A month before the season started, I predicted ASU would finish 6-6, Arizona would finish 4-8, and the Sun Devils would win the Territorial Cup in a blowout.
On the day of the game, I believe the only thing I’ll have gotten wrong is ASU’s regular season record.
Kevin Sumlin went into this season extremely thin at OL, TE, WR, DL and DB. But he had Khalil Tate, and that should have been enough to keep them in games, create national buzz, and fuel a 2020 recruiting class that they had a head start on thanks to the efforts of recruiting director Chris Singletary (who they fired in July).
But Sumlin never liked Khalil Tate. You could tell from the moment that he got the job and referred to Tate as Khalil Mack in an interview. The Arizona coaching staff tried to make Khalil Tate fit the Mazzone/Osweiler offense instead of calling designed runs, and despite Tate having a top 5 statistical year in the history of the school in 2018, he was looked at as a disappointment and a bust due to the preseason Heisman hype. This year, Sumlin and Mazzone learned nothing, tried to make him something he wasn’t again, and then ended up partially benching him in order to play Grant Gunnell, but never backed Gunnell enough to help his development.
Arizona fired their DC midseason, fired their DL coach for fist-fighting on the sideline, set a record for the lowest home attendance rate, and now faces questions about whether they’ll make ANOTHER coaching change.
This team can’t score, can’t defend, can’t settle on a QB, and there is absolutely no reason this game should be competitive. They are putrid.
I know it’s not in Herm’s nature to build a big lead. He’d probably be content to sit on a 7-0 lead 5 minutes into the game, but now’s not the time for that. This team needs to take advantage of Arizona’s feeble state and but the Wildcats out of their misery. Coaching this game into either a shootout or a slugfest would reflect poorly on ASU’s staff, and raise even further questions about whether Ray Anderson’s espoused aspirations were truly the schools goals when making this change, or if it was just bloviation lead blocking for nepotism, and expectations truly haven’t increased at all.
My prediction is 38-17, Arizona State.
Anything short of dominant, in my opinion, will be a disappointment.
On the day of the game, I believe the only thing I’ll have gotten wrong is ASU’s regular season record.
Kevin Sumlin went into this season extremely thin at OL, TE, WR, DL and DB. But he had Khalil Tate, and that should have been enough to keep them in games, create national buzz, and fuel a 2020 recruiting class that they had a head start on thanks to the efforts of recruiting director Chris Singletary (who they fired in July).
But Sumlin never liked Khalil Tate. You could tell from the moment that he got the job and referred to Tate as Khalil Mack in an interview. The Arizona coaching staff tried to make Khalil Tate fit the Mazzone/Osweiler offense instead of calling designed runs, and despite Tate having a top 5 statistical year in the history of the school in 2018, he was looked at as a disappointment and a bust due to the preseason Heisman hype. This year, Sumlin and Mazzone learned nothing, tried to make him something he wasn’t again, and then ended up partially benching him in order to play Grant Gunnell, but never backed Gunnell enough to help his development.
Arizona fired their DC midseason, fired their DL coach for fist-fighting on the sideline, set a record for the lowest home attendance rate, and now faces questions about whether they’ll make ANOTHER coaching change.
This team can’t score, can’t defend, can’t settle on a QB, and there is absolutely no reason this game should be competitive. They are putrid.
I know it’s not in Herm’s nature to build a big lead. He’d probably be content to sit on a 7-0 lead 5 minutes into the game, but now’s not the time for that. This team needs to take advantage of Arizona’s feeble state and but the Wildcats out of their misery. Coaching this game into either a shootout or a slugfest would reflect poorly on ASU’s staff, and raise even further questions about whether Ray Anderson’s espoused aspirations were truly the schools goals when making this change, or if it was just bloviation lead blocking for nepotism, and expectations truly haven’t increased at all.
My prediction is 38-17, Arizona State.
Anything short of dominant, in my opinion, will be a disappointment.
