One of the biggest frustrations voiced by the "average joe" fans is that they don't feel like their concerns or ideas are heard by the department. The department is focused on athletes, coaches, administrators, and large donors, but doesn't really care about the masses. If ASU wants to make these fans feel heard, they should create a "Fanbudsman" position.

This position would be similar to an "Ombudsman" position that many companies and governmental agencies have implemented, but will focus on hearing fans' concerns instead of employee/whistleblower concerns. This would be a paid, full time position whose only responsibilities is to listen to fans and communicate what they learn/hear to the athletic department. There should be no donor responsibilities. The only game day responsibilities should involve walking around to tailgates, shaking hands at entrances, and generally interacting and getting to know everyday fans.

This position could design and deploy fan surveys and other information/data gathering efforts. They should have open office hours where fans can stop in to discuss ASU Athletics and express concerns/ideas. They should also be included in important department meetings as the everyday fans' representative to make sure the "average joes" have a voice in important decisions. They should report directly to the AD and be valued as upper management.

This is a relatively low cost way to make the majority of fans feel more heard and connected to the department.

Thoughts?

Major conference schools take 5M out TV money and give it the players or as they say student athletes. College sports is starting to blow. We need some sanity.

UA joined the conference in 1978.

Never a solo conference champion (shared it with three teams in the PAC10).

Never a Rose Bowl berth.

Lost over half of their conference games since 1978.

UA football in the PAC was, objectively speaking, a complete failure.

(Oh yeah, and their school has a $240,000,000 budget shortfall)

Happy Sunday. Go Devils.

Unfortunately we dropped to #20 in the pairwise. That disaster of a road trip to Miami is hurting us, as is the fact that a lot of the teams we've beaten are having bad seasons.

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First and foremost - Rashada will be interesting. That one is tough to tell. Fairly confident CKD can get a QB regardless. Devin Brown will probably leave Ohio St.

Have to imagine Badger, Conyers, Tevin White, Pyne if he’s a graduate, BJ Green?

I mean there could be an onslaught. As mentioned previous my mind is focused on those that can’t transfer. Season is luckily over, but certainly CKD is going to have to earn every cent of his very large check over the next couple months.

@Hod Rabino can you confirm the window. Important dates.

The past two seasons are over and done with. No more blaming herm and RA, and they deserved ALL of the blame for these two seasons. Now it's on KD and the new AD to figure out how to make this all work and they have to get Crow on board 100%.

What will KD do starting tomorrow? Which coaches will be asked to leave and, hopefully, replaced with ones who are connected in CA? Which players will be asked to leave in order to make room for better ones? Which players may hit the portal? And how will KD convince the small group of mega-donors to give MORE money to the NIL when ASU has basically bled them dry and treated them like crap doing it?

KD has his work cut out for him, BUT I like the offensive innovation since he took over as OC. I like that we "won" the second half against a team that didn't call off the dogs and was clearly better than us. But that goodwill and praising little victories ends today. Next year can't be about Herm Edwards and the mistakes they made. Next year can't be about how bad RA was. This is KD's team and his second recruiting class. The team, although it mostly is now, will be almost entirely made up by players he's bringing in.

I hope he will do some house cleaning so he can right the ship. It's all up to him now.

Today's game will be on PAC-12 Arizona instead of the ASU stream!

For those of you who have the network and haven't watched a game today would be a great way to take one in. I would assume, but don't know for sure, that this will be more of a professional broadcast rather than student run. Providence is a tough team and this will be a dog fight, but ASU is going for the SWEEP!

TBH...Although the schedule has been a little light in the pants, I'm still pretty darn impressed. All the matches have been on the road as well.

This roster was absolutely gutted and I expected a mess. I'm a "Coaching Matters" guy, but it's hard for Volleyball coaching to matter THAT much. It is largely about the roster and effort and chemistry. To get chemistry and timing down on a turned over roster is impressive.

Personally haven't seen them play, but JJ Van Neil must have them playing well. Picked up tickets for their Conference opener against UofA next Thursday. At Mullett...Which is interesting. Didn't think they would able to utilize Mullett much. But they have a handful of matches there. I watched BYU vs Utah last night in Provo. BYU had their 5500 seat Fieldhouse packed to the rafters. Quite the environment. Would be nice to have that at Mullett. The Bank is just too big.

