Happy New Year Mates..!!!

Today's Topic = Inferiority Complex

After watching the playoff bowl games yesterday won by Alabama and Clemson you know that they play in a totally different league than what we do as Sun Devils...

Washington played the Crimson Tide pretty tough but still didn't have the horses to beat an NFL B team and Clemson thoroughly outclassed Ohio St that surprised me by how easy they made it look...

The PAC football power center is now located in Seattle and Palo Alto where they play physical football and don't have to rely on finesse to win games...

Even at that, they are a notch or two behind programs like Alabama and Clemson...

So, where does that put us you might ask and I would say that we are almost light years behind those type of programs and I'm not even counting the Trojans in this calculation...

We are also way behind the Huskies and Petersen's "our kind of guys" that he recruits...

However, I do see a glimmer of hope for this coming year especially on offense as Chip Lindsey is a very good OC and we have the makings of a very productive offense, especially if we can find the right trigger man to run the offense...

Defensively, we have no place to go but up which may not be saying much based on the past two years of futility on that side of the ball...

The big question is whether Todd is going to change his defensive philosophy and make some tangible adjustments to improve the defense or whether it will continue to be business as usual as he starts his sixth season at the school...

There just wasn't a whole lot to be happy about concerning ASU athletics last year which makes for a lot of restlessness...

I sure hope we find a better direction this year...are you there Ray Anderson..??

Of course, it's been a state wide affair...the D-backs sucked and the Cardinals have been pretty poor and the Suns aren't going anywhere...

Oh well, it is what it is......sure hope that Todd and his staff get the right kind of guys to elevate our program in the coming weeks...

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

ILB Azeem Victor (3 star recruit) is a 3rd round projection (returning LBs Bartlett, Beavers & Burr-Kirven are good)
ILB Keishawn Bierria (3 star recruit) is probably a late rounder (will probably return despite very good game vs Alabama)
DT Elijah Qualls (4 star recruit) is a 3rd round projection (returning DTs Jaylen Johnson & Greg Gaines are very good)
NT Vita Vea (3 star recruit) is a 2nd round projection
S Budda Baker (4 star recruit) is a 2nd round projection (returning safeties Ezekial Turner, JoJo McIntosh & Taylor Rapp are all very good)
CB Sidney Jones (3 star recruit) is a 1st round projection .....no replacing Jones but they have six 4 stars in Austin Joyner, Isaiah Gilchrist, Byron Murphy, Elijah Molden , Keith Taylor & Salvon Ahmed are ready to try)
WR John Ross (3 star recruit) is a 1st round projection

(different services have different projections)

Obviously these decisions will have a huge impact on their success in 2017. (If they all returned they would have more returning starters than anyone in the Pac)
The injury to Victor may steer him back to Seattle
Bierria should stay for his senior season

Other 2017 NFL draftees include seniors:
Kevin King 3 star CB recruit-3rd round projection
Jake Eldrenkamp 3 OT star recruit-5th round projection
Darrell Daniels 3 star TE recruit-7th round projection
Psalm Wooching 3 star OLB recruit-7th round projection
Joe Mathis 4 star DE recruit-7th round projection

All this is after losing high draft picks Shaq Thompson, Marcus Peters, Bishop Sankey, Danny Sheton, Austin Sefarian-Jenkins & Hau'oli Kikaha to the NFL draft early since Peterson arrived.

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Interesting development here. The former South Florida guard visited St. John's last week (as planned), but apparently did NOT visit Virginia Tech this weekend.

According to numerous reports, he's expected to visit ASU sometime this coming week.

Huge opportunity for the Devils to land a big-time mid-season transfer. McMurray would likely make an instant impact when he becomes eligible...

Let's see if ASU can do the improbable.

On Cal Rivals we have previews for both of today's Cal-ASU basketball games.

Click here for a preview of the men's game (8:00 PM MST).

Click here for a preview of the women's game (3:00 PM MST).

Curious who Sun Devil fans are routing for and why.

Interesting injury report from the citrus bowl today.

http://usat.ly/2iPN79x

Link: https://arizonastate.rivals.com/news/12-new-year-s-resolutions-for-asu-football

50-15-15 has never been done before. This is incredible.

Post your favorite Dennis Erickson era memories below.

I rather enjoyed the first game of his tenure. 31-3 at the half over San Jose State. Starting in November of 2007 is was a fairly brutal run of mediocrity.

He was also the head coach at Wyoming back when my mom was hauling me to classes with her back in 1986. I'm sure I have a picture with him somewhere.

Who was the last great running back to come out of the State of Arizona? It does not appear that there have been too many as of late that have been recruited by ASU. Is there a lack of running back talent here, and if so, why?

Dennis Erickson retired as Utah's RB's coach. Ralph said he actually retired in 2004, I'd argue it was 2008, and we're probably both right.

Bigger news though is former ASU tight ends coach Chip Long, after only one year as Memphis' offensive coordinator (and his first offensive coordinator job anywhere) has been hired as Notre Dame's offensive coordinator. Pressure packed position for sure and probably a major roll of the dice too.

