sanchez and forced a fumble that ended up being the Trojans' first of four 3rd quarter turnovers.

Omar Bolden and Troy Nolan had much, much better games. Both of their picks were highly athletic, heads-up plays; stuff that we, once again, saw throughout last season. Mike Nixon's interception was especially impressive considering that the ball was a dying quail and Mike had to turn his body around to snag it.

And finally, something good to say about Dimitri Nance, who regained a little of his between-the-tackles ability to pick up 4.6 yards per carry. Oh wait, but he officially now fumbles more than Chris Perry.

That's about all the good I've got. Better get onto the awful.

Awful Observation #1: The offensive line
With a warrior mentality that we've grown so used to since 2005, Rudy Carpenter trotted out to start this ball game. Don't you think that as a unit, that should have inspired this woeful O-Line to step up? Guess not. Rudy dropped back to pass 20 times and was hit on 12 of them. His last play, the aftermath of which you see in the photo, was technically a lateral. If Rey Maualuga was in RC's face one more time yesterday, he would have had to ask him out to dinner. The offensive line again was just awful at pass protecting.

Awful Observation #2: The coaching/medical staff
Bear with me here, this is a long one.

If I was RC's dad, which obviously I'm not, I would be livid at the ASU trainers and coaches. On the last play where Rudy got creamed by Maualuga, Shaun Lauvao and Maualuga had to pick him up, because Rudy wasn't showing any signs of getting up himself. The fact that I (or the radio broadcast team for ASU of Tim Healey and Jeff Van Raaphorst, for that matter) didn't see a SINGLE member of the medical staff move toward him is appalling. What's more appalling, and was pointed out by JVR, is that the referees may have been the ones who had to step in and remove RC from the game. Only then did two members of the Devils' medical staff move, lackadaisically, toward the wobbling QB. Rudy didn't enter the game again.

The rule, of course, is that if a player goes down and is tended to by trainers, he must come out for at least one play.

This is UNACCEPTABLE. This is a kid that has given so much to this program, and you're going to leave him in and take this beating when he's already way less than 100%? As stated above, Rudy was hit 13 times on 21 dropbacks. Every single one of those hits would have put you, fair reader, or me in the hospital. But RC popped back up, gingerly, after 11 of them. The last two, Lauvao had to yank him up by his jersey. That made me sick to my stomach.

I don't know RC personally outside of a few brief exchanges at press conferences, but I've covered him enough to know that he didn't want to leave that game. There's a difference, though, between respecting your quarterback's will to compete and recognizing his inability to perform.

Awful Observation #3: USC's lack of respect
ASU has lost any sort of respect that it previously received. If the Trojans thought that the Devils had any chance to mount a comeback from down 21, why would they attempt a fake field goal on a chip shot attempt for David Buehler with less than two minutes left in the 2nd quarter? That play call was Pete Carroll showing that he knew that ASU had no chance of getting themselves back into the football game.

And now that's something that other coaches will probably do as well. I guarantee you that in two weeks, when Mike Bellotti and his Ducks come to town, we'll see the same amount of respect.

Awful Observation #4: The Field Goal Unit
This is officially out of control. Thomas Weber has now had three field goals blocked this season, only a year removed from Weber's kicks not even getting close to touched.

It's asinine to wonder why Fili Moala was able to block both of those 3rd quarter field goal attempts. Don't you think that after he blocked the first one (which by the way, was kicked with FAR too low of a trajectory anyway) that the Devils line would probably make sure they found Moala on the next one to make sure he's neutralized?

Apparently not.

I have no idea why this team all of a sudden cannot protect Weber's kicks and punts, but in that stretch, the Devils had 6 automatic points wiped off the board. Granted, there's a bigger problem here in that Arizona State earned zero points off of four 3rd quarter turnovers, but when you can't even settle for three from the defending Lou Groza Award winner, the problem is out of control.

Awful Observation #5: Nate Kimbrough
Let's get this straight. You've never lived up to any expectations placed on you in 4+ years at ASU. Every time you've been given a chance to work your way into the offense, you blow it and end up being dropped on the depth chart. Your biggest contribution to Sun Devil football since 2004 has been the A-State Shuffle (thanks for the link, Cactus Ranch).

Yet you, Nate Kimbrough, are the one having to be restrained by teammates after losing control of your emotions?

What a joke. Kimbrough, if you didn't see it because you were trying to figure out why the Sun Devils couldn't capitalize off of Troy Nolan's interception, was physically restrained by several teammates after apparently getting into the faces of assistant coaches, most likely overwhelmed with anger/emotion/whatever.

