Was gonna redshirt anyway, but still unfortunate

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The list of elite coaches who struggled for their first two years - before striking it big in Year 3 - is compelling when looking at Dillingham and others:

Very cool for Duke legend and ASU head coach Bobby Hurley. Even an exhibition game will be a good test for this talented Sun Devil team.

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“We have to give mix ups to the defenses we face. Every back runs differently, so you do want to mix up the type of runner you put back there." ASU's running game has taken a step back in the last two games, and expanding the participation of players in that unit can address this issue

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@Joe Healey & I kick off the show with a look at the latest news before diving into review of ASU’s loss to Texas Tech. We then talk with the newest Sun Devil commit, 2026 4-star QB Jake Fette (8:34). We’re then joined by Forkcast host Ralph Amsden (32:50) for an in-depth discussion of what we’ve learned through the season’s first four games...and what questions have arisen.

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ASU comes in at #20.

Also add in we're playing (OOC):
#7 Michigan
#13 at Providence
and then, either
#9 Cornell or #14 UMass in the Desert Classic.

SOS will not be an issue going forward!

A bye week Tuesday’s practice gave the younger players a bigger stage to perform, as the session was focused more on live-action play and improving the minor details

remember this prospect?

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Cheers Brother - Wish we could have got a Dub yesterday in your honor @Joe Healey

The rest of the schedule is that weekend. Avoided the 8pm kickoff that UA got (or at least looks like that)

(All times ET)

Friday 10/4/24

Houston at TCU, 7:30 pm ET on ESPN



Saturday 10/5/24

West Virginia at Oklahoma State, 4:00 pm ET on ESPN 2

Baylor at Iowa State, 7:30 pm ET on FOX

UCF at Florida, 7:45 pm ET on SEC Network

Kansas at Arizona State, 8:00 pm ET on ESPN 2

Texas Tech at Arizona, 11:00 pm ET on FOX

We tracked the performances of ASU's first-year players in the 30-22 loss to Texas Tech. Here's the rundown:

“Right now, we're not completely in sync like we were in weeks one and two.” The last two road games for ASU offered a sharp contrast in their ground attack performance compared to the first two home games and cost them dearly in the loss at Texas Tech

Here is some NIL information taken from a report by Opendorse, an NIL platform that follows the NIL world in college athletics...located in Lincoln, Neb...

Overall Projected NIL Spending for 2024-25...

College Football: $1.1 B...Basketball: $389 M...Women's BB: $75 M...Other Sports: $134 M

NIL Collective Budgets for Power Four Conferences: $13.9 M per team....Group of Five: $3.4 M per team

Football Position NIL Earnings for top 25 starters in each group in P-4 conferences...

QB = $820K

WR = $610K

OL = $550K

Dl = $470K

LB = $440K

DB = $410K

RB = $340K

TE = $410K

Specialist = $60K

Total = $10,5M per team

Basketball is just as eye-opening per position in P-4 conferences...

So, as of now, top college athletes make 35.3% of what pros make in the same sports...

As sports and entertainment Phoenix based attorney (who represents a bunch of college coaches) - Gregg Clifton - says "recruiting is all about the money now as the first question asked by potential transfers is..WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO PAY ME ?" (my paraphrasing)

I got this info from an article in yesterday's Daily Star by Bruce Pascoe entitled "In NIL game Cats staying competitive"...

For instance, according to the article Cats star QB Noah Fifita is making $1.2M, while star WR TMac is making $929K and star BB player - guard Caleb Love is making $812K per On3 as source...

It's a long read but very interesting in its analysis and makes you/me wonder about what is happening in big time college sports these days...

I hope that our current ASU athletic administration has some answers to this MONEYBALL phenomenon since we don't appear to have the types of resources with which to compete with the big boys of the college sports world these days...

Oh well, it is what it is, right..??

Go Devils!!!

Morning Mates...

Today's Topic = No Margin For Error

In my estimation, we have too many liabilities on both sides of the ball, from a player standpoint, for us to overcome stupid and sloppily played football...

And, we may have a coach or two that are liabilities as well, if you ask me...

Talent is destiny and if you have enough of it, you have a built in "margin for error" that allows a team to overcome mistakes during a game...

Unfortunately, our Sun Devils do not have such a luxury with this team...

There is no "margin for error" as we still have too many players, IMHO, that would be better suited in a place like the Big Sky conference or thereabouts than playing in the Big-12...

Hopefully, Dilly and his staff will better address those deficiencies through recruiting in the future, and play some promising young players now, rather than worrying about red-shirting them, if they're up to the task at hand...