Almost forgot that league play started up this week. ASU just finished off Stanford tonight on the road for a 98-93 win. Stanford is not the Stanford of old but a win anywhere on the road is big.

Here is the link for the coverage page of this event. Game kicks off Jan. 1st at 11AM MT on ESPN

ASU commits/prospects in this game are:

Ryan Kelley
Isaiah Pola-Mao
Todd Harris

Nothing specific here on any of his suitors, but here is his interview with Eric Bossi

With the dead period underway and the mid-year transfer signing period beginning as we speak, let’s take a look at how Arizona State is currently standing with its viable prospects at the various positions and how close are the Sun Devils to fulfilling their remaining needs in this 2017 recruiting class

We expect ASU to sign in the range of 22-23 players, and much like previous classes it’s possible that the 2017 class won’t reach that number until a few months following February’s National Letter of Intent day, as the Sun Devils try and add transfers from other programs.

Therefore, with presently ten total pledges on board, we could very see ASU add no more than ten signees between today and February 1st, 2017 and then survey the market for available transfers.

The approach is no different than last year’s class. ASU won’t fill this 2017 recruiting class with “warm bodies” just to get to 25 signees on NLI day. In order to reach that number of signees it would have to literally hit on each and every high caliber target on its board and the law of averages, if you will, is making that unlikely to happen.

Furthermore, to be able and have a class that’s 25 large ASU would have to have a higher than normal rate of attrition with its current players, another improbable factor in play.

ASU cannot count any mid-year signees back to the 2016 class. Thus, the 2017 class cannot exceed 25 players.

The National Letter of Intent day period for mid-year transfers begins on December 14th, 2016 and runs through January 15th, 2017.

The National Letter of Intent day period for all other prospects is on February 1st, 2017 (aka signing day) and runs through April 15th, 2017.

The commit list can be found here

The recruiting calendar can be found here (the recruiting dead period runs from December 12th through January 11th).

Let’s go position by position and see who is committed, and who are the Sun Devils’ viable prospects:

Quarterback

2017 Class Commits: Ryan Kelley, Blake Barnett (mid-year transfer)

Viable Prospects

None. Since both commits are expected to honor their pledge as well as the fact that ASU has four scholarship signal-callers returning, the Sun Devils will not pursue any other players at this position.

Running Backs

2017 Class Commits: Trelon Smith

Viable Prospects (ASU expected to sign no more than 2 running backs total)

Eno Benjamin – the four-star’s surprise unofficial visit to Tempe this past Saturday (and right before the recruiting dead period begun) is certainly a sign that ASU is in very strong consideration for this prospect. In my opinion, at this point, a commitment to ASU should probably come as no surprise. Benjamin, a high school mid-year transfer, is scheduled to announce at the Army All-American game on January 7th, 2017.

Offensive Line

2017 Class Commits: Corey Stephens

Viable Prospects (ASU expected to sign no more than 3 linemen total)

Austin Jackson – up until a few weeks ago it was believed that ASU was firmly in the lead for the local Phoenix North Canyon standout. Even after a December official visit to the school, however, the battle with USC for Jackson’s services is closer than ever. Since the linemen’s recruitment is very much under the radar and Jackson is one that is known to always keep his cards close to the vest, it’s hard to get a good read on which school may have the upper hand. If he were to officially visit the Trojans next month and delay his decision closer and closer to signing day, this may not go ASU’s way.

George Moore – the Washington State commit seems to like the attention he is getting from ASU, and regardless of any developments in Austin Jackson’s recruitment one can expect the Sun Devils to heavily pursue the junior college offensive tackle and bring him in for a January visit.

Tight Ends

2017 Class Commits: Jared Poplawski

Viable Prospects

None. With four returning players at this position and a 2017 class with more pressing needs at other positions, ASU will not seek out any other prospects at this role.

Wide Receivers

2017 Class Commits: Curtis Hodges

Viable Prospects (ASU expected to sign no more than 2 wide receivers total)

Stephen Guidry - the four-star junior college prospect visited ASU in November, will visit Mississippi State in January, and those two programs are the wide receiver’s announced short list. As we reported last month (and recently reconfirmed) due to more stringiest qualification requirements by the SEC for junior college transfers, it’s seemingly impossible for Guidry to be considered as a viable prospect by any program from that conference. This isn’t to say that you can book this recruit as an ASU pledge, but the Sun Devils are if nothing else in a good position to be successful in their quest to add Guidry to their ranks.


Joseph Lewis – needless to say that the five-star prospect from Los Angeles Hawkins is one of the most coveted prospects on the West Coast. All ASU can ask for is a chance to impress him and they will get that opportunity as he officially visits on January 13th.

Marlon Williams – the USC pledge from Alabama currently doesn’t consider himself a soft commit yet is all but a guarantee to visit Tempe in January. Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey’s relationship with Williams may just result in one the bigger surprises of this class, then again Williams is also scheduled to officially visit the Trojans closer to signing day.