Obviously no place on this team for that. The team is already 2-4, cruising toward possibly 2-5 on October 25, and you're the one that's letting go of your emotions.

RC didn't. Dimitri Nance and these receivers haven't. Frankly, the loudest mouth on this team, Keegan Herring, is noticeably silent. But it's Nate Kimbrough.

Final Awful Observation: The wide receivers
Not much to explain here. When Mike Jones and Chris McGaha...the Jones and McGaha of "having two of the surest sets of hands in the Pac-10" according to ABC...are dropping passes, it's, you guessed it, rock bottom. When Jones straight up dropped Danny Sullivan's first pass of the game in the 3rd, it was over.

Stay tuned to PFN this week. We'll have the Pitchfork Podcast with The Blaze 1260 AM coming tomorrow and plenty more.

Saturday Viewing Guide: 10/11/08

2008-10-10T10:43:00.001-07:00

Hope you didn't suffer through that snooze-fest that was Wake Forest/Clemson last night. Geeeeeeeez. That game is a perfect example of why, even in a down year, I'll take Pac-10 football over the ACC anyday.

Anyway, I think we've all be figeting at work all week waiting for this Saturday to come, because it's going to be one hell of a day of football.

Get your ass out of bed!

#5 Texas Longhorns at #1 Oklahoma Sooners (9:00 AM, ABC) - The driver's seat for the rest of the season in the Big XII South is at stake...the title of "national title frontrunner" may be at stake...but more important than all...bragging rights between these two fierce rivals are at stake at the Cotton Bowl.

Don't even bother watching Colorado/Kansas, Minnesota/Illinois or anything else. Turn on Texas/OU and throw away the remote until noon.

Set the TiVo...AKA...while you're watching Sullivan vs. Sanchez 2008

Nebraska Cornhuskers at #7 Texas Tech Red Raiders (12:00 PM, FSN) - It's really the first time we'll get to see Texas Tech go up against legitimate competition, and I'm curious to see what Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree have been up to so far this season. Nebraska looked improved in their first few games but they got ripped on by Missouri last week...let's see how they rebound.

#23 Michigan State Spartans at Northwestern Wildcats (12:30 PM, ESPN 2) - That's right. Forget Tennessee/Georgia. You've seen enough of Knowshon Moreno. These are two Big Ten teams that have started fast against much lesser opponents and I want to see how they perform against each other. Plus, Javon Ringer is one of the most intriguing running backs in the nation and he's not getting enough pub.

Getting Ready for a Night Out

#17 Oklahoma State Cowboys at #3 Missouri Tigers (5:00 PM, ESPN 2) - Chase Daniel is my favorite quarterback in the nation, Jeremy Maclin might be my favorite player in the nation and I've still got Missouri as one of my picks to be in the national title game come January. They'll face a nice test from a surprising Cowboys team, but their offense should still overwhelm OK State.

#4 LSU Tigers at #11 Florida Gators (5:00 PM, CBS) - Just like Oregon/USC last week...I don't even need to hype this one. Insert your own game description here.

Carpenter doubtful

2008-10-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday Dennis Erickson downgraded senior quarterback Rudy Carpenter's status to doubtful, meaning junior Danny Sullivan is about to get thrown onto one of the biggest college football stages possible to make his first collegiate start.

Carpenter was without the protective boot over his injured ankle on Wednesday but was still limping heavily. Erickson said that he has been impressed with Sullivan's performance in practice this week. No amount of practice, though, can prepare the first-time starter for a game like this.

Meanwhile, USC linebacker Rey Malunga will play in Saturday's game and it looks like Sanchez might play after all as well.

Photo courtesy sundevilgridiron.com

Carpenter won't practice tonight

2008-10-07T13:00:00.001-07:00

Just as I suspected (and correctly prognosticated last night on The Blaze 1260 AM), Rudy Carpenter wont practice tonight with ASU.

The Devils take the field to start their last week of nighttime practices tonight and I suspect that Danny Sullivan will get the full majority of reps with the first team.

In his weekly press conference today, USC head coach Pete Carroll says that he anticipates Sullivan being the starter on Saturday, but admits that he and his staff know "next to nothing" about him.

ASU head coach Dennis Erickson made the announcement about RC during the weekly Pac-10 teleconference.

Photo Credit: Arizona Republic

PFN on The Blaze 10/6/08

2008-10-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

I was on The Stretch last night with Brett and Todd...we talked about all things ASU football including lots on Rudy Carpenter's injury.

Click the link below to listen to the interview, thanks to our friends at fanster.com

http://phoenix.fanster.com/2008/10/07/sun-devil-podcast-debut-football-talk10608/

More Injury Woes - Tabach out for season

2008-10-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

If we thought this injury thing with ASU was getting old earlier this season, what are we supposed to think now?

