They should be have their responsibilities adjusted.

This has been a significant for years and once again......in Q3 leading only 10-3, on 3rd and 1 from our 27 Cookus fired (from the 32) out on a WR screen to McClelland who scooped the ball off the ground at the 30 and took it for a 1st down to our 15. They eventually got down to our 1 yard line on 1st and goal but shot themselves in the foot and ended up with a FG.

This is a long standing problem

I'll update this throughout the season as I watch film.

Arizona Western 2017

RB Trevaughn Rodriguez
LB Chris Favoroso

Arizona Western 2018

OL Yasir Durant
WR Steffon McKnight
LB Azur Kamara

Mesa 2017

WR Dionte Sykes (You'll never believe this, but Alabama is watching him very closely)

Pima 2018

DB Dominique Fenstermacher (was at UNLV, is somehow still a freshman on PCC's roster)

In 2015 it was virtually split down the middle, 537 rushing attempts and 533 pass attempts.

What kind of distribution percentage do you predict this year?

At minimum I could see 55% run 45% pass.

Joe Healey examines ASU's FCS opponent in a matchup that is more intriguing than years past when the Sun Devils have met opponents of such caliber

DJ Foster is very probable as a week 1 roster member of the New England Patriots. Devin Lucien was waived but immediately signed to the practice squad. The Patriots then added another receiver to the practice squad to compete with Lucien. Former Dallas Cowboy active roster member... and Pitt Panther... and outspoken Todd Graham critic...

None other than Devin Street.

Think it'll be awkward?

What impressed me the most today was the play-making abilities of Tim White and N'Keal Harry. This WR duo is going to be hard to stop this year as soon as Manny gets more reps and starts throwing the ball down the field. Harry is the real deal. He has great hands and is hard to bring down with just one defender. I also saw break away speed on the TD run/catch he had. I have a feeling he is going to set all sorts of scoring records over the next 3 years.

Love the threat these two will be throughout the season. Light it up fellas.

Please post all questions here by 10 am tomorrow, Monday the 5th.

I will use some of them in the article and the questions will be answered by a Texas Tech insider.

ASU moves the ball quickly Manny Wilkins scored on a 14 yd run.

Drive was 7 plays 44 yards 2:02 seconds

Kick good ASU leads NAU 7-0

Jaime Purvis and I review ASU's 44-13 win over NAU and touch on the upcoming game versus Texas Tech

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This interchangeable QB design for both teams is pretty exciting you don't know what your going to get. Seems effective, obviously these teams strategized with this formula the entire time having certain packages, doubt we could run this but it appears the defenses are always guessing, will the duel threat always run will the pocket passer always pass. May seem like something to ponder but if it wasn't worked on during camp I guess not.

I'm married to a Sun Devil. She's doing what any good mom would do, and indoctrinating her kids at an early age (and also trying to stamp out any Wyoming allegiances from her father's side). Yesterday she took our daughter to the stadium team shop and bought a Hello Kitty ASU shirt.

Should a cat of any kind be on a shirt like this? Seems like an oversight.

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@Joe Healey brought it up in his last SOTD Podcast that his outlook on the season will depend heavily in how we handle Texas Tech. This is obviously going to be a huge challenge for us, one I believe we'll overcome, but there's a likelihood we might not either. So that begs the question....

Would a loss to Texas Tech destroy your hopes for the season? Take the poll!

Link: https://arizonastate.rivals.com/new...cared-asu-sluggish-early-piles-on-points-late

I know some ASU players were cut/ made the roster in the NFL. Wanted to see if anyone knew what happened to a few players and if they were picked up on any practice squads.

Players cut that I know of
Jamil Douglas
Carl Bradford
Berco
Demetrius Cherry
Devin Lucien

This is all I know of besides DJ making the squad for the Patriots. Please add to the list and let me know what team picked them up if any

Mornin Mates...

Today's Topic = You Tell Me

This is going to be real simple today...you tell me if the Devils can be a good football team this season..??

NAU is a good football team but shouldn't an ASU team, in the 5th season of its head coach, be further along in terms of almost everything, when it comes to beating a team that plays at a lower level of football and doesn't have nearly as many scholarship players as ASU..??

Or, am I being way too critical since it was only the opening game of the year..??

I just didn't see much improvement that I had hoped to see from the DL being able to put pressure on the Jacks QB and the secondary gave up a ton of yardage and some big plays as well...