As far as coaching is concerned, Dilly reminds me of some people I've known in managerial positions that wow you with their thoughts, about this or that, only to find out as time passes, that their actions don't produce as much as you expected or hoped for, along the way...

He obviously knows a lot about football, far more than I ever will, but he loses credibility to me when his team plays like they did against Tech...

We couldn't even get the opening kick-off right and it went downhill from there, in the first quarter, as our play was plagued by one miscue after another, mental or otherwise, that led to a quick 14 point deficit...

Thankfully, the Red Raiders did what they could to help our cause throughout the game by committing one penalty after another, although I don't think they had any "taunting" penalties...

Personally, as a fan, I have nothing but contempt for any ASU player that does those sorts of stupid things in a game...

Leavitt had decent passing stats, completing 22 of 38 attempts for 282 yards but no TD passes, as he, once again, overthrew some open receivers down field and was late and inaccurate on some other throws, etc...

Skattebo caught 117 yards of those passes which, along with his 60 yards of rushing, accounted for almost half of our total offensive production during the game...

We were also 0-3 on fourth down conversions which showed as much about our OL woes as it did anything else, IMHO...

And, just for good measure, we kept trying to do the same thing over and over again without much, if any, success...

The only "silver lining" I had after the game was that it happened in the afternoon, so I didn't have to suffer through the misery late into the night...

Speaking of misery, I'm glad I'm not either a Baylor or K-State fan this morning as the Bears gifted a last second win to Prime Time and the Mildcats were soundly wiped by BYU...

I'm glad we have a BYE week, as it might help with some injured players getting better, but after the loss to Tech, I think we are going to be very hard pressed to win enough games to go bowling...

For we just don't have nearly enough of a "margin for error" to get over our current talent deficiencies, poor coaching decisions, and just plain stupid football...

Okay, Dilly and staff, show me what you got moving forward...

There isn't much you can do about talent deficiencies but there are some things, I would think, you can do about not playing stupid football on your watch...

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

Missed throws, missed catches, oline not getting down field on run blocking and the defense still giving way too much cushion. In spite of it all, that's what cost us the game rather than Tech actually beating us.

The past ASU teams would have gone down 21-0 and probably 24-0 before getting a fg. Tech was gifted a fg at the end of the 1st half with a PI call that even the announcers thought was phantom. We did not fold but never found a way to get more energy and to execute cleanly. As a reminder, whatever passing shortcomings Sam has/is working through, Sims passing is even more atrocious.

Skat is much improved but he is not an every down/every game back. If we don't have another rb who can alternate downs or series, we will become one dimensional. If your rs freshman qb isn't clicking, then it will be a sloppy game as it was yesterday. Another thing that is bothersome for me is our wrs lack of laying out for the ball and Jake Smith stopping his route only to have to jump to catch a ball that would have been in stride (yes he should have slowed down not stop his route) for a TD. If you want to bemoan Sam's accuracy, you need to also acknowledge the wrs weaknesses and downright lack of mental intelligence. Hines has some serious work to do and I hope this game film helps him get to it.

Was it frustrating, yes. Was it concerning, somewhat. Is the sky falling, nope. Are we improved, yes. Do we look like ASU of the last 20 years, yes we do. Go 3-0 and then have your 1st conference game on the road and lose. After the last 3 or 4 years, it's nice to be 3-1 and it was nice to see an ASU team keep fighting after quickly going down 14-0.

The 1st year OC is night and day better than last year. The talent, especially at rb and wr, is not up to the standard of our P4 status but our rb does give us a punchers chance, which kudos to Skat for his improvement.

Perspective needs to be maintained and ideas of zero to hero type of turnaround, should be considered nonsensical. We are learning how to win again and the next step is learning how to bring your own emotion, energy and passion. Keep building through the adversity and reassess the big picture at the end of the season. We were never title contenders this year so treating each game as a vacuum isn't correct in my estimation but assessing the entire season when it's over, is. Let's see where we stand at the end.

Why is the pass defense giving up two easy td drives to start the game? Then adjustments are made when it's to late. IMHO this was 80% of ASUs problem vs TT.

The resiliency that defined ASU in recent weeks was replaced by self-inflicting harm in every team facet resulting in the first loss of the year, opening Big 12 play on the wrong note. Here’s our postgame analysis

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"We just couldn’t close out the gap all game, which I think was the frustrating part." On a day when Arizona State was its own worst foe, it suffered its first loss of the season with plenty to ponder during its upcoming bye week

Good afternoon Huddle members,

Justin and I are here in Lubbock, and together with Ryan and Jake we'll bring you all the coverage here and on Twitter

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