Free safety Max Tabach, who has been getting more and more reps in the deep secondary in the past three games, tore his ACL in the loss at California. Tabach is out for the season.

Stepping up to his spot as the backup FS behind Troy Nolan will be Jarrell Holman.

Holman has seen action in every game this season but hasn't shown up on the stat sheet since opening night against Northern Arizona, when he collected one solo tackle and assisted on another.

The injury doesn't do anything to the starting lineup; in four games, Nolan and Rodney Cox have gotten the starts at safety. Against Cal, ASU trotted out three corners (Omar Bolden, Terell Carr and Pierre Singfield) with Nolan at FS to get the game started. What it does do, and it goes without saying, is creates a bit of a depth problem at yet another position.

Rudy Carpenter Update

2008-10-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on the condition of Rudy Carpenter from today's Monday press conferences:

Dennis Erickson said he has to see how RC does during practice this week to see if he will be able to play this Saturday at Southern California. He also said that Rudy will have to be at 100% strength to take the field in Los Angeles.

Carpenter's personal outlook was much more bleak. He told the gathered press that he has no idea what's going on with his foot. Worse yet, Rudy entered the room limping pretty badly and was wearing a walking boot.

Carpenter has started 36 consecutive games since 2005, the 2nd longest streak in the nation behind Purdue's Curtis Painter.

Is this 2003 all over again?

2008-10-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

That fellow to the left is Cornell Canidate. You might remember him.

He was supposed to be one of the featured tailbacks for Arizona State back in 2003, a year off of a surprising 8-4 regular season and near upset of #6 Kansas State in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl.

Oh, and those were those terrible, one-season wonders we called the Star Trek uniforms.

Regardless of horrible uniform choices, the 2003 season was one of the most colossal disappointments in college football that season.

With gunslinging quarterback Andrew Walter back in the fold as a junior Heisman Trophy candidate, a slough of talented receivers (Derek Hagan, Terry Richardson, Skyler Fulton and Daryl Lightfoot), a couple veterans in the backfield (Mike Williams and the aforementioned poster boy Canidate) and an exciting freshman running back (Loren Wade), the 2003 Devils entered the season ranked in the top 25.

A nationally prominent season never came. The Sun Devils stumbled out of the gate, barely getting by NAU and lowly Utah State (then featuring Chris Cooley, pre-indecent exposure!) before going on the road and getting trounced by Iowa and Oregon State, then losing to Matt Leinart and USC at home to start 2-3. The Devils never recovered, losing four of their last five on the way to a 5-7 record. It's the last time ASU missed the postseason.

Does any of that sound eerily familiar?

With gunslinging quarterback ~~Andrew Walter~~ Rudy Carpenter back in the fold as a ~~junior~~ senior Heisman Trophy candidate, a slough of talented receivers (~~Derek Hagan, Terry Richardson, Skyler Fulton and Daryl Lightfoot~~ Mike Jones, Chris McGaha, Kyle Williams and Kerry Taylor), a couple veterans in the backfield (~~Mike Williams and the aforementioned poster boy Canidate~~ Keegan Herring and Dimitri Nance) and an exciting freshman running back (~~Loren Wade~~ Ryan Bass), the ~~2003~~ 2008 Devils entered the season ranked in the top 25.

Hm.

That 2003 team, with so much potential and so much hype from the previous season, folded under the pressure. Cornell Canidate and Mike Williams fought nagging injuries and, especially in the case of Canidate, were rendered completely ineffective throughout the season. The offensive line struggled to protect Walter.

Does any of this echo yet? It's 2003 all over again in Tempe this season.

2003 Schedule	Result	2008 Schedule	Result/Date
NAU	34-14 W	NAU	30-13 W
Utah State	26-16 W	Stanford	41-17 W
@ Iowa	21-2 L	UNLV	23-20 L (OT)
@ Oregon State	45-17 L	#3 Georgia	27-10 L
#10 USC	37-17 L	@ California	24-14 L
Oregon	59-14 W	@ #8 USC	October 11
@ North Carolina	33-31 W	Oregon	October 25
@ UCLA	20-13 L	@ Oregon State	November 1
California	51-23 L	@ Washington	November 8
@ Stanford	38-27 L	WSU	November 15
@ #8 WSU	34-19 L	UCLA	November 28
Arizona	28-7 W	@ Arizona	December 6

That's a look at the schedules for 2003 and 2008. In both seasons, the Devils got two wins against inferior opponents before dropping three straight. That game at North Carolina, a team who actually beat ASU in 2002 in Tempe, was won on the last play of the game when Walter hit Fulton for a game-winning touchdown. After that, it came apart at the seams.

