Mike Bercovici scheduled to work out for the Green Bay Packers tomorrow.

There is a good deal of overlap between the voters of this All-American team and the Lou Groza Award so this is a good sign.

TEMPE, Ariz. –Arizona Statesenior Zane Gonzalez was named to the Sporting News All-American First Team announced Wednesday afternoon.

Gonzalez, a senior from Deer Park, Texas, finished his four-year career in maroon and gold as the all-time FBS leader in field goals made (96) and points by a kicker (494). His 23 made field goals out of 25 attempts led the nation in both makes and percentage made.

Gonzalez made an FBS-leading 13 from at least 40 yards and a remarkable 7-for-8 from over 50. That mark, the second-most ever from long distance in an FBS season, includes the longest FG of the year, a 59 yarder that was also the kick to give him the all-time record for career points by a kicker.

Through the season, Gonzalez has claimed four Lou Groza Star of the Week honors, the most by any kicker in the country. With his four 'Star of the Week' honors this season, Gonzalez has earned an unprecedented six career Groza honors, the most by any kicker in the award’s history.

Gonzalez, one of three finalists for the coveted Lou Groza Award, will look to become the second Groza Award winner in ASU History, joining Thomas Weber who earned the award following the 2007 season.

This year's Lou Groza Award winner will be revealed on ESPN during The Home Depot College Football Awards Show airing live from the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta on Thursday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. ET.

Cowherd was talking about Oregon this morning and their new football coaching hire...Willie Taggart and where he would end up with the Ducks as a good, solid coach but not a real difference maker or elevator for them the way Chip Kelly had been...

Cowherd said the Ducks were basically a 6-7 win program given their history and location, that was not a hotbed for recruiting since Oregon doesn't have a bunch of elite HS players going on to college each year...

He went on to say that the Ducks got elevated by a couple of games to 8-9 wins a year with the addition of Phil Knight's support...

And, that the Ducks got elevated again with the addition of a great coach like Chip Kelly who upped the wins to 10-11-12 per year...

He figures that Taggert will be in the 8-9 win category in Eugene for the reasons mentioned...good but not great coach...

Of course, this made me think of our Sun Devils and what their medium wins probably is, as most years ever since Kush and Rogers, we seem to be about a 6-7 win program if you average things over a 10 year period...

I didn't think that Todd was another Chip Kelly type elevator but did think he would elevate us from the 6-7 win plateau to 8-9-10 level based on what he initially did at ASU but, given the past couple of years, I think we may be back to our medium based level...

What do you think about Cowherd's analysis and whether something based on it could apply equally to our Sun Devils under Graham...??

Are we just a 6-7 win program on average over a ten year span..??

Go Devils!!!

ASU DL coach Joe Seumalo did an in-home visit, official visit to Tempe scheduled for January 13th

Arizona commit Austin Faoliu entertaining other options

Hudl link

Confirmed this report via a chat with Holmes that there is "definitely interest" in ASU as a transfer destination in the summer. He will have two years of eligibility left upon transfer. Played sparingly in the 2014 and 2016 season (redshirted in 2015).

Holmes told me that he did receive his official release from the school and will "definitely" be contacting the ASU coaches this month. If he did sign with ASU he would count towards the 2017 class.

Not much else to report at this time, but we will pass on any updates we hear.

Player page

it is missing.....

This game challenges you to select the winner of 10 selected games for 14 weeks during the NCAA football season, optionally using a confidence scoring system. Using the confidence scoring system, you receive the amount of confidence points you assigned to each game, but only if you correctly selected the winning team.

Link: http://games.espn.com/college-footb...DOTg2MkJCQn0=&ex_cid=ex_cid=cpickem????_email

Password: RiseUp2016

USF Head Coach, Willie Taggart, reported on ESPNEWS as new Oregon head coach.

Temple head coach, Matt Rhule, reported also by ESPN as new Baylor HC. That's what I'm seeing on treadmill this morning.

I asked him tonight if Blake Barnett's commitment influences his pledge at all:

(Looks good for Kelley and ASU at this point is my guess)

"Blake is a friend of mine I've thrown with him before multiple times and I congratulate him on committing tonight!"

CFP: 12/31 3PM and 7PM Eastern (yes, 6PM and 10PM Pacific) - CORRECTED (Noon and 4PM Pacific - My world was spinning in the wrong direction I guess)

I thought they "learned" that New Years Eve was a terrible time to have these games - they get maybe 60% of the viewership they would get on just about any other day/evening

Major Bowls:
Orange 12/30
Cotton 1/2
Rose 1/2
Sugar 1/2

NO BOWLS on Jan 1! Because it's a Sunday I guess wouldn't want to compete with Week 17 where maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the NFL games mean nothing.

Sorry to vent, but the total throw away of the traditional Jan 1 bowl games plus the stupidity of the playoff games on New Years Eve has got me shaking my head. I assume this all sounded like a good idea to someone, just certainly not me.