I believe the Jacks blocking schemes had something to do with it since they kept at least 7 players or more in the box to protect their QB but it was still disappointing...

The Jacks were also holding our DL a good portion of the time but I digress...

They also had a long time to prepare for this game and they have a lot of very good players on their team...

Offensively, Manny is certainly athletic and has very good running skills but the NAU defense was able to contain the Devils until the 4th quarter when they were obviously very tired...

Conventional wisdom says that most teams make the most improvement during the season between their first and second games and I'm wondering how much improvement we will see against Texas Tech next weekend...

Will the Red Raiders put up 500 yards passing and 50 or more points against our defense next Sat..??

Obviously, if they do, we are not going to win that game, are we..??

I know this is a work in progress but I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the game last night, even if the final score looked pretty good...

However, I was not disappointed with the way the stadium looked with its fresh lipstick applied after completion of the second phase of construction...

The bathrooms were an upgrade for sure and things just looked neater and newer, which they were and the new football athletic building will be a welcome addition when it comes on line next year and should really help with recruiting...

What was your take on the new stadium look and feel..??

It was also good to see all those students out there cheering for the Sun Devils and, hopefully, the "double inferno" will provide a big home field advantage in future games...

In other PAC games, USC got creamed against Bama after looking to be the Tides equal early in the game...the Bruins lost in OT to TAMU in front of over 100,000 screaming fans, and the Cats were controlled by the BYU Cougars for most of the game before they came alive late to make a game of it...Wazzu was upset by E Wash and the Huskies looked pretty darn good against Rutgers...

So, after just one game should a distress signal go out from the SS Sparky Fork 'Em or is it far too early to conclude much of anything at this point..??

Will the Devils defense be serving a bunch of toast against the Red Raiders next weekend..??

Out of the 12 teams in the PAC where would you put our Devils right now..??

I was optimistic about this season but not as much after seeing the game last night...the parts are there but we have a long ways to go and the PAC is a very tough conference...

I think we will struggle to win 7-8 games which would be a huge disappointment given this is Todd's fifth year as head coach at ASU...

What say you..??

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

Think CTG will want to get plenty of game film where our offense is stretching the field, and think Manny ends up hitting "a few" deep TD's this game. Cam and White should have some fun.

Manny = Player of the game. After a big performance tonight the questions shift
from: "can he do it"
to: when/if he'll shave the beard.

Looking forward to a great night.

Article from a few days ago after a pretty successful NFL debut for the former ASU player

The second play of the game for our defense was a nightmare memory of previous seasons.....over- thinking the defensive coaching. All 4 DL were standing up and moving to another position when the ball was snapped. Pathetic. I did not see ANY team all day looking like this. Not Cal Davis, not App State on Thurs, not any FCS team

TTU is going to be LICKING THEIR CHOPS seeing Ball split out wide covering a WR in man coverage!!! (when he is eligible to play in the 2nd half)

OL having trouble getting a push against NAU in 1st half and much of the 2nd half

AU beat NAU 77-10 least season

Manny pulling it down and running on 3rd and 6 at our 7 for no gain when it appeared there was plenty of room to work himself free to find a receiver down field

Elijah Marks from Desert Edge able to work Gump over easily and repeatedly (he also had his way with Orr and Echols)

Perry looked fine against FCS comp (Gump/Orr /Echols/Adams were all abused repeatedly)

Epps/Kohl whiffing on the blocks on a screen for Cam Smith

Manny turning the wrong direction to hand off to White on a fly sweep and having to eat it

Kohl lined up in the backfield and going right as Robertson crashed down to double team the DT and the DE was left free as Kohl decided to let him go by and instead take the advancing CB and the DE, untouched, nails Ballage for a 3 yard loss (OL will take blame by many but.....)

Is it smart to try to field Haack's "knuckleball" punts or just let them bounce the wrong direction?