Gavin Holmes – if his fellow Texan and former Iowa commit, Eno Benjamin, committed to ASU, then the Sun Devils can make serious inroads with Holmes. A January visit may take place regardless, but Holmes’ stock has been on a steady rise and there will never be a shortage of suitors seeking out his services.

It's a three year deal, although Brian Kelly may be on his last legs out in South Bend.

I cannot stand Michigan but they use their TE's more than any other team in the NCAA and their use of the TE bailed them out on multiple 3rd and 4th down conversions tonight against Florida State. Just 5-8 yard passes and they turn it up and gain 2-3 more yards before they are tackled. We better be looking at some film of this game and figure out how to integrate our TE's into our offense in 2017.

According to D1 Baseball, ASU pitching coach Brandon Higelin has been fired. Tracy Smith, who is the head coach, will double as the pitching coach for the 2017 season with a nationwide search beginning after the season is over.

Couple thoughts:
1. The timing is really odd with the season a month and a half away.
2. The timing may be weird, but the move makes sense. Even with names like Brett Lilek, Ryan Kellogg and Seth Martinez, ASU has finished in the bottom half of the PAC-12 each of Higgy's last two seasons and nobody has really developed. Even this season, there's no proven arm besides Eder Erives.
3. Having Smith step in for a year as a pitching coach isn't a bad idea. He's done it before in his career, and he's a former Cubs draftee as a pitcher. He has the pedigree.
4. Smith is known for being a great recruiter of talent, but this will be the first big test of whether he will be able to do so with coaching talent. This is the first big move of his tenure. They had the No. 1 recruiting class in the country this past year and have plenty of talented arms. It's just about polishing them into a competent staff that has depth.

I know this question was asked in one of the previous threads, but wanted to state the answer in a new thread so it would be easier to refer to.

Both Barnett and Subtyl are considered transfers, not prospects. Therefore there is no new profile created, and no inclusion on the commitment list.

To have a profile created and listed as a commitment, they would have had to play for a junior college program, and then be evaluated based on the merits of their play and potential coming out of that program.

In other words, if a prospect is to be listed on two different commitment lists in different years, he would have had to play both at the high school and the junior college level, and not merely attending junior college just to complete an AA degree and not playing even one down for that team.

This has been the long-standing policy of Rivals for 15 years concerning their database history of not including the thousands of transfers during that time on commit lists, and not ranking them. Russell Wilson, for example, was never on a Wisconsin commit list, because he transferred there from NC State.

Now, we are quite aware that other recruiting services are slapping old rankings on new profiles. In our opinion, we think that is a very flawed policy and thus not one that will be exercised here.

Of course, not having Barnett and Subtyl included in the commit list doesn't imply in any shape or form that the added value they will bring to ASU is minimal. Again, it's just keeping consistent with the Rivals policy on transfers.

On a somewhat related note, I will inquire about including DJ Davidson on the list since he wasn't a transfer but rather a prospect who enrolled one year later.

Hope this post helps clarifies the reasoning and I'm happy to answer any questions on this thread about this topic.

Can't wait to see how many tix they sold.
Looks like University of Phoenix stadium for a High School Championship game.
Sit wherever you want
Utah was so over rated

Colorado totally dominated and embarrassed in last 2 games and end up with 4 losses on their way to many more in 2017.
Thru 3 quarters Oklahoma State out-gained them 438 yards to 182 yards and had a 31-0 lead despite missing a chip shot FG and settling for another chip shot FG.

Was watching this show on Fox earlier and they discussed who was the better coach: Urban Meyer or Nick Saban..??

Shannon Sharpe (one of the hosts) and guest college football guru Joel Klatt picked Nick Saban, while the other host, Skip Bayless argued for Urban Meyer...

Obviously, you couldn't go wrong with either coach as they are both proven great coaches, who can elevate programs based on what they do...

The interesting thing they all agreed on are these three points that separate great coaches from the rest...

1) they have the right scheme in place and recruit well to that scheme

2) they are great motivators

3) they are great recruiters

They also talked a lot about how each coach was very good at making adjustments to their programs when needed and gave the hiring of Lane Kiffin by Nick Saban at Alabama as one prime example...

Saban knew that he needed to upgrade his offensive philosophy so got Kiffin on board...

And, we all know the conversations we've been having about our coach and his defensive philosophy...

They also talked about how Urban Meyer runs his Ohio St offense, both behind the scenes and from the sidelines during games, and is very successful at it...

And, we also know that Todd does the same thing on defense for the Sun Devils...

My question to all of you is whether Todd would be having the same defensive problems at a place like either Alabama or Ohio St since they never really have personnel problems because they get a lot of elite recruits to come to their schools...??

I think Todd is a good to very good coach but he sure messed up the past couple of seasons and, like you, I'm anxious to see how he deals with his defensive philosophy and whether his coaching staff can bring in enough help this recruiting cycle to get the Sun Devils back on track...

Go Devils!!!