“They don’t only look for good players; they look for good people too. I thought it was a cool outlook on that. That made me feel a lot more wanted." ASU's home visit has only deepened Rustin Young's affinity towards the Sun Devils

According to a report in the Daily Star this morning by Ellie Wolfe "the universities must scrap the way they now handle their budgets and institute a centralized process intended to prevent overspending by colleges, units and programs"...

The only school mentioned by the ABOR was Arizona although the new rules will apply to both ASU and NAU, as well...

A companion opinion piece in the newspaper by a Tucson City Council member (Steve Kozachik) followed that was entitled "U of Arizona cuts should start at the top"...

He has 32 years of experience working within the AU athletic dept under four different athletic directors and five school presidents and says that the financial problems didn't exist at the school until Robbins/Heeke arrived at the school...

He points out that the bloodletting at the school will probably involve lower level people instead of those responsible for the mess at the top, like the president and his executive staff...

For one of the first things Robbins did was upgrade his sky-box suite at the football stadium to the tune of $1.7M and when Jedd Fisch was hired another $1.4M went to upgrading his office and locker room facilities, that included a barber shop for the players...

The Cats also spent millions upgrading the baseball facility at Hi Corbett field and provided "golden parachutes" to two former football coaches that totaled another $13M...

These expenses were financed by a loan to the athletic dept by the school that totaled $87M that has never been paid back thus far...

Kozachik went on to talk about how it used to be that the university knew who it was in the athletic world since it didn't have, nor would ever have, the resources that programs like Michigan, Alabama and Ohio State would have but that went out the window when the new school leadership was put in place...

And, we all know that ASU does not have those sort of athletic resources either but does that mean that you just have to accept mediocrity as your fate in a P-4 conference like the Big 12..??

I think that president Robbins should be held accountable but I'm also thankful that he was able to convince president Crow that staying in the PAC would be a huge mistake...

Robbins also knows that athletics are the front porch to a university's visibility to most of the outside world and that programs like Michigan, Bama and Ohio St don't have problems because they win in the revenue producing sports, especially football...

There should be accountability but does that have to mean athletic mediocrity for our Arizona schools..??

What do you all think..??

Go Devils!!!

I have enjoyed reading this guy
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Anybody else see that Chip was the primary rusher for Ohio state in the game vs Michigan. Wow!

New Rivals250: https://n.rivals.com/prospect_rankings/rivals250/2025

Top 10 risers: https://n.rivals.com/news/rivals-rankings-week-ten-biggest-risers-in-the-rivals250-14

Position by position breakdown: https://n.rivals.com/news/tuesdays-with-gorney-new-2025-rivals250-released-2

Visitors that have been giving out strong enough of vibes to make ASU believe that they could commit:

6-0 220 Sophomore LB Jordan Crook Arkansas transfer who prepped at Duncanville (Tex.) where ASU WR's coach Ra'Shaad Samples father is the head coach

6-4 265 Freshman DL JP Deeter Purdue transfer

6-3 275 Junior DE Justin Woodtly Cincinnati transfer

6-1 193 Sophmore DB Latterance Welch LSU transfer

6-4 245 Sophomore TE Cameron Harpole SDSU

6-0 169 Redshirt Freshman DB Javan Robinson, Washington State transfer, was coached by ASU DC Brian Ward

6-7 320 Sophomore OL Ethan Boyd Michigan State transfer

6-5 320 Sophomore OL Kevin Wigenton II Michigan State transfer

Mornin Mates...

Today's Topic = Upon Further Review

Well, it's been a year since ASU hired Dilly to be our new football coach, who is now in the process of corralling his second HS and portal transfer recruiting class...

I guess I was so relieved that we had a bright, new, young coach to succeed Herm Edwards at our school that I let my optimism get away from me...

As a result of this tension release, I really overestimated what Dilly could do once he got to ASU last year...

I guess I thought he could wave a magical wand at what he inherited, that wasn't much from the Herminator, and produce a winning team almost immediately...

I mean, once he got Rashada in our QB room, along with the former starting QB from Notre Dame who had gone 8-2 there, it seemed that anything was possible looking forward to the 2023 season...

Add to that the fact that we had eight home games really had me pretty darn optimistic...

But, as we all now know things did not turn out like I had envisioned before the season started, sadly...

There were injuries galore, a bad coaching hire or two rearing their ugly heads, and the QB situation was fluid throughout the season due to all sorts of things...

The QB situation became so desperate that we ended up, toward the end of the season, playing our fourth string QB, as well as a TE and RB playing the position, too...

As as result, Dilly and his staff had to go to a "little league playbook" to devise plays for our offense to run since not enough was there to run an offense the usual college level way...

And, as a result of all these shortcomings, I have been forced to sober-up related to my over-optimistic outlook regarding what Dilly can or cannot do as our new football coach...

I have been pleased that we have a new OC and new DL coach, which is a step in the right direction, for me and most others here, if I'm not mistaken...

I'm also pleased with what seems to be happening along the portal and HS recruiting fronts, as we don't seem to be looking at FCS and G-5 leftovers as much...

