Story from today's press conference by Justin Toscano.

Can anybody confirm if we've thrown or completed a single back-shoulder fade pattern this year? With Jaelen Strong that was like our trademark route. Did it die when Mike Norvell left?

So.... after watching last week, seeing the Vegas -10 at home line, and realizing we have a new QB but the same defense, it would be pretty easy to say Bruins covering and then some.

Similar to last week for USC think this might be our "circle the wagons" week. We win this game, we're still totally in the mix. We lose this week, and we battle to string out a few wins to make a bowl game.

If we don't come out fired up with some energy this game, there's something wrong. Suspect we'll get off to a much better start, and we play UCLA to a tight one.

Feels like a 3 point win or loss, and I'm thinking somehow UCLA implodes a bit, and we squeak one out 37-34 --- although sheepishly predicting a nail biter win.

I'd be thrilled to repeat last year's game
I'd love a 3 point win
I could handle a well played 3 point loss -- with a quick grumble or two.
Cannot handle another bare ass spanking, and would turn down the volume.

Big night for Zane Saturday!

A column by Fabian Ardaya

Tickets are gone.

I like our chances of the coaches getting DSC ready to play in one week. Heck, they taught the kids to tackle and take good angles in the week between SC and UCLA. Also taught D backfield to defend passes. In hindsight though, return from injuries might have made the biggest difference. Chandler looked like a huge upgrade.

Game will air on the Pac-12 Network

This website projects us to crack the Top-25 tomorrow

Since Georgia played yesterday due to hurricane Matthew, the AP poll got released this morning.

ASU not in Top 25 and as of now there is nothing reflecting the teams that did receive votes and I'm expecting ASU to be in that group.

Colorado has dropped out of the AP Top 25.

USA Today Coaches' Poll hasn't been released yet.

How serious of an injury are we looking at Hod? I know he left on crutches.

He's done for the year with a right foot injury suffered in his first career start.

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Graham said he fully intends to have Manny Wilkins available on Saturday vs. Colorado, and will have Dillon Sterling-Cole ready. Jack Smith and Coltin Gerhart are working to provide depth.

With 3:50 left in the 4th quarter the Bruins had the ball first and 10 at our 29 yard line. Rosen threw a short pass over the middle to Andrew's that he carried to the 15 yard line. From there they would have been looking at a 32 yard field goal to tie the game. Instead UCLA was called for a 15 yard offensive pass interference play that moved the ball back to the 44 yard line and put them at 1st and 25. Two plays later Rosen was sacked and injured. That left UCLA with 3rd down and 34 and little chance of getting into field goal range.

Therefore I nominate the offensive pass interference play as the biggest play of the game.

What do you think?

Looks like the highest ASU votes are at 21 by Pat Caputo and Adam Zucker:

Does anyone know of a place in Rocky Point that has the Pac 12 network? We're staying at Las Palomas this weekend and the condo has DirecTV and we'd like to watch the game. Preferably near Sandy Beach...

Thanks

I'm not sure about the health of Bryce Perkins, but is he to the point where he would be available even in an emergency situation?

Now 14% above #127 Rice allowing 404 passing ypg. 29% above #126 Charlotte (It appears that we could have a couple of off weeks and still dominate this category in 2016)

Explosive plays--
125th in FBS with 107 plays of 10 yards or more
124th in FBS with 39 plays of 20 yards or more
125th in FBS with 23 plays of 30 yards or more
127th in FBS with 17 plays of 40 yards or more
126th in FBS with 8 plays of 50 yards or more
127th in FBS with 6 plays of 60 yards or more
119th in FBS with 3 plays of 70 yards or more

With 3:50 left in the 4th quarter the Bruins had the ball first and 10 at our 29 yard line. Rosen threw a short pass over the middle to Andrew's that he carried to the 15 yard line. From there they would have been looking at a 32 yard field goal to tie the game. Instead UCLA was called for a 15 yard offensive pass interference play that moved the ball back to the 44 yard line and put them at 1st and 25. Two plays later Rosen was sacked and injured. That left UCLA with 3rd down and 34 and little chance of getting into field goal range.

