Welcome to another fish wrap, as we continue our journey through the WSU schedule. This time it’s opponent #9 for 2010, and it’s none other than Denny Erickson’s ASU Sun Devils. After a tough ’09 season that saw ASU finish near the basement, is it time for a major rebound by Denny’s Devils? Or will ’10 be a lot like ’09? Read on….
The start was so promising – 10-3, including the Holiday Bowl bid in 2007, the first year of the Erickson Era. Denny was hailed as a genius, winning big at yet another stop on his nomad-style career. But a funny thing happened on the way to greatness, as ASU has fallen down the Pac-10 ladder. The Devils have now lost 15 games the last two seasons combined, their MOST EVER over a two-year span. And they have now had consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1946-47! It hasn’t been much fun in the sun the last couple of years.
But hey, they still have Dennis Erickson!
In all seriousness, Erickson is one of the greatest coaches in modern Pac-10 history. No other coach in the conference has been named coach of the year at THREE different Pac-10 schools, but it’s true in Denny’s case (WSU, Oregon State and ASU). And despite the losing seasons the last two years, he is still 167-83-1 in his career, which includes a couple of national titles at Miami (’89 and ’91).
The troubling thing here? There is something eerily similar in what’s happening at ASU compared to his last Pac-10 job, Oregon State.
Back in ‘99, Erickson was brought in to breathe life into OSU’s program, and he succeeded, turning things around quickly. While Mike Riley’s first stint at OSU saw the program heading in the right direction towards the end, it was Erickson who actually delivered the first winning season in 29 years in his first year in Corvallis. But he followed it up even better than anyone could have imagined in 2000, rolling to an 11-1, Fiesta Bowl championship season. Their only loss that year was on a late missed field goal at UW, where they would lose the Rose Bowl tiebreaker. But OSU would at least claim a share of the Pac-10 title for the first time since the conference became 10 teams in 1978, and overall it was their first piece of the title since the 1964 season. However, OSU would fall way back in year three, rolling out a 5-win season after the loss of so many players from that excellent ’00 team.
Sounds kinda similar doesn’t it? Today, we see after that first year that saw ASU win 10 games, it’s been the two consecutive losing seasons. It’s like once the prior regime’s upper classmen have moved on, at least in his last two Pac-10 gigs anyway, there’s a dip. For example, the 1999-2000 Oregon State teams had several excellent upperclassmen, such as TJ Houshmandzadeh, Chad Ocho Cinco, QB Jonathan Smith, etc. But once their run was over, they came crashing back to earth, winning five games in ‘01. Meanwhile, the ’07 Sun Devils had nine offensive starters back from ‘06, including Rudy Carpenter at QB, and viola! 10 wins! But once the inherited upperclassmen moved on, things start slipping.
But Erickson isn’t sitting still. He took the bold move of bringing in new coordinators and changing up his offensive scheme completely, as offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone has come in with a no-huddle offense to try and inject some life into the program. Will it matter? Are they changes of necessity, as an effort to evolve as a head coach nearing the end of the line? Or is it a sign of desperation? We’ll see.
2009: As mentioned above, a disappointing 4-8 overall, and just 2-7 in the conference. Their only Pac-10 wins were a sweep of the Washington schools, both teams that had losing records in ’09. Otherwise their only other wins were over Idaho State and UL-Monroe. They were the close loss KINGS on ’09 though – They lost by 2 points to Cal, by three points to Georgia and Arizona, and by five points to SC. The hope is that they were valuable learning experiences that can carry into ’10, and those close losses can turn into close wins?
FANS ARE: Unhappy with the losing, no doubt about it. And they have to be wondering what the heck is going on. Nobody dreamed they would be coming off two consecutive losing seasons after such a great start. The heat is clearly on Erickson.
LAST TIME vs. WSU: ASU handled the Cougs with relative ease, beating WSU 27-14 in Pullman last year. The offense had 410 total yards, second-most for the ’09 season, including a season-high 220 yards rushing. But that offensive output is just half the story. The real story was the ASU defense, and WOW, what a defense.
ASU would steamroll the Cougar O in ways that are, well, hard to describe. I was at that game, and afterwards I had a hard time trying to remember the last time I saw a defense manhandle an offense so badly in any single game. ASU looked Palouse-Posse-ish or AZ Desert Swarm-ish on D, with tremendous speed at linebacker and a completely dominating performance by the defensive line.
In the Seattle Times game story, Paul Wulff even said so after the game:
“We just got completely dominated from their defensive line and our offensive line, more of a domination than I’ve ever seen,” Washington State coach Paul Wulff said. “It just put so much pressure on our quarterbacks.”