Against UCLA, Andrew Walter was knocked out in the 1st half and true freshman Sam Keller had to finish the loss. California came into SDS and manhandled the Devils on Homecoming; a game most remembered for that ludicrous Tim Parker fake punt. And it all came to a crushing (literally) end in the Palouse in a game where safety Riccardo Stewart was taken off the field in an ambulance after a vicious hit left him with a neck injury.

The Devils are in severe trouble of letting 2008 turn into another 2003. In reality, though, this year's Devils may be in more dire straits than that '03 squad. That year, after the win at UNC, ASU was 4-3 and needed only two more wins to get at least bowl eligible. If the scenario plays out where the Sun Devils lose at USC and to Oregon, they'll be 2-5 and needing to WIN OUT to guarantee a bowl berth at 7-5. That record in 2005 got the Devils, another team that failed to meet expectations, a berth in the Insight Bowl.

The 2003 Sun Devils failed to get up off the mat after an early season gut check. It's up to the 2008 Sun Devils not to repeat history.

This season, at least, our guys in Maroon and Gold don't look like Trekkies.

Another Perfect Storm

2008-10-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

As a journalist, I feel like I should always have the answer. I know that many of you come to this blog and go to other sources for different points of view on ASU football and I hope that you enjoy what we bring you.

But after three straight games of this, I'm almost out of words.

How do you describe another woeful offensive effort when it's the same thing in three straight games? How do you describe the inability to get a consistent pass rush when it's the same thing in three straight games?

How can you explain another 60 minutes of terrible play calling, terrible execution and another terrible loss for Arizona State?

I'm out of new ways to explain it, so bear with me as I rehash more of the same.

Let's start with the run game. I'm now of the opinion that Keegan Herring is STILL not healthy and may not be for the entire season. He was supposedly coming off of his best week of practice all season and still only rushed for 37 yards on 14 carries. Trust me, I was cheering like hell on his effort to get into the end zone and the moxie (is this the 20's?) of the offensive line, especially Paul Fanaika, to get Keegan across the goal line. But it's now completely obvious that this team will not be able to run the ball in 2008.

Whoever thought that Dimitri Nance could stretch the ball from sideline to sideline is terribly mistaken. It's now official that Nance has taken a 100% step back since last season, and part of that is because coaches are trying to turn him into Keegan Herring. Dimitri will never be the kind of back to dance in the backfield and turn corners off tackle. He is a between the tackles, up-and-down runner. Yet time after time, we see Nance try to go off-tackle. It doesn't work.

The most disappointing thing about this young offensive line is that in five games, it seems like there has actually been a step backwards rather than any sort of improvement, however small. The next time I see Tom Njunge on the field will be one time too many. He is tremendously undersized at this time to be an offensive lineman; being knocked on his butt on the offense's first play from scrimmage is a microcosm of how his day went. I didn't think losing Richard Tuitu'u would hurt this much, but both of his replacements have been disappointments.

On the bright side, Omar Bolden looked much better than he did against UNLV and Georgia. He looked sharp in coverage throughout the game. So did Troy Nolan. Nolan was hitting everyone in sight and tackled better than he did in the first four games combined. However, it's completely apparent that ASU has no one competent enough to play opposite Bolden. We barely saw Pierre Singfield yesterday, and when Terell Carr was out there, he was either getting beaten, taking a penalty or taunting a Cal player when he himself did nothing on a play to stop him. Carr sure talked a lot for a guy who did very little.

And then, of course, there was Rudy. After the game in 2006 in Berkeley, he uttered his now infamous "Maybe I'm not as good as I thought" line. The guy who seemingly had almost unflappable confidence AKA cockiness left California a mentally beaten man that day. Thought it couldn't get worse?

He left Memorial Stadium on crutches yesterday and wouldn't address why. The ice pack on his ankle did the talking. The warrior of an ASU quarterback, who has stayed so remarkably healthy and played through pain since 2005, was limping out of Berkeley a beaten man again. I've watched the play in the 4th quarter where he got totally blindsided several times now, and there is no excuse for either of the guys on the left side to miss that block. If you remember another play where RC got hit that hard, post it up as a comment, because I'm lacking in ideas.

Remarkably, there were some bright spots. Kyle Williams reemergence as an offensive and special teams factor was nice to see. He made a couple catches, including his touchdown, that reminded us of the Kyle we saw last year. He looked shifty and confident again when Rudy was able to deliver him the football. He also hit a few holes that sprang him on some nice kick and punt returns.