Therefore I nominate the offensive pass interference play as the biggest play of the game.

What do you think?

Please post them on this thread by 10 am tomorrow (Monday the 10th)

The UCLA game was interesting in that the Bruins rushing attack was as bad as the Sun Devils pass defense, which has to have UCLA fans wondering what is wrong with their Bruins, since the offense is built around a very good QB in Rosen and all-star type RBs based on recruiting star ratings...

Plus, the Bruins have gone from a Noel Mazzone designed up-tempo, spread offense to a more power based offense under new OC Kennedy Polamalu that features the use of Fullbacks and Tight Ends more prominently...

Even though the Bruins still got a ton of yardage in the air their ground game was non-existent and they lost because of that and TOs and some missed FGs...

In short, it was a good match up for the Devils who used Wren in the middle of the D effectively, while moving Smallwood to a DE position...the use of Marcus Ball at safety and Mo Chandler being able to finally play at CB also paid dividends...

Now comes Colorado that has turned the corner from cellar dweller to a contender in the PAC South...they have two good QBs and several big play receivers to go along with a very good RB and lots of experience on both sides of the ball, so they will be very hard to beat, esp with the current ASU QB situation...

Unless something changes dramatically between today and Sat, I think it highly unlikely that the Devils can beat the Buffs by relying on their defense and special teams, while the offense is hindered in what they do because of the QB situation...

Meanwhile, USC travels to AU, where the Trojans will have a lot of trouble beating the Cats, in my opinion, unless they really take care of the ball and just pound the Cats on the ground so they are totally fatigued in the second half...

Oregon St will host Utah and, after beating the Cal Bears in OT, they have to be feeling much better about themselves but I suspect the Utes will end up handling them pretty easily but you never know in the PAC do you..??

UCLA now has to travel to Pullman to take on the Pirate's Cougs, which should be a somewhat interesting match up to begin with, but I think the Cougs will get it rolling at some point and end up winning going away, which will really upset the LA fans even more in Westwood...

Cal, Oregon, and Wash all have bye weekends while poor Stanford has to travel to South Bend to play Notre Dame...it looks like the Ducks will probably be looking for another Chip Kelly type coach following the season and Stanford has really looked pretty bad so far this season, although Shaw is in no danger of being fired at this point...

Hope you all have a good week...Go Devils!!!

1. It was really a great game from a fan stand point the way the crowd got into the game. Standing up and sitting down all night was like a church service for four hours. But the noise the crowd brought was not seen by this old fan in a long time. Love to see Devil House ROCK!

2.. I am convinced that PAC-12 Officials may be using two much Cannabis for their Glaucoma. Not are they blind but, "Excuse me" stupid. Polite but get the call right don't pause with the mike on. For what its worth after the last two weeks I no longer know what pass interference looks like, Is there a difference in the rules giving certain spoiled children and others variance in parameters from ASU, in our conference.

Sorry guys just had to get this out.

In a season that has provided more surprises than sobering realities, I wouldn’t put anything past this 2016 ASU squad to once again defy unflattering predictions.

UCLA at ASU Postgame Thoughts

Mornin Mates and a fine morning it is after beating the Bruins last night...

Today's Topic = Rebuilding the PAC

Jim Mora told reporters before the season started that this Bruins team would be his best since he arrived in Westwood five years ago...isn't this like shades of Todd Graham last year telling anyone who would listen that his 2015 Sun Devil team would be his best at the school to date..??

The Bruins are now 3-3 with a great QB but not much else apparently working much on offense and with a defense that is good but apparently not good enough to beat a Sun Devil team that had its starting QB on the bench due to injury...

The Bruins now have to go to Pullman where the Cougars just dismantled Stanford 42-16 and have their own great QB in Luke Falk and are playing well, after fizzling early in the season against some inferior competition...I had picked the Cougs as my dark horse team to win the PAC and they still may as they are 2-0 in PAC play and have a favorable remaining schedule...

I figure that Falk will throw for about 700 yards against the Sun Devils when the Cougs come to Tempe on 10-22, as our "now you see 'em. now you don't" defense should be easy pickings for Falk and his offense...

