Arizona State Update: Checking in on the Sun Devils

The 1:10 Mark is the Best Part

I started looking around for news on the Sun Devils after I saw an ESPN ticker announcement that they lost a defensive end to a three game suspension through the UGA game. However, the East Valley Tribune reports that he was running second team in camp so it's not that big a deal. But I still did the snooping so you get the headlines:

ASU Defense Headlines

• The Sun Devil defense is trying to pick up the tempo and level of aggression after last year's disappointing season. AZCentral reports that their freshmen are making an impact.

• The ASU campus paper makes a good point that the Sun Devil defense actually played ok in the second half of the season. Especially as it relates to forcing turnovers. However, the article talking about how special the defense looks right now is hard for me to take serious. They're just playing the ASU defense.

• A more balanced look at the situation comes from the East Valley Tribune which states that ASU's season is almost entirely dependent on the defense. Last year, they gave up 20 points or more seven times and lost all seven games. How good will they be this year? File this comment under the heading over confidence:

"We just see ourselves as being one of the best defenses in the nation so anybody we face is going to struggle … We can be as great as we want to be. If we want to be No. 1 in the country, we can do that." -- Omar Bolden (CB who was beaten like a rented mule by AJ Green last year)

ASU Offense Headlines

• It's back to the future for Coach Erickson. OregonLive.com says that before the 2008 season the ASU coach wanted to air things out and go with 4 and 5 WRs and throw it around. However, they had to scrap that plan due to their offensive line's ineptitude. Per the paper:

"We couldn't block anybody," Erickson said recently at Pacific-10 Conference media day. "We were going to get Rudy (Carpenter, the quarterback) killed."

This, then, is the 2009 blueprint for the Sun Devils: See 2008, before reality bit.

"I'm going to go back to what I used to do, spreadin' 'em out," Erickson said. "I think offensively we're going to be a lot better."

His optimism comes from the OL. We'll see. That group last year was wretched.

• The campus paper reports that there are questions all over the place. While DevilsDigest (Scout.com Premium) says the burden of proof is on the O. The overall tone of all articles is that the Sun Devils are looking at 2009 as a fresh start / clean slate type scenario. Really, that's not such a different mentality than what we're hearing out of Athens.

See Also:
-- Key Players for ASU in '09 - AZCentral.com
-- Tickets: Arizona State Sun Devils at the Georgia Bulldogs
-- Yeah, but it was a dry can of whoop ass - GSB


PWD