Pac-10 Power Rankings: September 8

HUGE game for the Pac-10 this week. Definitely a matchup that will have the pollsters buzzing, the analysts working overtime to break down every aspect and fans scrambling to pay top dollar just to get a spot in the nosebleeds.

Of course, I'm referring to that powerhouse matchup between Stanford and TCU.

Psych!

To the power rankings! All 10 teams are out of conference this week.

1) USC Trojans (1-0, 0-0 Pac-10)
They had a week to regroup, get healthy and most importantly, watch Ohio State look pedestrian without Beanie Wells against Ohio. Ohio! They're still riding high after jumping Georgia and OSU for the #1 spot in both rankings. Don't count on Beanie missing this game though; USC will have to get ready to get smacked in the mouth by the pounding OSU running attack.
Last Week: Bye
This Week: vs. Ohio State Buckeyes

2) California Golden Bears (2-0, 0-0 Pac-10)
I caught a lot of flak in the preseason for putting Cal this high, but they've done nothing but prove how much talent they've got. Granted, they haven't played anyone super talented, but they just handed WSU their worst loss in program history, Jahvid Best looks like he cant be stopped and they will not face a challenge until they host Arizona State.
Last Week: California 66, Washington State 3
This Week: at Maryland Terrapins

3) Arizona State Sun Devils (2-0, 1-0 Pac-10)
Rudy Carpenter, the defensive line and the linebackers looked as strong as ever in their romp over Stanford, but the running game is still inconsistent until Keegan Herring comes back and carries a full load. There's no danger in this team overlooking UNLV on their way to their game with Georgia; Dennis Erickson wont let it happen.
Last Week: Stanford 17, Stanford 41
This Week: vs. UNLV Rebels

4) Oregon Ducks (2-0, 1-0 Pac-10)
Justin Roper has been impressive and so has their defense, as expected. But now Jeremiah Johnson is a question mark after banging up his shoulder against a hapless Utah State team, but LeGarrett Blount stepped in admirably, also as expected. Potential trap game against Purdue this week; that team has quite a pass rush.
Last Week: Utah State 24, Oregon 66
This Week: at Purdue Boilermakers

5) Arizona Wildcats (2-0, 0-0 Pac-10)
The stats don't lie (combined 110-16 score in two wins) but the opponents (Idaho and Toledo) do. New Mexico beat them last year and now they have to go to Albuquerque. Even ESPN is starting to call them pretenders. All things considered though, they are doing what they haven't done in recent years: beating the teams they're supposed to beat early on and doing it convincingly.
Last Week: Toledo 16, Arizona 41
This Week: at New Mexico Lobos

6) UCLA Bruins (1-0, 0-0 Pac-10)
The conference is still buzzing about the Bruins shocking come-from-behind upset of Tennessee two weeks ago, but there are still major question marks. Which Kevin Riley will show up against Brigham Young, who's smarting from their great escape from Seattle? Will Khalil Bell be healthy and/or effective? Will the defense continue to show up? Too many q's to bump them up.
Last Week: Bye
This Week: at Brigham Young Cougars

7) Stanford Cardinal (1-1, 1-1 Pac-10)
Still have plenty of time to recover from being humbled by Arizona State, but that defense still can move pretty well. Their front seven got tons of pressure on the Sun Devil backfield throughout the loss and Toby Gerhart was still able to semi-effectively move the ball. They drop because they need to settle on a starting quarterback; the Pritchard/Forcier platoon will not work.
Last Week: Stanford 17, Arizona State 41
This Week: at TCU Horned Frogs

8) Washington Huskies (0-2, 0-1 Pac-10)
They certainly put up quite the fight against BYU, didn't they? When Jake Locker is on his game, everyone around him is better, and that's the only way they'll stay in games this season. Their defense got thrown over and battered all day. If Locker doesn't play well, there's still no chance of the Huskies winning games. Oh, and by the way, the Sooners are waiting.
Last Week: Brigham Young 28, Washington 27
This Week: vs. Oklahoma Sooners

9) Oregon State Beavers (0-2, 0-1 Pac-10)
They had a chance to redeem themselves with at least a strong performance in the most intimidating place to play in America. Being down 42-7 in the 3rd quarter will not win any friends. They'd better not slip up to a weak Hawaii team this week, because after the bye, there's a better than average chance they could slip to 0-5.
Last Week: Oregon State 14, Penn State 45
This Week: vs. Hawaii Warriors

10) Washington State Cougars (0-2, 0-1 Pac-10)
Did anyone get the license plate number on the white car that just whizzed past us and into the end zone?
Last Week: California 66, Washington State 3
This Week: at Baylor Bears

A Game of AP Poll Leapfrog

I can hear it sitting in the living room at my house in North Tempe.

