Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = Addition by Subtraction
We all know that we have lost a lot of players this past off-season for various reasons and had to replace them with transfers from different places in the hopes of building a competitve team this year...
There is talk about this team coming together in a unified way but will that be enough to overcome all of the personnel and coaching challenges, that have developed by those leaving versus those staying, and by those transferring to ASU in order to play for Herm and his staff...
The high school "recruiting well" for talent has apparently dried up, given the looming NCAA investigation into the program, and the fact that ASU has yet to put together an NIL collective where players can take advantage of the new NIL compensation rules (although it has been rumored that may happen very soon)...
This has not only led to an uncertain future for the program but has led some to wonder where the program will be once Herm leaves, either willingly or not...
ASU has basically been a middle of the PAC football program for decades but will it be able to remain there given the current circumstances..??
I think this season might well be a harbinger of decline if the predictions about finishing in the bottom third of the PAC holds true...
Might we end up being like the Cats have been recently when they consistently reached the bottom third of the PAC under Kevin Sumlin..??
They actually reached the very bottom of the PAC his last two years at AU and his replacement, Jedd Fisch, only won one game last season, placing the Cats last in the PAC South for a third straight year...
Is that our destiny moving forward..??
I certainly hope not but I think this upcoming season may start to tell the story of whether you can "cut and paste" your way to success using the transfer portal, with a one and done or two and done recruiting strategy, versus the more traditional approach of recruiting HS players with which to build your program around...
I think we have enough talent on hand to have a pretty fair to middling season this year but it may not be enough to overcome an improved PAC that includes new coaches at USC and Washington, etc...
I also wonder about how much talent the NY Jets had in Herms' fifth and final season as a head coach there, years ago, when they finished 4-12...
And, in his third and final year as head coach of the Chiefs, after his NY Jets tenure, he went 2-14 and was fired as a result...
Admittedly, he had some success with the Jets early on but by the end of his tenure it was pretty much a disaster...
And, his coaching there was characterized as "marred by chronic clock management problems, a 'play not to lose' offensive philosophy, and a lack of any discernible defensive philosophy" according to a Wikipedia on-line biographical article about him...
I guess time will tell, and time will also tell us whether the "fix" was in between ASU and the NCAA regarding when the Notice of Allegations will come out regarding Herm's program in the future...
I'm of the belief that president Crow may have worked out something with his friend, Mark Emmert, the current NCAA president, who was the president of the Uni of Washington until 2010, before he took over the NCAA job...
Emmert is set to resign from the NCAA on June 30, 2023, so it will be interesting to see whether any NOA arrives at ASU while Emmert is still president of the NCAA (or not)...
I think that as long as Herm wins 4-5-6 games this year he may very well continue to be our football coach in 2023...
Again, this is just my opinion and we'll see how this all plays out moving forward...
To end this post on a more positive note, the Sun Devils are still undefeated at this point, and the PAC had its media event where our new commissioner doesn't seem intimidated by all of the challenges he is facing now, especially after getting the recent news that both USC and UCLA will be leaving for the Big 10 in a couple of years...
Expanding the PAC isn't out of the question but doing something with the Big 12 seems to be out of the question, according to George K...
He mentioned still playing a lot of football in LA, even after the LA schools leave the conference, and who knows what that means...
He also isn't sure that UCLA will be moving out of the PAC since they are in the political doghouse right now in Cal...
Additionally, he said that college football has lost sight of the student-athlete which I'm sure puts a smile of both Crow and Anderson's faces...
They both know about the importance of education in life that apparently includes a new mathematical concept where you can get "Addition by Subtraction" in this brave, new college football universe we have before us today...
So, does this new math equation have any chance of adding up for our football team, under Herm and his staff, this upcoming season..??
Tomorrow is August 1st and the Devils start football practice this week, so I'm sure that we are all thankful for that happening as TGIF cannot come soon enough...
As an aside, we've probably gotten about five inches of rain down here in Geezerville this past week and I'm very thankful for that since we have really needed it...