ASU faces Purdue in the Jimmy V Classic tonight at 5 PM MT from madison Square Garden. Game will air on ESPN.

ASU prospects in updated Rivals100:

Joseph Lewis no. 23
Eno Benjamin no. 71
Austin Jackson no. 81
Isaiah Pola Mao no. 89
Greg Johnson no.98

So just this past weekend, ASU had two local visitors (IPM and Jackson) ranked in the Rivals100, and three overall so far including Benjamin who visited earlier in the year.

Additionally, Lewis and Johnson are scheduled to visit ASU on January 13th.

Isaiah Pola-Mao's ASU visit 'changed my whole mindset about them.'

Bonus quote

"USC pushed hard on me after Bubba Bolden decommitted. That's when I started noticing that I'm a few school's second choice. Whenever he'd get an offer, that school might start looking at me next. I don't like that. It makes me feel like I'm not wanted. I don't like being the second choice."

I thought I'd throw out an interesting conversation topic I've been thinking about for the past few weeks- Who gets in the CFB playoff and why?

Assuming that the following happens:

• Alabama wins SEC Championship, goes 13-0 (Heck, I think they can lose and still make it)
• Ohio State is 11-1
• Clemson wins ACC Championship, goes 12-1
• Washington wins P12 Championship, goes 12-1
• Penn St. wins B10 Championship, goes 11-2
• Oklahoma wins B12, goes 10-2

Who's in the Final Four?

The Spur/Bandit prospect discusses his official visit and recruiting process

Came across this and wanted to share

NFL Scout Chris Landry's Analysis on Blake Barnett Addition

Well in this case yes

Just for clarity Bubba Bolden's Instagram handle is getter_jongbb4 and Alex Perry's is apkipekee and both are already congratulating each other on the school they will sign with, saying they will meet in the (Pac-12) league

Instagram picture

As we mentioned the other day Lindsey will entertain head coach job opportunities. Is looking at the possible vacancy at Troy too.

ESPN link

I was told that ASU is looking into Alabama transfer Blake Barnett, the #2 dual-threat QB in the country from the class of 2015.

Rivals Profile

2016 Desert Ridge DT DJ Davidson failed to qualify to play for Scott Frost and UCF, and instead of grayshirting, he's got his GPA up, and he's enrolled at Pima CC. He's still 6-5, still around 300. Could be one to watch for ASU. 4 for 3 guy in the future.

Providing some context as far as QB competition, what can be excepted from Barnett and more

We caught up with the local Gilbert Williams Field High School kicker and Alabama commit Brandon Ruiz following his trip to the hometown school to discuss his experience in Tempe and his overall recruiting process.

This weekend marked Ruiz’s second visit to the Sun Devils, as he previously attended Arizona State’s Junior Day event. The kicker committed to Alabama back in June but in recent months has been receptive enough to ASU’s recruiting efforts to take an official visit.

“I liked how all the top in-state recruits were there,” Ruiz said referring to his fellow visitors such as Austin Jackson, Tyler Johnson and Isaiah Pola-Mao. “There were few other big time names there too. I got to hang out with the players and see how family oriented everything is.

“Coach Slocum is really wise because he has been coaching in the NFL and it was good talking to him. He really likes my technique a lot and compared me to Zane Gonzalez and Mason Crosby. I also talked to Zane Gonzalez and he told me a lot about the team and the school. Coach Graham told me how much he was looking forward to the (2017) class and about the advantages of playing in your back yard.”

Ruiz said that he does see himself still committed to Alabama at this point, and will officially visit Tuscaloosa next week. He added that currently, he has no plans to visit any other schools.

“It’s pretty clear to me that I’m going to Alabama,” Ruiz stated. “I was there just one time in June so I want to go back and be on campus again and see everything. They’re not looking at any kickers and I will start there as a freshman.

“My decision was based on playing for the best team.”

My take: unless Ruiz has the best poker face known to man on the phone (and he's a man of few words as it is), as it stands now it doesn’t look like this is going to break ASU’s way. Based on what he said, hard to imagine him coming back from the Alabama official trip with the thought of decommiting unless the Crimson Tide said or pulled off something that won’t sit well with him.

Having said that, even if he was blown away by the ASU visit I doubt he would express that on record less than a week before his Alabama visit.

National Letter of Intent is just under two months away and Ruiz will have plenty of chances to stop by ASU’s campus but after this coming weekend, he’s more than likely not visiting Alabama again. So that is one factor that could help ASU. I’m sure ASU won’t let up on its recruiting efforts either way.

The four-star two-way standout from Los Angeles Hawkins and former Arizona commit told me tonight he plans to visit ASU on Jan. 13.

Still open to pretty much all Pac-12 schools along with Nebraska, Michigan and Notre Dame at this point.