White came up on a punt to field it 12 yards (more than once) from where he originally was standing....a ball that Gump would have let bound for at least an additional 15 yards last season. Please keep White there all season

Chandler was playing on special teams and a little as DB at end of game

Kohl wide open on a corner route at their 9 and Wilkins under zero pressure threw a floater well past his reach

Hudson with a nice block on Ralston's TD

Tim White was a step away from a number of TDs

Next to last play of 1st half Wicker was tacked by the RT thus preventing a sack and no call

On 3rd and 8 and under no pressure Manny again tucked and ran and got a very generous spot for a 1st down

Norvell meeting with the O each time they came off the field while Lindsey was in the booth

NAU returning a kickoff from 3 yards deep in the endzone to the 20 yard line....NAU (please kick the ball out of the end zone Zane...even though it would have been placed at the 25)

Kyle Williams playing DB with 2 min left, got a tackle (#10), Alex Lasoya also listed as having participated. So Cabral/Williams/Harry/Robinson of the true frosh played and Lasoya(So), Crump/Chandler/Rhodes/McCollum(he and McClure were in together)

Turnover margin minus 2

Our only sack was when Tyler Whiley ran Cookus out of bounds for a 3 yard loss and held up and didn't pop him (our only coverage sack as well....nearly our only good coverage)

Wilkins was sacked 3 times (now the same as CTG's 54 game average at ASU) for 22 yards lost

What if the ball is snapped over the punter's head or he muffs it temporarily? Nothing, he just picks it up and has plenty of time to punt it because our rushers are taught to stop advancing (fortunately their punter choked and booted it on the ground but it hit our man and they retrieved it). Then the next time they had a bad snap, we did have Tautalatasi continue towards him when he put his knee on the ground. I understnd the difference between playing for the block and playing for the return but when 1 guy has beaten the blockers and is 12 yards behind the line, how much is he going to add to the blcoking on that return...and that's what he did, he pulled up instead of attacking the punter...like Das did later in the game...and headed back to block

I believe that was a TD for NAU to end the half. I watched it 30 times. His foot never touched out of bounds until after the ball had crossed the plane in bounds. His body was out of bounds but his arm and the ball were in bounds and his feet had not touched when the ball crossed the plane. (Orr trying to make an INT with his chest didn't work our so well).

Ballage/Richard combined for 33 rushing yards on 12 carries in 1st half

Adams whiffing on a kill shot on Kendyl Taylor's 7 yard pickup

Orr lining up offside on our 13 in pass coverage?!?!?! and getting a penalty....that they waived due to a 12 yard pickup

Their center moved the ball to break the plane of the goal line and we were called for being offsides, which is impossible not to be offsides....but fortunately they shot themselves in the foot for the 10th time and had a delay of game on the next play

Is there an accurate roster with player numbers for Williams (10), Gump (8), Chandler (16), Robinson(6), Corey Smith (55), Guignard??

73 plays 46 rush/27 pass 63%/37%

Walkon John was the LS while Cabral was the Xtra point tackle (and also played the last series) John did well except for the one bad snap on the punt that Haack tried to run

their kicker with a world class mullet kicking off to the 25 in various fashions (squib/pooch/line drive)

N'Keal Harry and Jalen Harvey proving they are 10 times the blocker that Epps is

Manny stood and watched 300 pounder come directly up the middle at walking speed and did nothing to avoid the sack while Ballage was wide open in the flat. Deer looking into headlights

Cabral playing on the Xtra point team but not long snapping?!?!?!?

Why is that only ASU's jersey numbers get scrunched up and stick together so that they are illegible?

TEs zero receptions, RBs 4, WRs 16 (plus N'Keal's lateral by 1'). Of those 16 how many were downfield? 2?

Ball celebrating his hit on a defenseless player helmet to chin...before being ejected and getting penalized 15 yards. I love enthusiasm and I love me some hard hits but....

Gump trailing his man by 2 plus steps as the NAU QB misses the wide open receiver in the middle of the field at our 5 yard line. (I charted every single pass play by NAU and anyone that believes we showed ANY improvement since West Virginia is relying heavily on the fact that we only rushed 4 on most and were very vanilla.

4-4 in redzone and 3-4 TDs

Sure looks like CTG is making defensive calls from the sideline and looks like a coordinator huddling with them rather than paying attention to the offense This really scares me. PLEASE CONFIRM THAT I AM WRONG

Gump again doing 360's repeatedly in coverage. Totally out of his league facing FCS receivers (after the one nice play in the 1st play of the game when the receiver decided not to leave the ground and high point it for an otherwise easy reception.