The cries are ringing out around Sun Devil Nation: "HOW DID EAST CAROLINA JUMP US IN THE POLLS?"

If you haven't seen it, the Pirates from mighty Conference USA (where its 10,000 fans at a Rice game or your money back!) did vault themselves from the "received votes" category to #14 in the nation, one spot ahead of the Sun Devils.

There's a pretty logical explanation for what's going on with this. The AP poll has gone completely batty in 2008, but ECU does have the mettle to justify their ranking so far this year.

If you've watched either of the Pirates games this season (and you should have, they've been in our Viewing Guide twice this season), you've seen a scrappy team of talented and speedy players completely beat Virginia Tech at their own game and then completely overpower #8 West Virginia at home. No one has done what ECU did to the Mountaineers in years. They've got two ATS wins over top 25 teams. Both of those games, P.S., were on national TV.

On the other hand, ASU has a win over FCS Northern Arizona and a rout of Stanford, a team we should have beaten anyway. The Devils and Rudy Carpenter are getting some nice pub on the internet about their 2-0 start, but it's not as if the pollsters have seen Arizona State play, and they wont until September 20.

Also, let's take a look at some of the other weirdness that has gone on in the first three weeks of polling that points to the AP Poll going bananas this season:

• Clemson began the season at #9, then dropped out of the poll completely after their loss to #24 Alabama.
• Pittsburgh was ranked. Period.
• #1 Georgia was bumped to #3 after a win over Georgia Southern in week 1. They were replaced by USC, who was #3, probably because their win over Virginia was more decisive.
• UCLA goes from getting 6 points in the preseason poll to #23 after beating Tennessee but then gets dropped out this week when they had a bye.
  
• Ohio State was bumped down two spots to #5 today because Ohio kept it close, but #20 Wake Forest needed a last second field goal at home to beat Ole Miss and didn't move.
• #8 West Virginia drops from that spot to just barely edging UCLA out to stay in the poll after losing to East Carolina.

It's also worth noting that the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll, which is of course the poll in which coaches don't actually vote but rather have their school's SID usually fill it out, shows major disparities between their rankings and the AP. This week, ASU is up to #13 (AP #15), Clemson is still in it at #23 (AP unranked), West Virginia is at #24 (AP #25) and most notably, those pesky Pirates only cracked #20 (once again, #14 AP).

You know what the whole moral of this story is? I've been saying it for years: I'm glad the BCS doesn't release rankings until midway through the season; the human polls should follow suit. I firmly believe that the AP and Coaches' polls shouldn't come out for the first time until week 4, when every team in the country has played at least three games. It makes so much more sense when the media and everyone else has seen a good amount of film on each team before ranking them.

Piecing Together the 2009 Baseball Schedule

Since ASU's Athletic Department always refuses to put out the schedule until about January, here's what I have pieced together from the schedules of other schools:

Feb 20-22 Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Feb 26-Mar 1 Hosting Tournament: Oregon State, others TBA
Mar 5-7 Holy Cross
Mar 10-11 Kansas State
Mar 13-15 Kansas
Mar 20-22 Arizona
Mar 27-29 @ USC
Mar 31-April 1 @ Cal State Fullerton
April 3-5 @ Washington
April 7-8 @ Arkansas
April 10-12 Washington State
April 24-26 @ Cal
April 29 Challenge @ Chase vs. Arizona
May 1-3 @ Oregon State
May 5-6 San Diego
May 15-17 Oregon
May 20 @ Arizona
May 22-24 UCLA

What the hell, students?

Usually, I don't comment on fan behavior on PFN. I tend to keep my analysis, insight and focus where it belongs: on Arizona State sports. However, there was enough to annoy me last night that I feel like I need to write.