In all, ASU would sack WSU QB’s twelve times – TWELVE – while holding the Cougs to an embarrassing minus-54 yards rushing. Jeff Tuel took the brunt of those sacks, going down hard nine times – NINE TIMES!
The only thing that kept it relatively interesting was a school record 99-yard TD pass by Tuel, as well as six turnovers from a sloppy Sun Devil offense.
’09 OFFENSIVE RATINGS: Fairly low across the board for ASU – 22.3 ppg, 91st in the nation and 8th in the conference; 119.3 rushing yards per game, 93rd in the nation and 8th in the conference; 215.2 yards passing per game, 62nd in the nation and 7th in the conference. Finally, total offense was 334.4 yards per game, 90th in the nation and 9th in the conference. No wonder ASU pulled the plug on the offensive scheme and brought in some new blood!
OFFENSIVE SYSTEM: New OC Noel Mazzone will bring a in a one-back, no huddle attack for 2010, with a running back, tight end and three wide receivers as a standard formation. Mazzone has been around, coaching the last three years in the NFL as the WR coach of the Jets, and his prior coordinating experience was in SEC country, leading the offenses of Ole Miss and Auburn from ’94 – ’01.
2010 RETURNING STARTERS: The cupboard, as they say, is relatively bare. Only four starters return on offense next year, which should include a new starting QB, new running back, new WR’s and the majority of the offensive line.
TOP OFFENSIVE PLAYER: With so many new faces, and such a high percentage of players lost on offense – check out this link from Phil Steele that shows ASU as the #117 team in the nation in terms of offensive output coming back for ’10 – it isn’t easy to just pick one guy. But we have to make a pick, so, let’s take running back Cameron Marshall.
Marshall showed a lot of promise last year, emerging as the primary backup to Dmitri Nance in the running game. He had 280 yards and a couple of rushing TD’s, averaging 4.4 yards per carry on 64 attempts. Marshall is well built at 5-11, 220, and can flat-out run, recording a 10.6 in the 100 in high school. Check out the long run vs. UW:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFOovWa-EuE&w=425&h=344]’09 DEFENSIVE RATINGS: As much as the offense was down, boy the defense was another story. Tops in the Pac-10 in rushing D (108.6, #19 in the nation), passing yards (189.0, #26 in the nation) and total defense (297.6 yards per game, #13 in the nation), ASU brought it. They were #2 in scoring D, giving up 21.1 points per game, #26 in the nation, but otherwise they were #1 across the board in the conference last year.
2010 RETURNING DEFENSIVE STARTERS: ASU loses the majority of last year’s top D, as only four starters return for 2010. They should be OK up front though, as three of the four coming back are from the d-line.
TOP DEFENSIVE PLAYER: While the D-line has some good bodies back next year in d-tackles Lawrence Guy and Saia Falahola, there seems to be little doubt that linebacker Vontaze Burfict is the top guy.
Burfict was Pac-10 defensive frosh of the year last year, and for good reason. 69 tackles, #2 on the team, as well as seven tackles for loss and five pass-breakups. For a true frosh, yeah, pretty good numbers. But uh, the numbers don’t exactly tell the story on Burfict. Big (6-3, 245), fast and absolutely dominating physically, he brought a Ray Lewis-like attitude to the middle of the defense and set the tone every week. When you have a big slugger in the heart of your defense, the trickle-down to the other players can be pretty powerful in terms of confidence and swagger.
That said, there might be no other player in the conference who will strike fear in the opposition more than #7. He absolutely lives on the edge, as evidenced by a slew of personal foul penalties he racked up last year, but that is part of what makes him an intimidator. Check out the video (but be warned, you may want to turn down the audio, especially if you are at work. The song playing over the video is hardly safe for work…or women and children for that matter…..)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ImQMetgViU&w=425&h=344]Gulp!
TOP THREE POST-SPRING QUESTIONS
1) QB….OR NOT QB!?!? Is that even a question? The QB’s are a major restoration project, no doubt about it. And after a “meh” spring from the position, it doesn’t look like there is a legit leader in the clubhouse right now. It could be Steven Threet, last seen starting for Michigan back in ’08. Threet looks the part, with great size at 6-5, 237, and he has the most starts of any of the QB candidates, with eight back in ’08. And Threet is used to change, as ASU is now his third BCS school (he originally started out at Georgia Tech).
