Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = Thank Goodness for Football
This is especially true for me this year as I am rehabbing after surgery to repair a fractured femur on my left leg following a nasty fall I had about a month ago...
This poses all sorts of challenges, as you can imagine, that I will continue to face in the next several months...probably during the entire football season before I get back to "normal"...
Also, as we all know, our Sun Devils will be facing numerous challenges during the season, especially since some coaches have been suspended as a result of an ongoing NCAA investigation into alleged recruiting violations...
So, can Herm and his staff hold the team together in what figured to be a breakout season for the Devils in the fourth year of Herm's tenure at ASU..??
Our friend down here, Greg Hansen, doesn't think so as he picks the Devils to finish fourth in the South behind Utah, USC and UCLA in his preseason analysis...he picked the Cats last in the South...
He figures that once the Devils lose to BYU the season will go down hill from there where the Devils will finish 7-5 and 4-5 in the PAC...
He thinks Whittingham is the best coach in the conference, the Bruins are rising finally under Chip, and that USC is still one of the two best talented teams in the PAC...
I don't know whether he would look at things differently if we had both the Utes and Bruins at home this season...
He also points out that it is almost impossible for teams like the Cats and Devils (and most of the rest of the PAC for that matter) to sustain any consistent run of success, mainly because they are not able to compete on equal footing with the elite programs for blue chip talent...
It looked as though the Devils, under Herm, were starting to turn recruiting around but who knows what will happen if we just have another so-so season and if the NCAA comes down hard on the program...
Talent is destiny and, if we start taking steps backward in that regard, I suppose that we will continue to be mired with a pretty average program...
The Devils host So Utah on Thursday night and they are a dreadful team that we should beat easily since they were trounced by San Jose State last night 45-14 and the game wasn't that close...
We should have it won by halftime and should be able to let a lot of players get experience on the second and third teams...
If not, we are in big, big trouble...
We have the talent and experience to compete and beat any of the teams on our schedule, including the Utes, Bruins and Trojans but we managed last season to lose to both the Trojans and Bruins in the last minutes of both games we should have won...
If we finish 7-5 or worse, we will not have done anything significant yet under Herm, which would raise all sorts of questions about what he is doing as our head coach, in my opinion...
At least Todd Graham had back to back 10 win seasons at ASU before he was finally fired after six seasons...
So, there are many challenges to be met by this head coach, his staff and his team this season, not the least of which is showing progress in the win column, since we know we can win 6 or 7 games a season with all sorts of past coaches...
It's time to do it and not just talk about doing it, right..??
Do you think that the BYU game will be the pivotal game of the season..??
Do you think Hansen is way off in how he sees the PAC South this season, especially as it relates to our Devils..??
Will we be showing progress as a program measured by games won or is winning 6-7-8 games good enough..??
Will the "sleeping giant" finally be awakened or will he be heard snoring in his mediocre cave once again..??
Or maybe there is no sleeping giant at ASU to ever be awakened...
If not now, then when, if you ask me...
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = Thank Goodness for Football
This is especially true for me this year as I am rehabbing after surgery to repair a fractured femur on my left leg following a nasty fall I had about a month ago...
This poses all sorts of challenges, as you can imagine, that I will continue to face in the next several months...probably during the entire football season before I get back to "normal"...
Also, as we all know, our Sun Devils will be facing numerous challenges during the season, especially since some coaches have been suspended as a result of an ongoing NCAA investigation into alleged recruiting violations...
So, can Herm and his staff hold the team together in what figured to be a breakout season for the Devils in the fourth year of Herm's tenure at ASU..??
Our friend down here, Greg Hansen, doesn't think so as he picks the Devils to finish fourth in the South behind Utah, USC and UCLA in his preseason analysis...he picked the Cats last in the South...
He figures that once the Devils lose to BYU the season will go down hill from there where the Devils will finish 7-5 and 4-5 in the PAC...
He thinks Whittingham is the best coach in the conference, the Bruins are rising finally under Chip, and that USC is still one of the two best talented teams in the PAC...
I don't know whether he would look at things differently if we had both the Utes and Bruins at home this season...
He also points out that it is almost impossible for teams like the Cats and Devils (and most of the rest of the PAC for that matter) to sustain any consistent run of success, mainly because they are not able to compete on equal footing with the elite programs for blue chip talent...
It looked as though the Devils, under Herm, were starting to turn recruiting around but who knows what will happen if we just have another so-so season and if the NCAA comes down hard on the program...
Talent is destiny and, if we start taking steps backward in that regard, I suppose that we will continue to be mired with a pretty average program...
The Devils host So Utah on Thursday night and they are a dreadful team that we should beat easily since they were trounced by San Jose State last night 45-14 and the game wasn't that close...
We should have it won by halftime and should be able to let a lot of players get experience on the second and third teams...
If not, we are in big, big trouble...
We have the talent and experience to compete and beat any of the teams on our schedule, including the Utes, Bruins and Trojans but we managed last season to lose to both the Trojans and Bruins in the last minutes of both games we should have won...
If we finish 7-5 or worse, we will not have done anything significant yet under Herm, which would raise all sorts of questions about what he is doing as our head coach, in my opinion...
At least Todd Graham had back to back 10 win seasons at ASU before he was finally fired after six seasons...
So, there are many challenges to be met by this head coach, his staff and his team this season, not the least of which is showing progress in the win column, since we know we can win 6 or 7 games a season with all sorts of past coaches...
It's time to do it and not just talk about doing it, right..??
Do you think that the BYU game will be the pivotal game of the season..??
Do you think Hansen is way off in how he sees the PAC South this season, especially as it relates to our Devils..??
Will we be showing progress as a program measured by games won or is winning 6-7-8 games good enough..??
Will the "sleeping giant" finally be awakened or will he be heard snoring in his mediocre cave once again..??
Or maybe there is no sleeping giant at ASU to ever be awakened...
If not now, then when, if you ask me...
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