We don't have many successful programs to support in RayLand...Get out there and support the ladies when you can. It's cheap and entertaining.

Signed

Your Resident Volleyball Honk

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A one-sided win by its in state rival capped off a trying season in Tempe. It was a contest that revealed all the shortcomings that have plagued ASU all year as they head into an offseason where it will need to address several positions

Mourning Mates...yep, we are all in a grief stricken way this morning if I don't miss my guess...

Today's Topic = I honestly don't know what to think

About another 3-9 football season and whether Dilly will be able to get us back to any sort of "competitive traction" in my remaining life span...

I'm thankful for Greg Hansen's Sunday Notebook in the Daily Star this morning that includes this article...

ASU's New AD Inherits Anderson's Problems...

"For the past 40 years, ASU has hired a series of clunkers as AD: Dick Tamburo, Charles Harris, Lisa Love, Steve Patterson and now Ray Anderson"...

Under Anderson, ASU has gone 39-45 in PAC football and 81-85 in PAC basketball, (the two revenue producing sports for the Sun Devils)...

Most ADs are judged on their ability to field strong football and basketball programs and not on what happens in other sports that no one cares much about...

And, with Anderson, he failed to do so, as Herm Edwards was a "bust" and Bobby Hurley can't get out of the middle tier of the PAC...

Not only that, but IMHO, the most grievous definer of Ray Anderson's tenure at ASU is the way he personally has "alienated" so many of our fan base with his words over the years...

And, now, its up to president Crow to hire a new AD and how many here have any confidence that he won't pick another "clunker" like he did with both Lisa and Ray...

Will he hire someone that actually knows what they are doing when it comes to our revenue producing sports and someone who isn't afraid to come in and clean house, while they try to elevate the Sun Devil sports that most of us care about the most...

Should our football coach actually have to be our football fundraiser by educating our boosters about the portal and NIL realities..??

Crow, IMHO, needs to get over his cluttered mind filled with all sorts of ideological claptrap that has us lingering in the trash heap of college athletics...

If he had his way, we'd still be in the PAC with both Wazzu and Oregon St that just lost their fine coach to Michigan St...

While Robbins now has his two revenue generating sports hitting on all cylinders, while we languish in our own personal hell...

Now, let's turn to Dilly and his program...

I could make a case for giving him a passing or a failing grade based on his first season at ASU, depending on whether I emphasize the mess he inherited from the Herminator or whether, despite all that, he could'a and should'a done better...

In either case, it doesn't much matter now, does it..??

What matters is that he improves both his staff and football roster moving forward, right..??

Talent Is Destiny, as it applies to both his staff and roster and, presently, we don't have enough talent in those two areas to compete at a high enough level in college football...

Additionally, it would be nice if our president could find an AD who isn't just another "clunker" but an elevator that could rally the Valley behind our key sports for a change...

Is that asking too much of our president..??

Stay tuned...

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

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The ASU job at this time is a heavy lift and it requires a lot of strategic thinking and a ton of hard work. ASU was horrifically prepared for the NIL world and are playing big time catch up. The AD needs some restructuring this point and we don't even have an athletic director. The job of funding raising is now almost exclusively on the football coach in addition to all the other responsibilities. Fund raising should have been Ray Andersen's main job but I am not sure he did much of anything. On top of this you have to recruit players to fit your system and keep existing players with a NIL program at the bottom end of the Pac 12 and Big 12. It can and will be done but for people to jump ship after this season is stupid in my opinion. I like the fact that Kenny is all in, is a very smart guy, wants to be here and is working his tail off. On a challenge with so many varabile and moving pieces the best one can do is move forward and adjust on the fly as new information arises. That what he is doing. You have to be in it and involved because you don't know what you don't know if looking from the outside. Support the team anyway you can. Let's all relax and enjoy the ride. We will get there. Kenny is right guy.