I was very impressed with Lawrence Guy yesterday. He got his first sack and recorded six tackles and gave us a glimpse of what we might get to see in the coming months and years. He's one of the most highly touted DL that ASU has seen in some time and he showed his potential yesterday.

All in all though, it was another disappointment. And that's the best way to describe it.

You can forget the Pac-10 title, folks. This isn't a top-tier team in the Pacific-10.

It's time to start thinking if this team will even be in the postseason.

PFN and ASU Campus Radio Team Up

2008-10-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

Your friends at Pitchfork Nation are taking their act to the airwaves. PFN's writers will be making a weekly appearance on The Blaze 1260 AM, ASU's campus radio station.

Every Monday night at 7, listen to The 7 O'Clock Stretch with Todd Weber and Brett Harmon on The Blaze (listen online here, because their signal transmits for only about 17 feet) as I'll be talking all things Sun Devil sports with the guys.

I've got a soft spot for The Blaze, as I was their Sports Director and General Manager for two years during the good ol' days back in college. Make sure you take a listen.

I'll also be posting the interviews for you to listen to here.

Keys to the Game: ASU at Cal (including a rare 90's Nickelodeon reference!)

2008-10-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

The last time Arizona State went to Berkeley, the Sun Devils left with a fat black eye.

Rudy Carpenter, Ryan Torain and the gang were fat and happy after rattling off three non-conference wins, including a rare OOC road win at Colorado. They had outscored their opponents 108-38.

And then the Golden Bears smacked the Devils in the mouth with 35 points in 11:34. The game was 42-14 Cal at the half, and as we saw afterwards, the season was pretty much over.

Needless to say, it's quite a different situation the Devils are in as they travel to the East Bay to take on a much different Cal team. ASU needs a win to get this 2008 season, which started with such promise and hope, back on track before a showdown with mighty USC at the Coliseum next week.

The Devils broke a four-game losing streak to the Bears last year at Sun Devil Stadium, but that night, the Devils were 7-0 and Cal was two weeks removed from blowing a chance at #1 against Oregon State and one week removed from an embarrassing loss at UCLA.

This year, the Sun Devils are riding a two game losing streak into this showdown while the Bears have seemingly regained some swagger after losing on the road to a Maryland team that has turned out to be better than any of us expected. Both teams are severely banged up though, which is the overarching theme to these keys to victory for Arizona State.

1) Shut down Shane Vereen. Sure, Jahvid Best is out with a dislocated elbow (which on a side note, OUCH!). However, their backup is only averaging 8.0 yards per carry. Vereen is a much different back than Best; he doesn't dart and weave like Best does, but he's certainly a handful. He'll substantially touch the ball with the Bears being a bit unsettled at quarterback (see below) and the Devils run defense needs a shot of confidence after being embarrassed by Frank Summers and Knowshon Moreno in back-to-back weeks.

2) Get to Riley/Longshore. Kevin Riley, who has started every game this season, has been underwhelming in his last two starts in terms of his decision making (Maryland) and simply his numbers (Colorado State). On the other hand, demoted former starter Nate Longshore performed admirably in mop-up duty against the Rams, tossing two touchdowns. Regardless of who is under center for the Golden Bears, there has to be more pressure. Neither of California's quarterbacks are especially mobile, Vereen isn't a stud blocking back and All-World center "The Secret World of" Alex Mack is out. All of those add up to Dexter Davis and Luis Vasquez getting into the backfield consistently.

3) Force turnovers. ASU has three interceptions this season, and they were all in one game. The secondary has not been able to make plays in the Devils' three other games and guys like Terell Carr and Omar Bolden need to get back up on the horse and create. Bolden has had back-to-back terrible performances against UNLV and Georgia and taking advantage of Cal's inexperienced route-runners may be a good shot in the arm. Troy Nolan's production has dropped 981,234,548% since last season and he'll need to step up as well.

If ASU can take care of those three things, the Devils should walk out of Strawberry Canyon with a victory. However, another flat start and lifeless defensive effort will leave Arizona State going into SoCal with a giant "2-3" stamped on their foreheads.

Saturday Viewing Guide: October 4

2008-10-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

This edition of the SVG is brought to you by my latest bout of insomnia. Yes, the timestamp is correct. I'm posting this, wide awake, at 3:45 AM.

However, my choices below are perfectly sane. It's the first afternoon game of the season for Arizona State, which frees you up to actually watch, live, a good slate of evening action before you hit the town on Saturday night.

Folks, this really is the first weekend this season where I've taken a look at the schedule and the listings and said to myself, "Damn, there are some really good games." So enjoy it, PFN.

