The 2021 South race may be shaping as an ASU-USC duel, but will the roster additions in Salt Lake City genuinely insert Utah into that conversation? UteNation.com Publisher Alex Markham offers his post-spring perspective on the Utes., the team ASU fans love to hate

“I know a lot of schools that say they’re going to use the tight ends but It was fun to see (the Sun Devils) put their words to actions.” TE prospect Kaden Helms saw in-person ASU tight end Jalin Conyers score twice in Sunday's spring game. That makes the content of his conversations with ASU's tight end coach Adam Breneman and the overall relationship more genuine

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It's 6-2 Devils over Rhode Island in bottom of 4th...Go Devils!!!

Word of the day is HOPE.
Teams hope to get better.
Players hope to be drafted... early.
Fans hope this is their year.
Love that many kids dreams & hard work is rewarded.
Today, this is the goal of every ASU FB Player.
We are blessed to have CHE leading our Kids & Program!
Good Luck Fellas, and remember, Forks Up... Always! O2V!
😇😇 😇

Take it for what it's worth, but Bart Torvik's analytic-based website (barttorvik.com), currently has ASU ranked no. 46 in his preseason rankings for 2021-22.

Of course, it's still early, and the rosters are bound to change in the coming months, but I mention this because Hod has previously stated (multiple times) that Hurley has reloaded the Sun Devils with some quality talent. And this metric-based website supports that claim.

Some of these new additions may not be household names, but they are talented nonetheless, are have proven track records -- albeit at other schools.

Will the Sun Devils actually perform like a top-50 team next season? Well, that remains to be seen. Of course, ASU's staff will have their work cut out for them -- trying to get so many new players to jell with one another. However, the talent is at least there.

For those of you interested, this is a pretty cool resource, which allows you to play with the rosters -- adding & subtracting recruits and transfers to the existing roster to see how that would effect the analytics, etc. >>> Click here

She chose UCLA over UC Berkeley. Sigh...

Actually getting accepted to the top public university in the world (UCLA edged out UCB now) isn't too bad on a parent.

The oldest grandson just graduated from the USAF Academy and received his orders.

The HS senior won the National Merit Scholarship for Mississippi last evening. Is in the running for the National Final.

His younger brother , Senior next year might be even more intelligent, they drive each other and razz each other over test scores.

Their youngest while only in second grade sounds like 15 year old already.

It's all amazing and so wonderful seeing what parents can do..... these are all good youngsters, kind, humble and respectful of others young or elderly.

Seems the great kids we seldom hear about.

A couple of ASU prospects listed here

Well, today Michigan State offered Boise State QB commit Katin Houser, and needless to say that Zak Hill is familiar with him from his days with the Broncos. Sure, you got the angle that Hill is less than two years removed from the Boise State staff, and potentially going after one of their top commits is burning a bridge, but ASU has (and I believe will) take off their gloves here.


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This follows the departure of former associate head coach Angie Nelp who took the head coaching job at Tulsa:

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Duffy's commitment today got me thinking...

How many of these "Ones That Got Away" situations (i.e., an expected/highly probable commit that went another direction or a decommit) actually panned out to be as big of a deal as it felt at the time?

I mentioned Pete Thomas and T.J. Millweard in a different thread. Taylor Kelly ran circles around their college careers. Even as painful as the memory of Dobbs is, he played from 2013-16 at Tennessee. ASU was fine at QB from 2013-15 and I'm not sure a senior QB would have made much more out of that 2016 season. Darrel Williams is in the NFL, but I'm not positive he would have brought much more to the table than Ballage or Richard (and they were in the same class).

Darreus Rogers? Nick Rowland? Kody Innes? Cyrus Hobbi? Cordell Broadus?

Hell, the OGs of this stuff remember the likes of DeMarcus Granger and Chijioke Onyenegecha.

I'm just spit-balling off the top of my head with these names and I'm sure I'm leaving several out -- including ones who panned out to be very good players -- but it just seems like more cases than not, things end up OK.

Another Sun Devil Hockey alum has turned pro.

Former Arizona State defenseman and captain Brinson Pasichnuk made his San Jose Sharks debut Wednesday night, becoming the first Sun Devil defenseman in program history to play in the National Hockey League.