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = Addition by Subtraction
We all know that we have lost a lot of players this past off-season for various reasons and had to replace them with transfers from different places in the hopes of building a competitve team this year...
There is talk about this team coming together in a unified way but will that be enough to overcome all of the personnel and coaching challenges, that have developed by those leaving versus those staying, and by those transferring to ASU in order to play for Herm and his staff...
The high school "recruiting well" for talent has apparently dried up, given the looming NCAA investigation into the program, and the fact that ASU has yet to put together an NIL collective where players can take advantage of the new NIL compensation rules (although it has been rumored that may happen very soon)...
This has not only led to an uncertain future for the program but has led some to wonder where the program will be once Herm leaves, either willingly or not...
ASU has basically been a middle of the PAC football program for decades but will it be able to remain there given the current circumstances..??
I think this season might well be a harbinger of decline if the predictions about finishing in the bottom third of the PAC holds true...
Might we end up being like the Cats have been recently when they consistently reached the bottom third of the PAC under Kevin Sumlin..??
They actually reached the very bottom of the PAC his last two years at AU and his replacement, Jedd Fisch, only won one game last season, placing the Cats last in the PAC South for a third straight year...
Is that our destiny moving forward..??
I certainly hope not but I think this upcoming season may start to tell the story of whether you can "cut and paste" your way to success using the transfer portal, with a one and done or two and done recruiting strategy, versus the more traditional approach of recruiting HS players with which to build your program around...
I think we have enough talent on hand to have a pretty fair to middling season this year but it may not be enough to overcome an improved PAC that includes new coaches at USC and Washington, etc...
I also wonder about how much talent the NY Jets had in Herms' fifth and final season as a head coach there, years ago, when they finished 4-12...
And, in his third and final year as head coach of the Chiefs, after his NY Jets tenure, he went 2-14 and was fired as a result...
Admittedly, he had some success with the Jets early on but by the end of his tenure it was pretty much a disaster...
And, his coaching there was characterized as "marred by chronic clock management problems, a 'play not to lose' offensive philosophy, and a lack of any discernible defensive philosophy" according to a Wikipedia on-line biographical article about him...
I guess time will tell, and time will also tell us whether the "fix" was in between ASU and the NCAA regarding when the Notice of Allegations will come out regarding Herm's program in the future...
I'm of the belief that president Crow may have worked out something with his friend, Mark Emmert, the current NCAA president, who was the president of the Uni of Washington until 2010, before he took over the NCAA job...
Emmert is set to resign from the NCAA on June 30, 2023, so it will be interesting to see whether any NOA arrives at ASU while Emmert is still president of the NCAA (or not)...
I think that as long as Herm wins 4-5-6 games this year he may very well continue to be our football coach in 2023...
Again, this is just my opinion and we'll see how this all plays out moving forward...
To end this post on a more positive note, the Sun Devils are still undefeated at this point, and the PAC had its media event where our new commissioner doesn't seem intimidated by all of the challenges he is facing now, especially after getting the recent news that both USC and UCLA will be leaving for the Big 10 in a couple of years...
Expanding the PAC isn't out of the question but doing something with the Big 12 seems to be out of the question, according to George K...
He mentioned still playing a lot of football in LA, even after the LA schools leave the conference, and who knows what that means...
He also isn't sure that UCLA will be moving out of the PAC since they are in the political doghouse right now in Cal...
Additionally, he said that college football has lost sight of the student-athlete which I'm sure puts a smile of both Crow and Anderson's faces...
They both know about the importance of education in life that apparently includes a new mathematical concept where you can get "Addition by Subtraction" in this brave, new college football universe we have before us today...
So, does this new math equation have any chance of adding up for our football team, under Herm and his staff, this upcoming season..??
Tomorrow is August 1st and the Devils start football practice this week, so I'm sure that we are all thankful for that happening as TGIF cannot come soon enough...
As an aside, we've probably gotten about five inches of rain down here in Geezerville this past week and I'm very thankful for that since we have really needed it...
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
