Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = Start Your Engines and Fasten Your Seat-Belts !!!
The race to get out of the PAC basement, defined as the bottom third of the PAC, will begin in earnest this next year, as three of the four in that cellar position - ASU, Colorado, Stanford - will have new coaches, while the fourth occupant in the cellar dwellers race - Arizona - has moved up a bit under their second year coach, who just got a contract extension for another two years...
We know that Dilly can recruit and run an offense but can he take the new Arizona First Model (AFM), as a head coach, to anything other than a return to a middle of the PAC, most years, for our Sun Devils..??
Is it even possible to think that the Sun Devils under Dilly and his new AFM could approach what Utah, Oregon, USC now under LR, and Washington now under KD, can do in the top third of the conference..??
Sure, the Valley is really big and wide and has plenty of really good HS football players but will enough of them be convinced to be Sun Devils, under Dilly and his staff, to elevate our program moving forward..??
And, then, we have Colorado that is going to hire Deion "Prime Time" Sanders that many consider a huge coup, like me, for the downtrodden Buffs, since he will put recruiting in "neon lights" in Boulder...
I cannot think of any recruit out there, at any star level, that won't answer their phone when Prime Time comes a calling...
But, how far can Prime Time take the Buffs, from a realistic standpoint, given his background, at a school, that is one step removed from a junior college..??
Since I'm a huge proponent of the Talent Is Destiny paradigm to success, in almost any college or pro sport, I feel that Prime Time may be in the leader in the race for those aforementioned teams to get out of the bottom of the PAC the fastest...
However, that said, I think that AU has to be considered the leader, at this point, since they are the only program of the bottom four that has a coach returning and one that has taken the Cats from the very bottom of the conference to now about one short step from the middle of the PAC...
And, Stanford, that handicaps its coaches with stringent academic standards, may or may not come up with a coach that can do what Harbaugh did for them when he was hired years ago...
Can Dilly and his staff get enough talent in place by next season to move us up to around six wins or thereabouts or is that out of the question given the status of our program these days..??
Sure, if we got a QB like Caleb Williams, through the portal, that might elevate us pretty quickly, but I don't see us having nearly enough overall, quality talent to get us within the top half of the PAC by next season...
Utah isn't going anywhere and both the Trojans and Huskies are no longer 4-8 programs, like they were in 2021, when we had our chance to win the PAC but failed...
Nope, those days are long gone but at least we'll be playing for a spot in the CFP system since the PAC champ will get an automatic bid starting in 2024...
So, by 2024, when the CFP expands and both USC and UCLA are members of another conference, can Dilly have us in a position to contend for the PAC championship or is that just a flat out pipe dream..??
Or, is a more realistic expectation one where our Sun Devils have, at the very least, moved back into the PAC middle class, instead of remaining a bottom feeder in the conference..??
At least, like Stanford, we haven't fallen from the PAC penthouse to the PAC cellar which might have been harder to take...
David Shaw won some PAC championships and got the Cardinal to some Rose Bowls while, during the same time period, we didn't have anything close to those sorts of accomplishments...
So, getting back to the topic at hand, what are realistic expectations for our Sun Devils under Dilly next year, and, also, the following year, when the Trojans and Bruins are gone and the CFP system has expanded to 12 teams..??
More importantly, will we be out of the PAC cellar by then and back among the conference middle class..??
The engines are warming up and the drivers have their seat-belts fastened, in the bottom echelons of the PAC, so who would you put your money on to climb out of the PAC basement first and why..??
Let the race begin..
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = Start Your Engines and Fasten Your Seat-Belts !!!
The race to get out of the PAC basement, defined as the bottom third of the PAC, will begin in earnest this next year, as three of the four in that cellar position - ASU, Colorado, Stanford - will have new coaches, while the fourth occupant in the cellar dwellers race - Arizona - has moved up a bit under their second year coach, who just got a contract extension for another two years...
We know that Dilly can recruit and run an offense but can he take the new Arizona First Model (AFM), as a head coach, to anything other than a return to a middle of the PAC, most years, for our Sun Devils..??
Is it even possible to think that the Sun Devils under Dilly and his new AFM could approach what Utah, Oregon, USC now under LR, and Washington now under KD, can do in the top third of the conference..??
Sure, the Valley is really big and wide and has plenty of really good HS football players but will enough of them be convinced to be Sun Devils, under Dilly and his staff, to elevate our program moving forward..??
And, then, we have Colorado that is going to hire Deion "Prime Time" Sanders that many consider a huge coup, like me, for the downtrodden Buffs, since he will put recruiting in "neon lights" in Boulder...
I cannot think of any recruit out there, at any star level, that won't answer their phone when Prime Time comes a calling...
But, how far can Prime Time take the Buffs, from a realistic standpoint, given his background, at a school, that is one step removed from a junior college..??
Since I'm a huge proponent of the Talent Is Destiny paradigm to success, in almost any college or pro sport, I feel that Prime Time may be in the leader in the race for those aforementioned teams to get out of the bottom of the PAC the fastest...
However, that said, I think that AU has to be considered the leader, at this point, since they are the only program of the bottom four that has a coach returning and one that has taken the Cats from the very bottom of the conference to now about one short step from the middle of the PAC...
And, Stanford, that handicaps its coaches with stringent academic standards, may or may not come up with a coach that can do what Harbaugh did for them when he was hired years ago...
Can Dilly and his staff get enough talent in place by next season to move us up to around six wins or thereabouts or is that out of the question given the status of our program these days..??
Sure, if we got a QB like Caleb Williams, through the portal, that might elevate us pretty quickly, but I don't see us having nearly enough overall, quality talent to get us within the top half of the PAC by next season...
Utah isn't going anywhere and both the Trojans and Huskies are no longer 4-8 programs, like they were in 2021, when we had our chance to win the PAC but failed...
Nope, those days are long gone but at least we'll be playing for a spot in the CFP system since the PAC champ will get an automatic bid starting in 2024...
So, by 2024, when the CFP expands and both USC and UCLA are members of another conference, can Dilly have us in a position to contend for the PAC championship or is that just a flat out pipe dream..??
Or, is a more realistic expectation one where our Sun Devils have, at the very least, moved back into the PAC middle class, instead of remaining a bottom feeder in the conference..??
At least, like Stanford, we haven't fallen from the PAC penthouse to the PAC cellar which might have been harder to take...
David Shaw won some PAC championships and got the Cardinal to some Rose Bowls while, during the same time period, we didn't have anything close to those sorts of accomplishments...
So, getting back to the topic at hand, what are realistic expectations for our Sun Devils under Dilly next year, and, also, the following year, when the Trojans and Bruins are gone and the CFP system has expanded to 12 teams..??
More importantly, will we be out of the PAC cellar by then and back among the conference middle class..??
The engines are warming up and the drivers have their seat-belts fastened, in the bottom echelons of the PAC, so who would you put your money on to climb out of the PAC basement first and why..??
Let the race begin..
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