On Jaden Rashada's 20th birthday (nearly 2 full years older than his HS classmates) he went 18-31, 58%, 236 yds, 7.6 ypa, 2 TDs, 0 INTs (he also ran 3 times for 2 yds including the sack but not including the 2 victory formations to end the game)

11 of his 18 completions (61%) were behind the LOS (VERY high percentage throws) and another 4 were completed within 5 yds beyond the LOS

1st half 12-16, 75%, 182 yds, 11.4 ypa, 2 TDs, 0 INTs


INCOMPLETIONS:

1st HALF

1)Q1/Series 2--inc to Brooks behind the LOS when the play was read by the defender who coulda made an INT or even a pick 6 as Rashada threw it well in front of Brooks
2)Q1/Series 2--inc to Conyers over the middle 10 yds downfield. Nice D and perhaps a little early with contact but the defender was half Conyers' size and no call
3)Q2/Series 3--inc to Guillory who was well covered and falling to the ground as the ball sailed over him
4)Q2/Series 4--inc to Skatt wide open in the flat thrown well behind him with no pressure or need to hurry the throw (and then the very next play is a 47 yd TD pass)

2nd HALF

5)Q3/Series 6 (1st series of 2nd half)-inc to Pierre, thrown behind him on a 5yd out for a near Pic-6
6)Q3/Series 7--thrown away 20 yards over the head of Sanders the closest receiver
7)Q3/Series 8--thrown low to a wide open Guillory on a 3 yard out
8)Q4/Series 8--inc to an open Pierre downfield on a crossing pattern, who oddly ducked the ball that almost hit him in the helmet
9)Q4/Series --inc to a wide open Pierre down the sideline at the 7 with no pressure thrown to the wrong side and too high
10)Q4/Series 9--inc to a blanketed Omeire down the middle who may have been interfered with
11)Q4/Series 10--inc to a wide open Guillory 7 yards behind everyone and the ball is thrown with too much air allowing everyone to catch up and out of bounds
12)Q4/Series 10--inc to to Badger who had a step down the sideline but thrown too far and over wrong shoulder
13)Q4/Series 10--inc to to a blanketed Badger down the sideline (holding on Fautanu declined by SUU)

ASU will likely be leading the Pac at the end of the weekend with 9 penalties for 100 yards

2 on Defense
3 on "Special" Teams
4 on Offense

1)Q1/Series 3--targeting the QB on Clayton Smith (BJ Green had on FAR more flagrant later in the game and was not called).He was ejected.
2)Q2/Series 6 (1st play fo 2nd half)--holding on Glass negating 7 yd run by Rashada
3)Q3/DEFENSIVE Series 6 (1st defensive series of 2nd half)--BJ Green took a swing and slightly connected with the helmet of an OL well after the play for a personal foul
4)Q3/Series 9--holding on Glass negates Skatt's 6 yd TD and moves ball back to 16 that ultimately results in a FG and the 2 most pathetic flops in ASU history by Longhetto in his 7th year out of HS
5)Q3/Series 9--holding on Sanders negates completion to Guillory behind the LOS that went for 2 yds
6)Q4/Series 9--holding on Swinson that negates 28 yd FG ultimately resulting in a 38 yard FG and the pathetic flops
7)Q4/DEFENSIVE series 9--holding on Dee Ford on the FC on the punt return moving the ball from the 22 to the 12.
8)Q4/Series 11--Dee Ford interferes with the punt returner fair catching the ball moving it from the 25 to the 40
9)Q4/Series 12--Illegal Procedure (5 men in the backfield) negates Skatt's 4 yd run

Nick Borgia and I discuss the shortcomings that affected ASU in their loss to Arizona, and we talk about the direction of the program following a challenging 2023 season

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Several newcomers made some key plays, especially in the second half, for the Sun Devils, albeit in a losing effort to their in-state rival. Here's the rundown of that group of players' performance

Good for him. Nice example of hard work paying off.

If there was somehow a way we could poach their OC/run game coordinator ... Maybe he doesn't care for winters in Lansing? Wishful thinking, I know.

Get running and GO DEVILS!!!

"In the direction we’re going, I have 1,000% confidence that the ball’s bouncing up, not down." Progress is not easily evident in a three-win season, but Kenny Dillingham knows that the painful lessons learned this year will pay future dividends

“We didn’t come out on top, and that’s all that matters. It sucks.” The outcome of the Territorial Cup game wasn’t unexpected, but the way it was achieved came in a one-sided manner little could have foreseen.

Here we go, last ever Pac-12 game for ASU

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