Mornin Mates...

Today's Topic = Big-12 vs PAC

That's a topic Greg Hansen takes on in his sports column in the Daily Star this morning...

He points out the just before the Cats game with K-State on Friday night in Manhattan, KS, 100 Harley Davidson motorcycles entered the stadium to reeve up the already boisterous crowd before the game as they circled the the field with their engines firing loudly as only a Harley can do...

He then contrasts that with how often PAC stadiums are only half-full before games while K-State has sell-out crowds all of the time being treated to a Big-12 rowdy type crowds that are now part of their teams identities...

Even teams like USC and UCLA, in the LA area, populated by millions upon millions of people, don't typically have large crowds unless the Trojans are playing a team like Notre Dame while the Big-12 teams average 93% capacity for their home games...

Those teams have left for the Big-10 but I wonder how many fans will show up for games against the likes of Rutgers and Maryland, etc...

How many fans did ASU have against either Wyoming or MIss St..??

And, how many will they have when they return home in a couple of weeks to play Kansas..??

We know there won't be any Harley's circling the field beforehand, although crowds at other Sun Devil road games will be viewed by large, boisterous crowds for the most part...

So, when we face K-State later in the season, on the road, we will face not only a talented and well coached football team but a capacity, going bonkers crowd in their stadium, too...

And, the same will be true next Saturday when we visit Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX, that has a stadium capacity of 60K+...

The Red Raiders put on an event before each game called Raiders Gate that has 10,000 students doing a tailgate party outside the stadium beginning four hours before each game, where they can party hardy and meet and interact with players and coaches before the game and it's free...

Maybe, it will be a brunch sort of deal before the ASU game on Saturday, since it's not a night game, but you can bet the fans will be plenty amped up before the game...

Getting back to the Cats for a moment, Hansen also pointed out that the team, that lost badly to K-State, was missing at least 10 key members of last seasons 10 win year Wildcat team...

Which made me think how many "key" members of the Sun Devil team last year we have really missed this season...

Off hand, I'm not sure that we lost any players that haven't been replaced successfully by Dilly and his staff this season but will defer to what some of you think regarding that point...

If so, who are we missing that we wish we had back this season..??

There might be a few but probably not like anything approaching more than a handful, if that, right..??

On another note, Wyoming and Miss St lost badly last night that calls into question the quality of the first two Sun Devil wins, right, or does it..??

Additionally, are the Devils as good as a team like Toledo from the MAC that demolished Miss St in Mississippi yesterday..??

And, how many teams in the Big-12 are as good as the Toledo Rockets that we will be facing in the Big-12 for the rest of the season..??

But, one thing is for sure, the Big-12 crowds will be large and boisterous, unlike what was seen, oftentimes, in the PAC, right..??

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

Let's all wish @BigESunDevil a happy birthday! @Hod Rabino I'm sure has a few good words he'd like say here too. Hod?

Big 12 games this weekend include

* Ok St @ home v Arkansas, both 1-0......Razorbacks having their way @ halftime, 21-7.......Ok St coming off 44-20 W over S Dakota St
* K State @ Tulane, both 1-0, W K State W over TEnn Martin..........GREEN Wave up 20-10 @ half, somewhat intriguing but Tulane has stumbled onto the FB scene last couple yrs
* Cincy@ home over Pitt, Cincy coming off 38-20 over Towson l weekend........17-6 Cincy @ half
* Baylor @ Utes coming up, both 1-0
* iowa st @ iowa, both 1-0
* Albany @ W Virginia, WV 0-1 losing to P state
* S houston @ C Florida, CF 1-0
* Kansas @ Illini, both 1-0
* buffs @ Nebraska, 1-0,
* HOuston @ Okie
*L Island @ TCU
* NAU @ tucson tech
* Red Raiders @ Wazzzzu
* Cowbells of Miss ST @ Sun Devil Mt America Stadium!

think we learned we are better last wk, just not sure how much better........but think we will learn much more this wk about where we stand as a team, and in the big 12........and a handful of good games that will show maybe who did well in the portal, and others not as well