White with another dropped pass, something he had an issue with last season (obviously it's worth dealing with a drop every game to have the ball in his hands)

N'Keal Harry fighting for every yard and blocking well, solidifying his starting role (well before the 34 yard TD run on the lateral)

Gonzalez with his career long FG of 53 and the 45 yarder (and 8 of 9 kickoffs were touchbacks and 9th went 3 yards deep). He was awesome!!!!!!! Haack was below average and needs to pick it up immediately. Can't have that bad snap to Haack next week. Retruns by White were excellent. Overall special teams very special but can improve

NAU, NAU with 270 passing yards after Q3 and 370 at end of the game even though they mercifully ran nearly every play on their last 2 drives. Looks like we are headed back to the cellar on pass D

Adams whiffing on easy tackle 2 yards deep in backfield on Taylor (who instead picked up 4 before Calhoun got him)

Orr giving a cushion like he was going 1 on 1 vs JuJu the whole game. Down and distance typically determines the cushion but with Orr it did not...it was huge every down

Medoza with nice open field tackle on WR and a few others

Crump lined up at ILB and blitzing and nailing Taylor for 2 yard TFL. THis was with 3 down linemen and Crump line up next to Calhoun 3 yards deep....so that may be called a Devil but it looked like an ILB

Harry's TD was a lateral (by 1')and a rushing TD

I FEEL MUCH BETTER NOW. BRING ON TTU!!!!!!!

Story by Eric Smith with player quotes

Courtesy of ASU Media Relations

Sunday NCAA Stats/Trends
Team Rankings
3rd Down Conversion Pct. — 16th nationally/3rd Pac-12 at .571
4th Down Conversion Pct. Defense — 1st nationally/1st Pac-12 at .000
Completion Percentage — 17th nationally/3rd Pac-12 at .741
First Downs Offense — 24th nationally/5th Pac-12 at 27
Kickoff Returns — 20th nationally/4th Pac-12 at 28.00
Punt Return Defense — 11th nationally/1st Pac-12 at 0.00
Red Zone Offense — 1st nationally/1st Pac-12 at 1.000
Red Zone Defense — 34th nationally/2nd Pac-12 at .667
Rushing Defense — 15th nationally/1st Pac-12 at 56.0
Rushing Offense — 22nd nationally/1st Pac-12 at 276
Scoring Defense — 31st nationally/3rd Pac-12 at 13.0
Team Tackles For Loss — 15th nationally/1st Pac-12 at 10.0
Individual Rankings
All Purpose — Tim White 16th nationally/4th Pac-12 at 195.00
Combined Kick Returns — Tim White 15th nationally/4th Pac-12 at 100
Completion Percentage — Manny Wilkins 13th nationally/3rd Pac-12 at .741
Field Goal Percentage — Zane Gonzalez 1st nationally/1st Pac-12 at 1.000
Field Goals Per Game — Zane Gonzalez 6th nationally/1st Pac-12 at 3.00
Forced Fumbles — Chad Adams 4th nationally/1st Pac-12 at 1.00
Kickoff Returns — Tim White 14th nationally/3rd Pac-12 at 28.5
Punt Returns — Tim White 13th nationally/3rd Pac-12 at 14.3
Receptions Per Game — Tim White 11th nationally/3rd Pac-12 at 9.0
Rush Yards Per Carry — Manny Wilkins 44th nationally/5th Pac-12 at 6.36
Scoring — Zane Gonzalez 27th nationally/4th Pac-12 at 12.0
Solo Tackles — D.J. Calhoun 35th nationally/8th Pac-12 at 7.0
Tackles For Loss — Renell Wren 39th nationally/5th Pac-12 at 2.0
Total Offense — Manny Wilkins 38th nationally/8th Pac-12 at 269.0
NAU Postgame Notes
Opening Hits

• ASU improved to 75-27-2 all-time on Opening Day, while moving to 57-15-1 all-time when playing opening day at home. On that note the victory marks Arizona State’s 18th straight victory in a home opener, accounting for the third-longest active streak among all FBS schools behind Florida and Illinois.
• Saturday night’s victory marks ASU’s 15th consecutive Opening Day win when the game is hosted at Sun Devil Stadium.
• The Sun Devils captured their 10th consecutive victory over NAU, improving to 22-14-1 all-time against the Lumberjacks.
• Arizona State moved to 27-0-1 since 1939 against teams currently competing in the Big Sky Conference.
• Under the Tutelage of Todd Graham, the Sun Devils are now 22-6 in games played at Sun Devil Stadium and 10-3 against non-conference opponents.