But while Threet showed some good things in the spring, the job is still wide open. Big Brock Osweiler is right there, as the sophomore to be who had a little taste of playing time last year. But Osweiler is still extremely young and looked overwhelmed at times in ’09. But hey, he did throw the ONLY TD PASS of the spring game(!). So he’s got that going for him. And he’s tall – REALLY tall – at 6-8. But even Samson Szakasky is in the mix, as he threw for 362 yards and four TD’s in ’09 in spot playing time in last year’s QB roulette. Without a doubt, this thing is wide open heading into fall camp.
2) WILL THE DEFENSE BE AS GOOD IN ’10? Hard to say, but you have to believe the foundation is in place to at least approach last year’s excellence. While the secondary looks thin, cornerback Omar Bolden returns from a knee injury suffered last year. Bolden had a strong couple of seasons prior to last year’s medical redshirt year, so he will be welcomed back to the secondary where his experience is needed. But the biggest boost overall is going to be what they get out of the defensive front. With all that experience back, and as talented a pair of defensive tackles in the conference in Lawrence Guy and Saia Falahola, they should get that strong push up the field. And hey, having excellent play up front is the ultimate trickle-down for any defense. When you have a line that can occupy the opponent’s O-line, you can imagine that the linebackers led by Burfict are going to be free to cause havoc and do their thing. While they may not lead the conference all the way around like they did last year in the key categories, the ASU D will at least be in the vicinity of what they accomplished last year.
3) AND THE SCHEDULE? Maybe not the most difficult of all in the conference, but probably the toughest road slate in the Pac-10. They have to go to Wisconsin, Oregon State, UW, CAL, and SC! And to top it all off, the end of the year rivalry game is at Arizona. Phil Steele has them as the 29th toughest schedule in the nation, so it won’t be easy. And looking at those road games, can you see where ASU will be a favorite in any of them? I know it’s June, and a lot can change between now and then….but they could be road dogs in each of those games. They better take care of business at home if they have any hopes of postseason play in ’10!
WSU FB SEZ DOT-DOT-DOT……Part of what helped ASU get to bowl games for the majority of the last decade was good success at home. ASU went 44-23 at home over the last 10 years. Their worst home marks were last year (3-4) and in 2000 (3-3). ASU went 7-1 at home in ’07, but have now gone just 7-7 at home the last two seasons…..ASU’s linebackers will be fun to watch in ’10. Burfict, of course, should be a huge presence in the conference. And he’s already getting the pre-season love, showing up on the Sporting News first-team All-American preseason team, as well as every preseason All-Pac-10 publication. But he isn’t alone at linebacker. Outside linebackers Shelley Lyons and Brandon McGee changed their numbers to 6 and 8. With Burfict at #7, they are rolling with the 6-7-8 number scheme. The interesting point there is that the three linebackers were all former high school teammates in Corona, CA, and per Ted Miller, formed one of the best linebacking trio’s in California…..While much is made about the losses of starters on both sides of the ball, one area ASU will definitely be strong is special teams. Thomas Weber should be healthy at kicker, the winner of the Lou Groza award in ’07, as he comes back from a groin/hip injury. And Trevor Hankins is back at punter, where he averaged 44.2 yards per punt (36.2 net), with 21 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. If the offense gets off to a slow start with the new QB’s and starters and schemes and such, having a healthy Weber could be a big boost to at least putting some points on the board……The biggest concern on offense, aside from the inexperienced QB’s, the thin running back situation and the inexperienced, inconsistent wide receivers, has to be the offensive line. Even though they didn’t play all that well last year, they lose three starters up front, led by 2nd team All-Pac 10 selection Shawn Lauvao. Overall they return six players who have at least started a game at some point in their careers, but it could be tough early on as the new starters try and gel while learning the new offense….Despite ASU’s record last year of 4-8, and just 2-7 in the Pac-10, they might have been a little bit better than you think. They did have some very close losses last year – as referenced above, 2 points to Cal, three points to Georgia and Arizona, and five points to SC. And even stranger is that ASU slightly outgained their conference opponents by 15 yards per game, even though they went just 2-7 in the Pac-10…..You don’t want to think that Erickson is getting desperate, but, Erickson has now played 21 true frosh in his three seasons at ASU, 18 of which have played in the last two years! You know that some of that was out of necessity, but it isn’t hard to see a correlation between all the true frosh the last two years, paired with sub-500 records?…..Some of the best ASU spots on the web include AZCentral.com’s ASU blog; Houseofsparky.com, part of the SBNation network; PitchforkNation.com, an ASU sports blog; DevilsDigest.com, part of the Scout.com network; and finally, don’t we pretty much HAVE to mention Tempe12.com??
For prior Spring Fish Wraps on the previous eight WSU opponents for 2010, go here.
All for now. Enjoy your Saturday, and as always, GO COUGS!
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