And, the Sun Angel Collective seems to be high functioning and able to raise NIL funds that are needed now to help entice players to become Sun Devils!!!

This has made me hopeful that next season might be an improvement over what we saw in our last year in the PAC...

I think we will still be a year or two away from upper Big 12 "competitive traction" but if Dilly and his staff find a way to win a couple more games this next year, that would show signs of progress, IMHO...

It took Jedd Fisch three years and one bonanza recruiting class, along the way, to elevate the Cats program and I'm hopeful that Dilly can do the same at our school...

Speaking of the Cats, Greg Hansen, in his Daily Star Sunday Notebook today, took president Robbins to task over some of the comments he made regarding sports at AU...

He wonders why there might be some layoffs in the Cats athletic dept when the Cats athletic dept only has 276 full-time employees compared to ASU's 341 full-time employees in its athletic dept...

He also wonders why ticket prices for football and basketball have to be raised by 25% when mid-level seats in McKale cost a premium of anywhere from $5K to $75K over five years...

Or, how the premium seats in their football stadium that already pay a premium of $4K a year (rounded off figure) are going to be increased by 25%...

He additionally wonders what the 16 members of the Cats athletic dept fundraising corps is going to have to do within this environment as there is only so much money to go around, one would think...

Perhaps, down here in So Arizona, sports dollars grow on trees, especially when your BB team is ranked #1 in the country and your football team just won 9 games, with a bowl game left to go against Oklahoma, whose QB just went to Oregon rather than play in the bowl game...

On a related note, I wonder what all those full-time Sun Devil athletic dept employees are doing with their time since we don't have an elite BB program or winning football program at the moment, like the Cats...

My guess is that there is a whole lot of brainstorming going on about how to create even more brainstorming meetings to justify their existence within our athletic dept...

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand, I'm cautiously optimistic about what Dilly and his staff are doing these days but not enough to think that we will have enough wins this next season to earn a bowl bid in our first Big 12 football season...

That's my Upon Further Review take this fine December morning in the desert...

Just my two cents, as always...

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

Won't be surprised if Isaiah Johnson is not there the first day of camp, and even if he is I have my doubts if he will be in the two-deep at corner.

Tweet said something to the effect of that despite doing everything right he still gets screwed over.

Something tells me that there's a whole other side to that story.

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“I sat down with Coach Arroyo and Coach Dillingham, and they put a lot of time into it, dissecting my game and showing me their philosophy. Nobody else has shown me what they have.”

Good evening Huddle members,

Last contest in this three-game homestand and another challenging matchup for the Sun Devils

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Addresses an immediate need for ASU. Crook prepped at Duncanville (Tex.) High School whose head coach Reginald Samples is the father of ASU WR's coach Rashaad Samples

Yet another example of a massively successful recruiting visit weekend in Tempe

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Any news on whether Adam Miller will get a waiver to play this year? I figure with practices starting, the news has to come soon, right?

ASDE

Per his IG page 6-3 245 SDSU transfer tight end Cameron Harpole commits to Sun Devils during his official visit. 6-6 wingspan and a true threat in the passing game

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. “That’s why I committed. I ain’t gonna lie to you; I wasn’t considering anyone else based on the fact that they (ASU) treated me like a priority from day one.”

Good evening Huddle members,

Tip-off is at 8:40 and the link below tells you how to watch/listen to the game

Oregon? USC? Michigan? Georgia? What do I hey spend a year on players? Then what about the next tier? Nebraska? Washington? Penn State? Anyone have any ideas?

Wow, great sign by Lanning to get a solid QB for 2024.......curious what T Thompson will do now that he pretty much has No Shot @ being a starting QB......Thompson was highly rated but must not be developing as needed for Lanning to have full confidence in him

This item got lost in the mix tonight with the two commits and was posted under another thread, so just wanted to bring it to the forefront.

We said that some players over winter break could sit down with their families, express to each other how much they miss each other being out of state, etc., and next thing you know, they're in the portal. That's what happened with Williams.

Williams, a former Auburn commit, definitely had some potential and especially with BJ Green gone, may have had a chance to find himself in the two-deep depending on how good of additions ASU brought in this year. If you recall his Zachary (La.) High School teammate and fellow defensive lineman, Landen Thomas, was also a freshman at ASU this past season, was the reason Williams came to ASU. Hopefully, Thomas doesn't decide to follow the same path.

So if Elijah O'Neal and Gharin Stansbury can take that next step and be formidable backups to starters Clayton Smith and Prince Dorbah and O'Neal, then AS is set at this role, and any portal addition they bring in could be an added bonus. But again, bummer to have Williams leave ASU and so soon because his best football is certainly ahead of him.



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On paper, the first road test for ASU, a contest at the University of San Diego, should not have been daunting at all. Nonetheless, a game where the Sun Devils lead for over 30 minutes turned into a nightmare that saw a four-game winning streak come to a screeching halt. Here are our takeaways from the Sun Devils 89-84 loss.