Protect This House

• In 27 regular season home games under Todd Graham, the Sun Devils have averaged 42.4 points per game.
• The Sun Devils improved to 279-101-3 all-time at Sun Devil Stadium since 1958, accounting for the 25th highest winning percentage in a stadium among all FBS schools.

Getting Started on the Right Foot

• The Sun Devils are now 23-2 under head coach Todd Graham when holding opponents scoreless in the first quarter.
• The Maroon and Gold have outscored their opposition 480-256 in the first quarter under Todd Graham.

Seal the Deal

• Outscoring NAU 24-7 in the fourth quarter, ASU has now outscored opponents 561-430 in the final quarter of play under Coach Graham.

Don’t Cross That Line

• The Sun Devil defensive unit forced 16 negative or no-yardage plays against the Lumberjacks, accumulating a sack and 10 tackles for loss.
• Under Graham, ASU has forced 1,404 plays that have not resulted in positive yardage out of 3,894 total plays (36.1 percent).

Explosive Plays

• Manny Wilkins – 13-yard-run
• Manny Wilkins – 28-yard-run
• Manny Wilkins – 13-yard-run
• Manny Wilkins – 15-yard-run
• N’Keal Harry – 20-yard-reception
• N’Keal Harry – 34-yard-run
• Kalen Ballage – 15-yard-reception
• Kalen Ballage -- 30-yard-run
• Tim White – 17-yard-reception
• Tim White – 20-yard-recpetion
• Demario Richard – 17-yard-run

Running Back by Committee

• Five Sun Devils including Demario Richard, Kalen Ballage, Manny Wilkins, N’Keal Harry and Nick Ralston recorded rushing scores for the Maroon and Gold, marking the first time the Sun Devils have recorded five or more rushing touchdowns in a game since Sep. 6, 2014.
• The dynamic running back duo of Richard and Ballage combined for a pair of rushing scores for the fourth time in their careers.

Strike First

• Courtesy of an opening seven-play, 44-yard drive culminating in a Manny Wilkins 13-yard rushing touchdown, the Sun Devils have scored first in 37 of 64 games under coach Graham.
• The Sun Devils are now 12-3 when scoring first dating back to 2014, and 29-8 all-time.

Strike Fast

• With five of ASU’s eight scoring drives coming in three minutes or less on Saturday, ASU now has 223 scoring drives clocking in under the three-minute mark in the Todd Graham era out of 310 (.723).

Take a Long Drive

• The Sun Devils logged two scoring drives over 85 yards on Saturday evening (85 and 89 yards) after having just three such drives in the entirety of the 2015 seasons.

In-Zane-in the Membrane

• Recording his 74th, 75th (career-long 53) and 76th respective career made field goals, Zane Gonzalez moved to 17th all-time on the NCAA Career field goal list.
• Gonzalez’s 53-yard make marked the longest by a Sun Devil kicker since Thomas Weber 53-yard field goal on Dec. 2, 2010.
• The senior kicker scored at least one point in each of the 40 games he has played at ASU, and is currently just five games off Luis Zendejas’s ASU school record of 45.

Who’s the New Guy?

• Three true freshman garnered playing time on the evening including N’Keal Harry, Kyle Williams and Robbie Robinson.
• N’Keal Harry became just the ninth true freshman to earn a start in their opening contest accumulating 31 yards receiving on four receptions while also rushing for a 31-yard score.

There’s a First for Everything

• Manny Wilkins logged his first career touchdown rush to open the scoring on Saturday evening.
• N’Keal Harry and Nick Ralston also notched the first scoring rushes of their careers.
• Zane Gonzalez kicked a 50+ yard field goal for the first time in his career, striking true on a 53-yarder in the third quarter.
• Renell Wren recording four tackles on the day, including the first two tackles for loss of his career.
• Tyler Whiley saw his first significant action on defense, logging the first three tackles of his career and the only sack of the game for the Devils.

The White Place at the Right Time

• Tim White led all players with 195 all-purpose yards, finishing with a team-leading 95 receiving yards along with 43 yards on punt returns and 57 on kickoff returns. It was the eighth game of his career with over 100 all-purpose yards and third in his last four games dating back to last season.

So sick of them timing their field entrance as the home team comes out. Are they the only team that does this? Mora is such a douche.