Story: https://arizonastate.rivals.com/new...-debut-first-asu-defenseman-to-compete-in-nhl

We can't even beat the Rats..
Much win the PAC12 Golf Title

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Agree more on Mathews than I do on Duffy here. On Duffy by the way, he is seemingly locked into visiting Michigan State on the 24th (not the 17th) and will only make a decision after that date. Still see ASU in the lead.

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As I watch ASU play I keep scratching my head trying to understand how we can lose back to back games to Utah and BYU. I actually like how our roster is constructed. So, I've decided to start diving into the numbers to try and find where we are losing games.

I compared the top 6 teams in the Pac in stolen bases and caught stealing both offensively and defensively.

Wouldn't you know, ASU is the only team in the top 6 that is worse at stealing bases than our opponents when they play us. For a team that is built on small ball and has 2 senior catchers that's not good.

Arizona State made the Top 9 of four-star QB Tayven Jackson last month. Jackson tells me that he plans to take one of his official visits to Arizona State. He has family connections to the state, and his father played in the Pac-12. Jackson talks about some of the other official visits he has set in the article below:

WWYD

Login to view embedded media He just got his release from Tennessee. ASU is one to keep an eye on here but obviously it's still very early.

Over Siena 4-0 today.

This according to the upcoming Arizona Board of Regents meetings taking place on the 10-12th next week

Tracy Smith (“Coach”) is currently serving as Head Coach of the ASU Baseball Team under a multiple-year employment contract, which will expire on June 30, 2021. ASU desires to extend the term of Coach’s contract for an additional two years and make certain other changes.

Monin Mates...

Today's Topic = The Point

The point, at the Wildcats scrimmage yesterday, down here in Tucson, wasn't whether Rob Gronkowski could catch a football dropped by a hovering helicopter 620 feet above the ground, but, rather, whether the song and dance light show put on by new coach - Jedd Fisch - at the scrimmage, would actually translate into anything significant in terms of wins this next season at AU...

As another honorary coach at the scrimmage - Tedy Bruschi - said following the show..."some of the experience I have and some of the things I can see (from the new coach) can help the football program BUT...you can have the plans...you can have the excitement, but there comes a point... (when you need to have the talent with which to succeed)"...

Greg Hansen interjects, that at this juncture in Jedd's beginning tenure at AU, that the coach better be finding a break-out pass rusher or a game changing QB or a very disruptive linebacker, etc, if he wants to succeed...

Obviously, this is not just true for the new Cats coach but for just about every other wannabe program in college football including our Sun Devils, right..??

Maybe we haven't hit the depths of despair like our natural enemy down here in the hinterlands but we haven't exactly been setting the world on fire with our football program, either...

Sure, we rebranded our icon from Sparky to The Fork, a decade or so ago, but that really hasn't translated into big time winning, championship football, either, has it..??

We all know that Talent Is Destiny but so is the way you choose to play the game that we've seen at ASU under Herm...

Namely, play not to lose, keep the game within reach entering the fourth quarter, to win at the very end style, rather than play to win, by clubbing your opponent senseless the entire game, like we did against the Cats last season...

The question for us this fine day in the Spring is whether we have the talent and coaching with which to do just that in the PAC, starting this next football season...

What do you think about that..??

Moving onto basketball...what does all the apparent turmoil and subsequent turnover in the program mean..??

Who was more disgruntled at the end of the season..??

Was it Bobby or the players that ended up transferring or us fans for having to watch such a once promising season end in such utter disappointment..??

Or, was it something else entirely..??

There has been a complete turnover of the roster and coaching staff but what will that mean moving forward..??

On another front, we're approaching May with our baseball team hanging in there despite obstacles but will they be able to maintain it enough to make the playoffs..??

I give the coach and the team credit for hanging in there but still wonder, hypothetically, if this had been our football program, would RA stood by TS after his third and fourth seasons, when in terms of football, the Devils would have only won 2-3-4 games each season...

That's a pretty interesting and provocative hypothetical question, is it not..??

And, if there is anything to it, what does that say between the importance of our football program compared to our baseball program..??

Is it just about the money or something else..??

Well, onto the NFL draft this coming Thursday, where a bunch of talented QBs will be taken with the Top 10 first round picks, it looks like...

And, looking forward to next year, will the Devils have any "edge pass-rusher(s), game changing QB(s) or disruptive linebacker(s) or other position players taken in the NFL draft...??

Here's hoping the Devils can sweep the Utes later today in SLC...

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!