For those of you that don't know, our infamous "now you see 'em, now you don't defense" is identified by its ability to turn swing passes and other short passes into 60-70-80 yard touchdowns by opponents, as one tackler after another miss or bounce off the receiver or running back, as he takes a five yard pass and ends up in our end zone 65 yds away a short time later...

And, if we aren't missing tackles, etc, we're blowing assignments in the secondary, where the announcers point it out with a lot of regularity...

However, that isn't where I'm going with my thoughts this morning which is about how Todd fairs against his coaching brethren in the South where he, Rich Rod, Mora and Leach all started at their respective schools five years ago, and where Arizona is a mess, this is not Mora's best team so far in LA, and where Leach managed to lose to Eastern Wash to start the season with, perhaps, his best team to date...

You would think that five years into a programs development that you would have a solid enough foundation in place so that the word "rebuilding" would not be used by teams to describe their progress or lack thereof, to date...

After all, Rich Rod has recruited his kind of guys long enough that the Cats should not be rebuilding at this point, one would think, and that Mora would not be having the problems the Bruins seem to be having these days, given all the recruiting success he's had at UCLA, and that Leach shouldn't be losing to teams like Eastern Wash, and that ASU shouldn't have a "now you see 'em, now you don't defense" these days after developing its program for more than four years...

It even appears that past cellar dweller Colorado may now be ahead of some of these apparently "rebuilding" PAC South teams these days, although the season is still fairly young...

So, where does Todd fit when compared to the other PAC coaches that came on board when he did in the PAC like Mora, Rich Rod and Leach..??

Is he better or about the same as or worse than those coaches..??

On a different note, it would appear that Chris Petersen has already "rebuilt" the Huskies and they look like a legitimate play-off contender, while the Ducks, under Helfrich, now appear to be dead ducks, while the Cardinal, under Shaw, seem to have lost their title contending mojo and seem to be slipping down hill fast...

It sure looks like there is going to be a lot of "rebuilding" almost everywhere around the PAC once the season ends...

What say all of you about this "rebuilding" business in the PAC..??

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

Just got tickets to Saturday's game and was wondering if this was a particular color themed game for the fans or a 'just wear any ASU colors" type of game.

Go Devils!

A few thoughts after I watched the game on tape:

• DB's and safeties really played well all game long. I give the tackling a grade of B and a B grade on the coverage. Saw more DB's in the face of the WR and there were at least 6 tipped or knocked down passes by the DB's or safeties. Gump Hayes played really well and Ball was a tackling machine - although he did miss one crucial tackle that ended up in a long run for a TD.
• Defensive line also was solid. Wrenn and Smallwood really played hard and got good pushes up the middle quit a few times. Krump and Wicker were also were very good off the edge all night long. Krump is so quick and he is a handful for any LT. D-line did not give up any big running plays. I think their longest run might of been 8 yards. -1 rushing yards when you count in the sacks. I also saw 2-3 balls batted down at the line of scrimmage last night. I have been harping on that all year long. Solid A grade overall.
• Offense looked very shaky at times. Even the snaps from center to the QB looked low all night long. Was throwing off Brady's timing because he always had to bend down to get the ball. Not sure what McCollum's issue was with the snapping the ball last night but I have not seen that all year long. The Sparky formation was a little disorganized as well and even handing the ball off to the RB's was a challenge at times. Need to get that cleaned up.
• Why ask Sterling-Cole to throw the ball in that situation???? - You have a field goal locked up and would force UCLA to have to score a TD to win. But Lindsay decided to get brave and not play smart for some reason and asks a rookie QB on his second play to throw a 25 yard touch- pass fade into the end zone. A real dumb move in my opinion. Even if UCLA scores a TD then you just need a FG to win it and I would take my chances of Zane hitting a 50+ to win it. It worked out but that could of cost us the game.
• Mora is in big trouble at UCLA. They were a 10 point favorite and we had our 2nd string QB starting for the first time and they could not win. I think his seat just got very warm.
• 5-1 really looks good right now. I think this is realistically the best start all of us ASU homies could of asked for considering everything leading into this season.