The Morning Slate
#6 Penn State at Purdue (9:00 AM, ESPN): Is this the game where the Nittany Lions emerge as the favorite in the Big Ten? Or will we have to wait until later Saturday night to figure that out? As Oregon can attest, trips to West Lafayette can quickly become a struggle.

Duke at Georgia Tech (9:00 AM, ESPNU): Yes, folks. I'm telling you to watch Duke. Duke football. Stop laughing. Duke is surprisingly 3-1, having won their first ACC game in three seasons last week at home against Virginia, and they neutralized Navy's triple option pretty darn well a couple weeks ago. The Yellow Jackets, at home, will try to legitimize themselves as an ACC title contender after blowing that 17-3 lead to VA Tech two weeks ago.

Set The TiVo (AKA While you're watching ASU/Cal, 12:30, ABC)
Kentucky at #2 Alabama (12:30 PM, CBS): The Crimson Tide shot up to the two-hole in the coaches poll after their stirring road win over Georgia last week and shouldn't face a tremendous challenge from the Wildcats. However, it'll be interesting to see how Nick Saban's team, in an 8-day period where five top-10 teams have lost, responds to their lofty ranking.

Illinois at Michigan (12:30 PM, ESPN [maybe?]): Check the listings; hopefully this will be the alternate ABC game that we get on ESPN or ESPN2. Illinois put up a respectable fight in brutal conditions in Happy Valley despite losing last week, while we all saw what the Wolverines were able to pull off at the Big House against Wisconsin. This game should decide who will be the token pesky team that everyone will make their trendy upset pick when OSU/Wisconsin/Penn State rolls around.

After The Devils Are Done
#13 Auburn at #19 Vanderbilt (3:00 PM, ESPN): Well hot dang, those Commodores are on top of the SEC East! Yes, THAT SEC East! They've rocketed into the top 25 and even the gang from Gameday are making their first appearance in Nashville. They'll get another stiff test from Auburn, who is still smarting from barely getting by middling Tennessee at home.

#24 Connecticut at North Carolina (4:00 PM, ESPN2): Before the season, I said Connecticut could pound the ground as well as anyone and North Carolina was a sleeper pick to take the weak Coastal Division of the ACC. I'm looking pretty good right now and these teams clash in a non-conference matchup in Chapel Hill. Both are on backup quarterbacks though; Tyler Lorenzen and T.J. Yates are both out long term, but that wont take away from what should be an entertaining game.

Before You Hit Mill Avenue
#23 Oregon at #9 USC (5:00 PM, ABC): Seriously, no explanation needed here.

#14 Ohio State at #18 Wisconsin (5:00 PM, ESPN2): Both of these teams have stunning losses on their record this year; one because of how lopsided the loss was and the other because of the incredible choke job they pulled off. Now, they face off in what will be a wild Camp Randall Stadium, and the winner gets the title of "the team that will challenge Penn State for the Big Ten title." Which of course, carries as much weight as, you know, "Vice President of the United States."

Munns absence is another ASU mystery

2008-10-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

There have been plenty of question marks around Arizona State so far this season.

How severe, really, has Keegan Herring's hamstring injury been?

Why hasn't the coaching staff been able to find an alternative in the running game?

Why do the Sun Devils all of a sudden have trouble blocking on special teams?

Well, as if the team needed any more questions, we now bring you the stunning loss of Gerald Munns. We found out on Monday that Munns would miss the Cal game due to personal reasons, but now we find out this morning that those personal reasons will keep the starting linebacker out for the remainder of 2008.

We respect confidentiality obviously, but there's definitely curiosity around why Munns is gone for the year. He didn't play against UNLV due to pinky surgery and he, like most of his fellow linebackers, was completely ineffective against Georgia. But now, out of nowhere, he's gone for the year.

The only thing that we can hope for is that he gets his personal matters, whatever they are, in order for his own sake. Munns has a lot of raw talent and has the ability to be a very good defensive player.

Luckily for ASU, Morris Wooten should be back in his groove in his second game back from suspension and Shelley Lyons will be able to jump in with more PT in the long terms. But there's still the mental hit of losing a starter for the year to deal with.

ASU/Cal will Make or Break 2008

2008-09-28T20:21:00.001-07:00

Before this season started, the question, "When is ASU's most important game of 2008?" was bandied about among fans, on message boards and on talk radio. The two most popular answers, without hesitation, were Georgia and at USC.

And why not? Before the season began, everyone, including this fine blog, expected ASU to be consistently in the top 15. However, I raised a lot of eyebrows with my answer to that question.