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Wk 1 Big 12 update
* Utah - 49-0 over S Utah.....par for the course, Utes dominate these games
* Kansas - 48-3 over lindenwood.......pretty sure I would take Gr Canyon club fb team to make a closer game than lindenwood
* C Florida - 57-3 over N Hampshire..........drawing no conclusions on any outcomes from a NHamp fb squad
* TCU - rallies to beat Furd, 34-27......decent W @ worst on the road...and yes, Furd has struggled last couple yrs but still decent W
* W Virg - lost to P State, 34-12 @ W Virg.......decent showing against highly ranked team
* Okie St 44-20 over South Dak State.......yes the same SD State that hammered pretty much everybody last yr, no idea what they have returning this yr
* K State 41-6 over U Tenn Martin..........drawing no conclusions, but did what they were suppose to do
* Tucson tech 61-39 over a pretty bad N Mex team.........who is coached by Bronco Mendenhall, solid coach, but as we all know N Mex is a very tough place to win..........watched bits and pieces, McMillan is going to be listed on All american team at some level
* Cincinnati 38-20 over Towson.........is Towson an all girls school???
* Iowa St 21-3 over my Beloved Fightin Sioux.......
* Baylor 45-3 over Tarleton.......will save my breath
* Houston loses to UNLV 27-7 @ houston........Not a good sign, regardless of whether unlv is any good'
* Tx tech over Mighty Abilene Christian, 52-51.......must have been a doozy
* BYU over S illinois 41-3

Back to MIss St game....E Kentucky 5-6 a yr ago, got hammered by Cincy L yr but played Kentucky tough .........they had one of worst DEF's @ FCS Level.....lost most of their OFF firepower from 2023.....E Kentucky only had 1 turnover yesterday and still got hammered......MIss St outgained them 450-300.......averaged 6 yards per rush, no turnovers.......Devil D provided Shapen's #'s above, solid 5th yr QB.........Miss St was 5-11 on 3rd down, 2-3 on 4th

Hard to draw conclusions on games vs E Kentucky types, but certainly think Miss St will have better athletes than Wyoming...........expecting tough game

The win over Texas State, which marked the first time since 2019 that ASU boasted a 3-0 start, was a matchup where several first-year players for the Sun Devils played significant roles in the victory. Here's the rundown:

As legendary boxer Mike Tyson once said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” And trailing by two touchdowns on the road late in the second quarter, ASU's game plan against Texas State was hardly going as planned. But unlike many of Mike Tyson’s opponents, the Sun Devils picked themselves off the mat and, for the second game in a row, proved their resiliency trait to edge the Bobcats 31 to 28. There may still be plenty to fix from a pure football performance perspective, but this team's resolve appears to be quite intact.

ASU has been credited with just 10 missed tackles on defense, ranking as the 10th-fewest in the country this season.

Here is the link to the full game notes

PLAYOFFS?

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I gotta believe this is what Marcus Arroyo had in mind for the program at UNLV when he was HC four years ago.
Marcus I feel is managing our offense with consistency in good play calls. I am glad he is on our coaching staff.
Also I feel he must have had some positive impact at UNLV and to a certain degree the success UNLV is having
now. Back in 2021 we thrashed UNLV 37-10. I was at the game in Tempe and we gashed then for 306 rushing
yards led by Jayden Daniels 129, Rashad White 94, and Daniyel Ngata 65.

Hello gang, #BEEF.

Channel 205 sportsmix channel has the ESPN/ESPN2/SEC NETWORK games showing. Just hover your blue highlight box over the game you want volume like the old NFL ticket gridmix.

Happy football watching to all, and, again. #BEEF #TALLBEEF #POLYBEEF

And yes a 2025 beefy addition should be announcing today or tomorrow

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I apologize if this has been covered before but there was an interesting article in the paper down here this morning related to Sun Devil hockey...

ASU just got a commitment from Braxton Whitehead (forward), making him the first Canadian Hockey League player to attempt to play college hockey, after a lawsuit was filed against the NCAA that banned players from Canada it deems to be professionals...

ASU cannot comment about the case since it involves an on-going "class action" lawsuit that wants Canadian hockey leagues to be able to have players play at the college level that is contrary to how the NCAA designates Canadian league players as professionals...

So far, the NCAA has not responded to the lawsuit but, as we all know, the NCAA doesn't have a great record of winning cases like this...

I would imagine that he is pretty good and has played a lot of hockey so far in Canada but not sure if he would be considered an elite type player since I don't follow hockey all that much...

But, it is an interesting development...Go Devils!!!

The latest here:

He had a sack than I don't remember hearing from him again

Phewww....what a game and what a night!

Some of you I'm friends with on Facebook and other social media, but for those who aren't let me tell you a bit about my experiences in San Marcos.

The parking situation sucked. I got an email that the alumni were getting together in Lot 5 and that we paid at the gate. There was no pre-purchase required. Got there and the lot was "full" (even though it was half empty). This forced us to go find parking which in San Marcos is not that easy. Ended up having to park in front of a little Mexican Restaurant. Wanted to tailgate, but we were parked next to its nasty smelling dumpster. I shotgunned a few beers and then made the trek to the stadium.