This, of course, all comes after I was almost nailed on the face when someone decided to throw a pair of eyeglasses on the field after a bad call. That's straight dangerous. Creative, I'll concede. But very dangerous.

ASU's student section gets a lot of praise from the rest of the fans for being loud and rowdy, which is of course how it should be. But frankly, I'm of the impression that our student section doesn't even really watch the game.

I understand that mob mentality is never going to come up with the most creative chants in the world, but when you've settled for chanting "F**k you Stanford" just three minutes into the 1st quarter, it's bad. That's not supporting the Devils. That's just being vulgar for the sake of being vulgar.

What irked me the most were those "BRING ON GEORGIA" signs that somehow popped up in mass numbers during the 4th quarter. I'm not going to completely blame the student section for holding them up, most of the blame belongs with the people who produced the signs. However, for all our fans talk about how they don't want our Devils to look ahead to the game with the Bulldogs on September 20; how they want ASU to keep buying into DE's "one game at a time" mentality, shouldn't you know better than to chant and hold up Bring On Georgia signs?

It definitely makes me more unhappy that this happened late in the game, when frankly, most of the students who show up at Sun Devil games for the social/tailgating/saying-they-were-there aspect have left, leaving the ones who for the most part actually know a good amount about football.

I'm all about having a good time, trust me. I am a former student section goer myself. I'm thrilled that those sections are filled to the brim, completely decked out in gold, for pretty much every game for the past two seasons. But it's all a moot point if you guys don't know how to be a powerful and creative student section.

Stanford Rolls Over for ASU Again

I can't tell you exactly why, but I didn't walk away from last night's win over Stanford with a tremendous sense of happiness.

Maybe because it was 106 degrees at kickoff.

Maybe it was because the Sun Devils displayed the worst time-out management of any team I've watched so far this season.

Maybe it was because Keegan Herring was out on the field with 3:30 left in the 4th quarter and ended up getting helped off the field.

Or maybe it was because someone at Chick-fil-A decided to make "BRING ON GEORGIA" signs and our student section wasn't smart enough to not hold them up and chant that phrase.

Any way you shake it, it was still a 41-17 win to open the Pac-10 for the Sun Devils, but I'm pretty unsettled.

Don't get me wrong, there was plenty to be happy about. Rudy Carpenter was still 27/36 and his receivers made him look better than he was. Rudy is clearly still getting used to throwing on the run but hes getting more accurate as games have gone along. Last night, when he was off, he was leading receivers off to the left or right and threw behind receivers on a few incompletions. You can't pin all of that on RC; sometimes it's a matter of a receiver getting off their route, which happened; but it's something to watch out for.

It goes beyond words when talking about the emotional boost this team got with Keegan Herring, Shaun DeWitty and Mike Jones ALL playing last night. Keegan looked exactly like who he's been throughout his career, especially on that 2nd half run where he went right, cut back to the left, got a tremendous block and sprang another trademark improbable run. DeWitty looked great in pass blocking situations (as he should) and pleasantly surprised me with his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and get yards after the catch.

The crowd and the sideline went nuts when Keegan rumbled for 20 yards to set up the Carpenter to Mike Jones touchdown on the very next play. That tells you something about just how much having Keegan on the field means to everyone surrounding this squad.

The offensive line wasn't great...they weren't bad...but they weren't great. I must say though, it was nice to have not given up five first half sacks like they did last season against the Cardinal. Stanford, as expected, blitzed on nearly every other down, but the line picked it up nicely and gave Carpenter time to think and at least time to set up a scramble. Having DeWitty back helped a ton in giving RC more room to move.

The defense made a few pretty bonehead mistakes last night but overall, I thought they were pretty stout. Luis Vasquez was all over the place, picking up another sack and helping to limit Toby Gerhart to just 67 yards rushing, essentially making him a non-factor in setting up drives. He scored both of Stanford's touchdowns but the Devils were able to neutralize him in terms of being a ball-moving threat.