Without a beat, I kept telling people that I thought the Cal game on October 4 was this team's most important game. And I still think it is.

In terms of national attention and our best chance to get maximum exposure to voters and casual fans, national TV games against Georgia are huge. In terms of knowing out conference standing, our game against Southern Cal is always big.

But based on when this Cal game is scheduled, I firmly thought that the game in Berkeley would prove to be Arizona State's most important game.

Most of us thought the Sun Devils would be 3-1 going into this Saturday's game and not-so-privately boasted about being 4-0. Well, that's obviously far from the case. The Devils are 2-2 after a flat loss to the Bulldogs and are still experiencing the dull ache from the punch to the mouth that was UNLV.

So, my thoughts going into California have consistently been one of these two rationales:

A) We had just lost to Georgia and needed to reestablish our confidence
B) We had just somehow beaten Georgia and needed to prove that the upset wasn't a fluke

Obviously, it was situation A that has panned out with the added twist being the 25 1/2 point outright upset by the Rebels three weeks ago. Both of those reasons, whichever one was the case after September 20, made me believe that there was no more important game on the 2008 schedule than the game at Memorial Stadium this Saturday.

Win, and ASU gets to 3-2 and gets a much needed shot in the arm before the trip to Los Angeles. It breaks ASU's first losing streak since 2006 and can go a long way to prove the Devils' mettle on the road, especially in the state of California, where ASU has exactly one win since 2001.

The consequences of losing are obvious. The Devils drop to under .500 and will most likely have zero belief that they can go into the Coliseum and knock off an all-of-a-sudden vulnerable (maybe? maybe not?) USC team. Plus, after USC, Oregon comes to town, a program while very much different on paper in 2008 yet the Sun Devils have been unable to beat since 2004. That brings about the possibility of the Sun Devils being 2-5 going into another bye week.

2-5.

Gulp.

See what I mean now? This weekend is single most important one of the season for Arizona State, and it's definitely in their best interests to come out flying against California...or else 2008 might be over before they even take on the Trojans.

Photo Credit: ESPN

Pac-10 Power Poll: Special Edition

2008-09-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

Pac-10 Power Poll: 9/25/08

NO ONE.
NO ONE IN THIS CONFERENCE IS POWERFUL.
AT ALL.

Oregon State 27, #1 USC 21

Well, I'll be gah-danged.

2008-09-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Can't honestly say that anyone really saw this coming.

USC can't stop Jacquizz Rodgers. Period. He's already got 117 yards rushing and 22 more through the air. Lyle Moevao, the subject of many a fat joke on this here blog, is running roughshod over the Trojans secondary, throwing two touchdowns to James Rodgers.

And something else that shouldn't be stunning: USC has already taken two of those new-fangled horse collar tackle penalties and a really stupid roughing the passer penalty with :11 seconds left in the half. They took another on OSU's third touchdown that was declined anyway.

Speaking of the third touchdown, what a ballsy call from Mike Riley to go for six rather than settle for the easy three with less than 10 seconds left in the 2nd quarter. Rodgers second touchdown was a lucky break after the ball squeaked through CB Kevin Thomas' hands and right to James.

On a side note, Erin Andrews looks absolutely AMAZING tonight. Like, more so than usual. Makes this potential enormous upset just that much more...um...visually appealing.

In the interests of equal reporting, USC also trailed Oregon State by 21 back during that 2006 upset in which they almost came back to win.

Stay tuned.

PS: When did Oregon State move back to Parker Stadium? Click on the scoreboard and look closely at it. Pretty sure OSU plays at Reser.

Devils waking up

2008-09-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

While a week without a game is, indeed, rather unexciting, my time spent at practice this week has been the most entertaining of the season.

http://www.asuwebdevil.com/node/1272

While technically the practices in full pads are supposed to be without tackling, most members of the team having ignored that memo this week as big hits have been plentiful. Even last week in preparation for Georgia, practices just weren't sharp. This week, though, has been a different situation entirely.

Players comfortable in their roles on the team suddenly realize they will have to work to keep them and the desperation has led to an increased intensity level. The biggest battle for a position has been at right tackle where Adam Tello's struggles have left the coaching staff looking elsewhere for answers.

Redshirt freshman Matt Hustad and junior Tom Njunge are compteting for the position. Hustad has been sidelined by injury this season has the ability to play both inside and outside on the line. Erickson suggested Wednesday that Tello could move to the inside which would create more depth on the line.

Maybe the team has regained some swagger; it can't hurt to have it's mouthpiece back. Senior running back Keegan Herring has participated fully in practice this week and his mouth is making up for lost time. The Sun Devils hope to have Herring back for the Cal contest.