Once we got in, we managed to sneak into a special area for Bobcat fans where they served nachos and drinks. I don't think we were allowed in there but somehow my wife managed to get us in. (She's still got it) I only saw one other ASU fan in there. Despite that, the fans were SUPER cool towards us. We would talk football, how far the Texas State program has come, and expectations of the game. Most of them were cautiously optimistic and stated they would consider hanging with a power-5 program (especially one that handled an SEC team the week before) to be a major victory for where they're at.


(that's me with the Arizona flag and my wife with the ASU flag)

Made it to our seats. I have to say I'm not sure what they were thinking with the placement of the student section. We were right behind them. Also they were right behind our bench. (@Hod Rabino thought that wasn't allowed). Being so close to the students they'd taunt us, curse at us, and so on so forth. Of course being an old Pac-12 pro, they were tame compared to the student sections of yore. (Something I made sure to remind them all about) At one point a student chucked a beer into our section. This prompted both San Marcos and New Braunfels PD to come into our section and watch the students like a hawk. I had fun taunting those little punks. One such moment lead to my three seconds of fame on national TV:


(this moment came just as we tied up the score and I started taunting the students with the Arizona flag)

Got a chance to meet freshman running back Jason Brown's family. They were really cool people! In addition to complimenting his dad on the massive pythons that dude was sporting, I told them how excited I was to see Jason in the future. I told them how impressed that he was waiting in the wings (trying to preemptively put to rest any thought of the transfer portal...just in case) and used the story of how I went to work for one of the largest plaintiffs firms in the country starting at the bottom and working my way into multi-million dollar litigation.


(me with the Brown family, Jason Sr right behind me)

After half-time, my wife (along with my two brother-in-laws) deserted me to go up to her boss's suite after the second play. My wife is the CFO for Casey Development here in San Antonio. Her boss is a Texas State alumnus and their athletic department's building is named after the dude! On the way up to the suite, I ran into Texas State's coach who won back to back division II national titles back in 81 and 82. I shook his hand and told him how impressed I was with everything they put together and hoped they could maybe join us in the Big-XII some day.

As for the suite, it was awesome but of course anyone knows I'm the "ASU Fanatic" and "theoriginalsundevil4life" so my wife stated "you need to be on your best behavior." I told her I would...


(my face's reaction as I said that)

I did actually behave myself....mostly. Couldn't resist these opportunities.



After the end of the game (or what I thought was the end...didn't see the craziness of them putting one second back on the clock) I made my way out and ran into these two cool guys including none other than the guy who just lifted the road curse, Mr. @Joe Healey:


The cherry on top of the great evening was getting the honor to meet the GOAT himself, Zane Gonzalez:


(I have to admit, I was very much a fanboy around him, but he was honored I think that I was)

It was a great evening!! When we host Texas State next year, I kindly ask all Sun Devils to show them the same hospitality they showed us. I was very impressed with their program and look forward to their success in the FBS.

I, for one, am enjoying an early weekend to sit back and relax a bit on the porch today and just savor a Thursday WIN (one advantage to being retired)! The only thing to make this the BEST possible day, would be to enjoy watching LOSS by u4 tonite! GO SUN DEVILS!

Siriusxm channel 84.....Off Campus Show with EJ Manuel & Bobby Carpenter just spent several minutes discussing last nites game. They had very good things to say about ASU and particularly Sam Leavitt. Also, EJ said that Cam Skattebo is the "ultimate meat head".....the highest praise possible!! Wow....that was enjoyable to listen to!!

1) Gutsy win for the guys. Never take a win for granted so we will enjoy this one. Or at least I will.

2) As much as we want to be, we aren't Ron Dayne's Wisconsin running game. It worked against MSU, but, tonight's offense really felt like a square peg in a round hole. Dilly kept trying to run the ball against 8 and even 9 men in the box and we were behind the chains all night. If TSU is going to blitz their LBs all night then fill the middle of the field with passes.

3) Special teams was bad but not horrible.

4) I liked how SL played tonight.

5) Simmons was an absolute beast tonight.

6) I'm a big fan of Dillingham. I like how hard he coaches.

7) the Big 12 has some nice matchups this week. Big 12 teams are favored in all of our non conference games this weekend. How about a sweep?

Welcome to a rare Thursday road game

I would like to take my son to his first ASU football on Oct 5 against Kansas, but whether we can go or not would depend on when it could start. Are there any leads on when that game could start, or when we would know for sure?

Thanks!