I've let the "grind" go because it has been holding me back from enjoying the Fall which is my favorite season, in part, due to the weather change from hot to warm and because it's football season, which I truly love and hate at the same time...
However, unlike at AU where they can look forward to basketball following another poor football season, that usually has not been the case at ASU, since we've been so very mediocre at it for so long, keeping in mind that I expect a big upswing soon under Bobby Hurley...
Today, we can examine our Deja Vu theme from a couple of angles...1) our losses this season have all had several things in common...ie...an offense that lacks consistency and self destructs in critical situations too often, and a defense that just gives up way too many big plays in virtually every game, even against inferior opponents...2) that this team reminds me of Graham's first Sun Devil team that went 7-5 during the season and then beat Navy in a bowl game to end up with an 8-5 record...
In 2012, we lost early on the road to a SEC team at Mizzou and then after winning three straight against lower level PAC teams, we lost four straight to Oregon, UCLA, Oregon St and USC before finishing the season with wins against Wazzu and AU...
Despite the preseason hype, this season is shaping up like that 2012 year but why since we are two years removed from then and have players that have played under Graham and his staff now for awhile, although many of the better ones are still pretty young...
For starters, we have a new QB running the team just like in 2012 when TK won the job and even though Berco has been in this system for years he was recruited by the prior Erickson staff for a different offensive scheme, so isn't close to being a perfect fit for this present day Sun Devil scheme...plus, Berco is a good but not great QB, who cannot carry the team on his shoulders the way some other QBs have for their teams...
Also, the 2012 recruiting class that was Graham's first class was basically transitional in nature since Erickson and his staff had lined up most of the class ahead of time and it was not highly ranked and included some players that are now starting that wouldn't be starting this year, aside from some recruiting holes not filled adequately by this staff recently...there has also been a lot of attrition from that class as half of it is no longer on the team and they would be juniors and seniors now and provide a great backbone for the team if the class had been of the caliber of the last two Graham classes...
So, although there is some good, solid talent on board there are also some big holes along the OL, TE, WR and secondary units which has handicapped this team the way a lack of big time talent on the 2012 team handicapped them...
To their credit, this team has been in virtually every game except the USC debacle but has not come up with enough plays in critical situations or made critical errors in situations that has set them back and led to the losses and, with teams like this, that live on the edges of big game competition, the room for error is basically zilch, while highly talented teams can oftentimes overcome some errors due to the talent that bails them out in many games...
Just look at the recent USC-AU game that the Cats had a chance to win but didn't just like ASU in its recent losses...leading in the third quarter AU got stuffed on a 4th and 2 play deep in Trojan territory and shortly thereafter Ronald Jones had a 74 yard TD run that changed a potential loss into a USC win...
How many 74 yd TD plays has our defense given up this season vs how many 74 yard TD runs or passing plays has ASU gotten on its behalf this season..?? We had one 90 yard TD pass for a TD late in the Cal Poly game, I believe or was it New Mexico, as I can't remember, but the point is that we are not an explosive team, while our defense allows explosive plays all of the time and good teams don't do that, while our offense in 2013 and 2014 was more explosive than this team...
So, against good teams our margin for error is basically zero and we don't have the offensive difference makers like USC and Oregon do that can turn games around instantly, and we also don't have enough talent to win on the road against good but not great teams like Utah and Wazzu when we have too many screw ups to overcome...
Throw in some crappy refs and no wonder we're not doing what we all thought we could, including most importantly Graham and his staff, at the beginning of the season...
We need more talent and depth as I've stated over and over again this season because we just don't have enough talent now to overcome our margin for error part of the win-loss equation...
Thoughts..??
Championships or Bust...Go Devils!!!
However, unlike at AU where they can look forward to basketball following another poor football season, that usually has not been the case at ASU, since we've been so very mediocre at it for so long, keeping in mind that I expect a big upswing soon under Bobby Hurley...
Today, we can examine our Deja Vu theme from a couple of angles...1) our losses this season have all had several things in common...ie...an offense that lacks consistency and self destructs in critical situations too often, and a defense that just gives up way too many big plays in virtually every game, even against inferior opponents...2) that this team reminds me of Graham's first Sun Devil team that went 7-5 during the season and then beat Navy in a bowl game to end up with an 8-5 record...
In 2012, we lost early on the road to a SEC team at Mizzou and then after winning three straight against lower level PAC teams, we lost four straight to Oregon, UCLA, Oregon St and USC before finishing the season with wins against Wazzu and AU...
Despite the preseason hype, this season is shaping up like that 2012 year but why since we are two years removed from then and have players that have played under Graham and his staff now for awhile, although many of the better ones are still pretty young...
For starters, we have a new QB running the team just like in 2012 when TK won the job and even though Berco has been in this system for years he was recruited by the prior Erickson staff for a different offensive scheme, so isn't close to being a perfect fit for this present day Sun Devil scheme...plus, Berco is a good but not great QB, who cannot carry the team on his shoulders the way some other QBs have for their teams...
Also, the 2012 recruiting class that was Graham's first class was basically transitional in nature since Erickson and his staff had lined up most of the class ahead of time and it was not highly ranked and included some players that are now starting that wouldn't be starting this year, aside from some recruiting holes not filled adequately by this staff recently...there has also been a lot of attrition from that class as half of it is no longer on the team and they would be juniors and seniors now and provide a great backbone for the team if the class had been of the caliber of the last two Graham classes...
So, although there is some good, solid talent on board there are also some big holes along the OL, TE, WR and secondary units which has handicapped this team the way a lack of big time talent on the 2012 team handicapped them...
To their credit, this team has been in virtually every game except the USC debacle but has not come up with enough plays in critical situations or made critical errors in situations that has set them back and led to the losses and, with teams like this, that live on the edges of big game competition, the room for error is basically zilch, while highly talented teams can oftentimes overcome some errors due to the talent that bails them out in many games...
Just look at the recent USC-AU game that the Cats had a chance to win but didn't just like ASU in its recent losses...leading in the third quarter AU got stuffed on a 4th and 2 play deep in Trojan territory and shortly thereafter Ronald Jones had a 74 yard TD run that changed a potential loss into a USC win...
How many 74 yd TD plays has our defense given up this season vs how many 74 yard TD runs or passing plays has ASU gotten on its behalf this season..?? We had one 90 yard TD pass for a TD late in the Cal Poly game, I believe or was it New Mexico, as I can't remember, but the point is that we are not an explosive team, while our defense allows explosive plays all of the time and good teams don't do that, while our offense in 2013 and 2014 was more explosive than this team...
So, against good teams our margin for error is basically zero and we don't have the offensive difference makers like USC and Oregon do that can turn games around instantly, and we also don't have enough talent to win on the road against good but not great teams like Utah and Wazzu when we have too many screw ups to overcome...
Throw in some crappy refs and no wonder we're not doing what we all thought we could, including most importantly Graham and his staff, at the beginning of the season...
We need more talent and depth as I've stated over and over again this season because we just don't have enough talent now to overcome our margin for error part of the win-loss equation...
Thoughts..??
Championships or Bust...Go Devils!!!