Is anyone as bored as I am?

2008-09-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

*Nervously looks around*

Is anyone out there?

Is anyone else as bored right now as I am without an ASU game this week? I know...we're all still pretty baffled by consecutive losses to UNLV and Georgia (OK, maybe not AS baffled about the Georgia loss), but at this time of year, I still find my normal routine on Thursday to get in complete full swing for a game on Saturday.

This week, I find myself literally trying to find ways to spend my time. I GUESS we'll watch that USC/Oregon State game tonight, but we all know it'll be over in a quarter.

It's not even worth it to come out with a new edition of the Pac-10 Power Poll this week because...really, there's no reason to explain it. Everyone knows the Pac-1 (that's not a typo) is currently USC and everyone else until furter notice.

Either way, I'm working on a really interesting piece on how the level of quarterback talent in the conference has fallen significantly since 2004, so stick around and I promise you'll be entertained.

Other Notes from Last Night (AKA My Encounter with Uga VII)

2008-09-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

Some other notes and thoughts that I didn't fit into my game recap earlier today...

-ASU finished up their non-conference season with a 1-2 record in 2008. It's the first time since 1999 and only the second time since 1994 that the Sun Devils went under .500 OOC (not including bowl games). In 1999, the Devils lost to New Mexico State and Notre Dame while beating Texas Tech. Since that season through the end of 2007, the Sun Devils had gone 23-4 against non-Pac-10 opponents during the regular season; two of those wins coming over NAU while the losses came at Nebraska and vs. North Carolina (2002), at Iowa (2003) and vs. LSU (2005). That includes a 2002 season where the Devils played five OOC games. Obviously, no one would have ever dreamed that ASU would have lost to UNLV while the loss to Georgia was a bit more "expected," if you will, but OOC losses still matter even if they have no bearing on the race to the Pac-10 title. I'm all about aggressive scheduling and trying to play the best opponents possible, but winning these non-conference games, especially against higher class teams, always serves to boost confidence and national attention. The Devils, for the first time in eight seasons, didn't take care of business before conference play started in full swing.

-One positive from last night is that the ASU offense continues to find ways to work the tight end into the receiving rotation. This is the first season in many years that ASU doesn't have an experienced, proven playmaker at the TE position, but Andrew Pettes, Dan Knapp and Jovon Williams have found ways to move the ball down the field and put the Devils in good positions to succeed. Pettes scored ASU's only touchdown last night on a terrific split-off route and found himself wide open inside the 5 for the easy score.

-The Devils inability to generate turnovers is a major concern, which leads me to actually think that Robert James made everyone on this defense better last season. James was the ad hoc vocal and motivational leader on the field last season and he made players like Troy Nolan, Travis Goethel and Mike Nixon play better around him. I feel like the same players who performed admirably last season are struggling badly and often find themselves in the wrong spot, caught out of position, not picking up zone reads and hot routes and, more than anything, losing track of receivers on quick in routes. The Devils have three interceptions as a defensive unit this season with all three of them coming in the Stanford game. That's not going to cut it.

-ASU cannot convert on third down. This links right back to being opportunistic and making sure the offense makes plays when they have to. Last night, the Devils went 2-11 on third down and the defense bore the brunt of it. Georgia held the ball for six more minutes than ASU did last night and, especially near the end of the 1st half, the Sun Devil defense looked tired and worn out. The Devils inability to sustain drives at least long enough to give the defense a breather made a big difference on the 2nd and 3rd Bulldog touchdown drives, on both of which the line could not get pressure on Matt Stafford and the fresher Dawg receivers were able to blow right by the ASU secondary. It's not a new trend either, the Devils were 2-9 on 3rd against UNLV and 3-12 in the win over NAU. It makes the 7 third down conversions against Stanford look like it was the Cardinal that couldn't stop the Devils rather than ASU being efficient. What might make this worse, in the Georgia game at least, is that we can't tie this trend to running woes; ASU found themselves in a 3rd and +7 yard situation 7 times last night.

-Finally, on a lighter note, I was standing near the north end zone midway through the 2nd quarter last night when I felt something rubbing against my leg. When I looked down, the culprit was none other than Uga VII, sniffing around my feet and then subsequently licking and knawing on the back of my jeans and shoes. Now, when I went to Colorado back in 2006, I didn't get my picture with Ralphie, and the canceled trip to LSU in 2005 killed any chance to spend any quality time with Mike the Tiger, I wasn't missing my chance to hang out with Uga. And from the pictures we saw of him laying in ice down in Athens earlier this year, the Georgia mascot seemed to deal with the desert heat pretty well.