Gerald Munns was clearly the defensive MVP. His pick completely swung the momentum of the game and Troy Nolan wouldn't have had his interception had Munns not gotten his hands on it to send the defense into a tip drill. After the game, though, he disclosed to the East Valley Tribune that he'll have minor surgery to insert pins in a broken pinky finger. He played with a cast on last night, making his performance that much more impressive. He should be back for the Georgia game.

On the other hand, Pierre Singfield was less effective than he was against NAU. He still clearly deserves to be the starter, but as all freshmen do, he made mistakes. The most glaring one didn't hurt the team though; with Stanford deep and threatening late in the 3rd, Tavita Pritchard rolled out on a bootleg and Singfield lost his receiver, Richard Sherman, leaving him wide open in the back of the end zone. Luckily, Tavita overthrew Sherman, but they was no reason for him to be standing in the end zone completely uncovered.

ASU burned all three of their first half time outs early, but none of the instances involved the new play clock rules. That's settling and unsettling at the same time, especially late in the 2nd quarter when Rudy clearly needed a timeout, started walking to the sideline and his teammates had to scream at him to get back to the line. It was an eyebrow raiser; the Devils have never tended to have problems managing time outs, but last night they had to use them early and often.

Overall, I'm not overly satisfied with the blowout win, but I'm pretty hard to impress anyway. Frankly, the thing I'm happiest about is the fact that under Dennis Erickson, ASU is finally doing what they're supposed to do. They're beating the teams they are supposed to beat, and they did that last night when his team blew out Stanford. UNLV is next...they lost handily to Utah this past week, and they definitely have some kinks to work out before September 20.

Photo Credit: ESPN.com

Week 2 Viewing Guide

Here are the big games on Saturday that we'll be watching...if you want to keep up with us...you should too.

The Morning Slate
Miami OH at Michigan (9:00 AM, ESPN): Last year at this time, Michigan was hosting Oregon and got destroyed. It wont happen again this year, but it should be interesting to see how the Maize and Blue responds to their loss to Utah.

While You're Tailgating...
BYU at Washington (12:00 PM, FSN): BYU should roll into Seattle and stomp out with a big win, one that should unofficially make Tyrone Willingham a lame duck.


Oregon State at Penn State (12:30 PM, ABC): Oregon State needs a win on national TV to regain some credibility with the pollsters after losing to Stanford, and Happy Valley isn't the best place to go and get it.

West Virginia at East Carolina (1:30 PM, ESPN): Two surprises last week were East Carolina's thrilling win over VA Tech and West Virginia's ability to use the forward pass. Those forces combine at Dowdy-Ficklen.

Set The TiVo (While you're watching ASU/Stanford)

Miami at Florida (5:00 PM, ESPN): These two Sunshine State teams aren't technically "rivals" in the sense that they're both rivals with Florida State, but it's going to be a good measuring stick to see how much Miami has progressed.

WOAH! Good injury news???

Finally!

Good news!

After weeks upon weeks upon weeks of being so nervous and edgy about injuries to the Sun Devils, I'm happy to report some actual improvement.

Keegan Herring missed the first game of his career last week due to his bum hamstring and doesn't fix to miss his second in a row tomorrow against Stanford. That is still yet to be determined, but the good news is that he's working out again.

Jeff Metcalfe of the Republic says Herring worked out individually yesterday and declared himself "ready to go" for this week. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't make that call. DE does.

Mike Jones has also been making us sweat with the Achilles injury he sustained earlier this week, but Erickson says that he and Herring have both improved.

Improved??? Sweet! Finally, someone's RECOVERING from an injury! I'm looking at you, Shaun DeWitty.

Realistically, I feel like losing Herring for another week would be more damaging than losing Jones for a game. ASU struggled mightily to run the ball against NAU last week with Dimitri Nance trying to shoulder the load and the Devils running attack could certainly use the shot in the arm with Herring back on the field.

On the flip side, anyone who has watched ASU over the past year and even in the season opener knows that depth at WR is not the problem. Jones is clearly this team's #1 target (162 yards against NAU doesn't lie) but with Chris McGaha, Kerry Taylor, Kyle Williams and even Nate Kimbrough contributing heavily last week, I'd much rather have a healthy Mike Jones back for UNLV than rush him back for Stanford if he's not ready.

Photo Credit: East Valley Tribune