Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = Where Things Stand Now with Sun Devil Football
That was a great way to end a very frustrating, pandemic driven season with a very convincing win over the Beavers on a damp night in Corvallis...
Too bad we screwed up against the Trojans and then had a month off before resuming our season against the Bruins, in another game we could have won but did not...
At least it started coming together against the Cats and continued on against the Beavers that beat the Ducks this year for the first time in an eternity...
Are we that good or is it mostly because both the Cats and Beavers aren't very talented and, therefore, not very good..??
On a side note, regarding the Cats and Sumlin, the newspaper down here points out in the sports section today that since Sumlin became a head college football coach, including what he is owed by AU now, he will have made right at $55M...
That isn't chump change no matter how you slice it and it makes you wonder why even pretty average coaches get paid obscene amounts of money to coach at the college level...
Sumlin had a mansion in College Station, TX, while at Texas A&M, which was over 10,000 square feet and another semi-mansion in Tucson, a 7,855 square foot house, in the foothills of Tucson, that cost $1.69M...
Not bad for someone who had an overall record of 9-20 and 6-17 at AU and who lost his last 12 straight games while at the school...
Now onto the recruiting front...
According to Rivals ASU is ranked 10th in the PAC after Wednesday's signings and 59th in the nation, at this point...
However, I would rank the PAC this way based on the average player rating (APR) of each team in the conference...
I will also include the way each team was ranked by Rivals nationally...
1) Oregon - ranked 5th nationally - 3.86 APR - includes 2 five star and 14 four star players...
2) USC - ranked 10th - 3.7 APR - includes 14 four star players...
3) Wash - ranked 38 - 3.4 - includes 1 five star (QB) and 5 four star players...
4) Utah - ranked 36 - 3.24 - includes 4 four star players...
5) ASU - ranked 59 - 3.07 - includes 3 four star players...
6) Cal - ranked 42 - 3.06 - includes 2 four star players...
7) UCLA - ranked 37 - 3.06 - includes 2 four star players...
Note: Cal had one more player in its class than UCLA which is why I ranked the Bears above the Bruins
8) Stanford - ranked 54 - 2.93 - includes 1 four star player...
9) Colorado - ranked 55 - 2.74 - includes 1 four star player...
10) Arizona - ranked 64 - 2.72 - includes 0 four star players...
11) Wazzu - ranked 50 - 2.65 - includes 1 four star player...
12) Oregon State - not ranked in top 100 - small class so far...
This is just another way to look at classes, since big classes get more points usually than small classes, and I think it is important to recognize potential "difference makers" represented by five and four star players, since there is a cause-effect relationship between those programs like Alabama, Clemson and Ohio St, that are always in the Top 10 recruiting rankings, and where they end up on the national scene each year, because they are getting the very cream of elite players, each recruiting cycle...
That's a mouth full of one long sentence but the correlation between recruiting elite players regularly vs those that don't is very simple...Talent Is Destiny, as we all know...
Great coaching, with average talent, can only elevate so much, while great talent, with average coaching, allows some programs enough "margin for error" to succeed in spite of themselves...
In my view, witness Oregon that lost to both Cal and Oregon St this year and USC that very easily could have lost to ASU, AU and UCLA but did lose to North second place Oregon in the title game...
So, where do you think our Sun Devils stand, talent and coaching wise, compared to the other teams in the PAC..??
Do we have enough talent and coaching expertise to win a PAC championship someday soon..??
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = Where Things Stand Now with Sun Devil Football
That was a great way to end a very frustrating, pandemic driven season with a very convincing win over the Beavers on a damp night in Corvallis...
Too bad we screwed up against the Trojans and then had a month off before resuming our season against the Bruins, in another game we could have won but did not...
At least it started coming together against the Cats and continued on against the Beavers that beat the Ducks this year for the first time in an eternity...
Are we that good or is it mostly because both the Cats and Beavers aren't very talented and, therefore, not very good..??
On a side note, regarding the Cats and Sumlin, the newspaper down here points out in the sports section today that since Sumlin became a head college football coach, including what he is owed by AU now, he will have made right at $55M...
That isn't chump change no matter how you slice it and it makes you wonder why even pretty average coaches get paid obscene amounts of money to coach at the college level...
Sumlin had a mansion in College Station, TX, while at Texas A&M, which was over 10,000 square feet and another semi-mansion in Tucson, a 7,855 square foot house, in the foothills of Tucson, that cost $1.69M...
Not bad for someone who had an overall record of 9-20 and 6-17 at AU and who lost his last 12 straight games while at the school...
Now onto the recruiting front...
According to Rivals ASU is ranked 10th in the PAC after Wednesday's signings and 59th in the nation, at this point...
However, I would rank the PAC this way based on the average player rating (APR) of each team in the conference...
I will also include the way each team was ranked by Rivals nationally...
1) Oregon - ranked 5th nationally - 3.86 APR - includes 2 five star and 14 four star players...
2) USC - ranked 10th - 3.7 APR - includes 14 four star players...
3) Wash - ranked 38 - 3.4 - includes 1 five star (QB) and 5 four star players...
4) Utah - ranked 36 - 3.24 - includes 4 four star players...
5) ASU - ranked 59 - 3.07 - includes 3 four star players...
6) Cal - ranked 42 - 3.06 - includes 2 four star players...
7) UCLA - ranked 37 - 3.06 - includes 2 four star players...
Note: Cal had one more player in its class than UCLA which is why I ranked the Bears above the Bruins
8) Stanford - ranked 54 - 2.93 - includes 1 four star player...
9) Colorado - ranked 55 - 2.74 - includes 1 four star player...
10) Arizona - ranked 64 - 2.72 - includes 0 four star players...
11) Wazzu - ranked 50 - 2.65 - includes 1 four star player...
12) Oregon State - not ranked in top 100 - small class so far...
This is just another way to look at classes, since big classes get more points usually than small classes, and I think it is important to recognize potential "difference makers" represented by five and four star players, since there is a cause-effect relationship between those programs like Alabama, Clemson and Ohio St, that are always in the Top 10 recruiting rankings, and where they end up on the national scene each year, because they are getting the very cream of elite players, each recruiting cycle...
That's a mouth full of one long sentence but the correlation between recruiting elite players regularly vs those that don't is very simple...Talent Is Destiny, as we all know...
Great coaching, with average talent, can only elevate so much, while great talent, with average coaching, allows some programs enough "margin for error" to succeed in spite of themselves...
In my view, witness Oregon that lost to both Cal and Oregon St this year and USC that very easily could have lost to ASU, AU and UCLA but did lose to North second place Oregon in the title game...
So, where do you think our Sun Devils stand, talent and coaching wise, compared to the other teams in the PAC..??
Do we have enough talent and coaching expertise to win a PAC championship someday soon..??
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
