Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = Summer Projections and Questions
Well, another academic year is coming to a close and with it the ASU athletic dept won't be playing any sports until school returns in the Fall...we still can look forward to the baseball team advancing to the playoffs, and the golf team playing for a national championship this coming week but after that it's another long, hot summer to survive in Arizona...
Thankfully, it hasn't been too bad, temperature wise, this Spring for the most part but, as we all know, that will change dramatically very soon when 100 degree plus temperatures arrive...of course, in the coming weeks, not only high temps will arrive but so will our new football players which is always something to look forward to...
As is the custom, this is also the time of year that some preseason magazines begin to hit the news-stands with their predictions for the coming football season and I picked up two yesterday...TSN and Athlon's PAC edition...
The Sporting News picks the Devils 4th in the PAC South behind USC, UCLA and AU because the person doing the picking is none other than Bruce Pascoe, who writes for the Daily Star down here in Tucson, so it is no surprise, whatsoever, that he picks the Sun Devils there and, as a result, I'm not going to waste any time discussing his point of view here...
Meanwhile, Athlon, projects the Devils 2nd in the PAC South behind USC and has them rated 13th in the country which, I think, is about right given what the Devils have returning and the fact that they get 5 PAC home games this year...
Athlon introduces five key "advanced stats" to their evaluation process this year: 1) starting field position 2) efficiency 3) explosiveness 4) finishing drives and 5) adjusted turnover margin....
Trying to explain these categories would require that we all return to school for a semester or two, after taking a refresher course in statistics and scientific theory, where I'm not sure that they would have much in the way of predictive value aside from the last category: Turnover Margin...
Under Graham, the Devils have excelled in this category primarily, I would assume, because he utilizes an attacking defensive philosophy that creates a lot of negative offensive plays by the opposing team which, oftentimes, leads to easy ASU scores as a result...
Being a confirmed dinosaur, I'm more anecdotally centered and, therefore, rely on my observational abilities as a fan to try and figure out things rather than look at geek sheets to solve the "what leads to success" questions related to football...
Anyway, Athlon predicts that the Devils will finish 9-3 and 7-2 and play Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl because "Berco is a capable and experienced replacement for TK and DJ will help assuage the loss of J Strong and the backfield is good, as is the offensive line...plus the aggressive defense will be good and they also get USC, Oregon and AU at home" etc...(my paraphrasing)...
Additionally, a consulting coach, who goes unnamed as always, says "I can't speak to their locker room dynamic last year, but I'm not sure they were playing the right QB...I know TK was their guy but Berco was more dynamic when he was playing...he's got legitimate arm talent...Strong made their passing game look stronger than it was so his loss is huge for them...defensively, Graham is one of the best in the business and they attack you from all sorts of directions that make it hard to prepare for"...(again, my paraphrasing)....
There are a lot of questions to be answered this season related to the coaching in the PAC which come down primarily to these in my mind...
Now that ASU, AU, UCLA and Wazzu are in the 4th year of new coaching tenures and, therefore, playing with their guys, who is going to rise to the top...Graham, Mora or Rich Rod (we can forget Leach, I think)...
The same goes for Shaw at Stanford, who inherited a great program from Harbaugh but can he maintain it with his guys now..??
Also, what about Sark at USC where Athlon had this to say "USC has the best collection of top-end talent in the league but the Trojans are still lacking depth...also, we're not sold on Sark, who has never lost fewer than three PAC games in six seasons as a head coach in the PAC"...
Okie Dokie...so these are the questions for the day...
1) Who is going to emerge as the best coach after this season from the Graham, Mora and Rich Rod group..??
2) Are the Cardinal going backwards under Shaw..??
3) Will the Trojans win the South and the PAC with Sark at the helm..??
I think it will also be interesting to see what happens at Oregon with Mariota gone and I'm looking forward to see how Andersen does at Oregon St and to see how Petersen does at Wash, especially since he didn't set the world on fire last year with three first round draft picks on the team...
I also think that the PAC South is the top division in not only the PAC but, perhaps, the entire country...
Have a great Memorial Day and thanks to all that are serving and have served this great country of ours...
G'day Mates...Championships or Bust...Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = Summer Projections and Questions
Well, another academic year is coming to a close and with it the ASU athletic dept won't be playing any sports until school returns in the Fall...we still can look forward to the baseball team advancing to the playoffs, and the golf team playing for a national championship this coming week but after that it's another long, hot summer to survive in Arizona...
Thankfully, it hasn't been too bad, temperature wise, this Spring for the most part but, as we all know, that will change dramatically very soon when 100 degree plus temperatures arrive...of course, in the coming weeks, not only high temps will arrive but so will our new football players which is always something to look forward to...
As is the custom, this is also the time of year that some preseason magazines begin to hit the news-stands with their predictions for the coming football season and I picked up two yesterday...TSN and Athlon's PAC edition...
The Sporting News picks the Devils 4th in the PAC South behind USC, UCLA and AU because the person doing the picking is none other than Bruce Pascoe, who writes for the Daily Star down here in Tucson, so it is no surprise, whatsoever, that he picks the Sun Devils there and, as a result, I'm not going to waste any time discussing his point of view here...
Meanwhile, Athlon, projects the Devils 2nd in the PAC South behind USC and has them rated 13th in the country which, I think, is about right given what the Devils have returning and the fact that they get 5 PAC home games this year...
Athlon introduces five key "advanced stats" to their evaluation process this year: 1) starting field position 2) efficiency 3) explosiveness 4) finishing drives and 5) adjusted turnover margin....
Trying to explain these categories would require that we all return to school for a semester or two, after taking a refresher course in statistics and scientific theory, where I'm not sure that they would have much in the way of predictive value aside from the last category: Turnover Margin...
Under Graham, the Devils have excelled in this category primarily, I would assume, because he utilizes an attacking defensive philosophy that creates a lot of negative offensive plays by the opposing team which, oftentimes, leads to easy ASU scores as a result...
Being a confirmed dinosaur, I'm more anecdotally centered and, therefore, rely on my observational abilities as a fan to try and figure out things rather than look at geek sheets to solve the "what leads to success" questions related to football...
Anyway, Athlon predicts that the Devils will finish 9-3 and 7-2 and play Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl because "Berco is a capable and experienced replacement for TK and DJ will help assuage the loss of J Strong and the backfield is good, as is the offensive line...plus the aggressive defense will be good and they also get USC, Oregon and AU at home" etc...(my paraphrasing)...
Additionally, a consulting coach, who goes unnamed as always, says "I can't speak to their locker room dynamic last year, but I'm not sure they were playing the right QB...I know TK was their guy but Berco was more dynamic when he was playing...he's got legitimate arm talent...Strong made their passing game look stronger than it was so his loss is huge for them...defensively, Graham is one of the best in the business and they attack you from all sorts of directions that make it hard to prepare for"...(again, my paraphrasing)....
There are a lot of questions to be answered this season related to the coaching in the PAC which come down primarily to these in my mind...
Now that ASU, AU, UCLA and Wazzu are in the 4th year of new coaching tenures and, therefore, playing with their guys, who is going to rise to the top...Graham, Mora or Rich Rod (we can forget Leach, I think)...
The same goes for Shaw at Stanford, who inherited a great program from Harbaugh but can he maintain it with his guys now..??
Also, what about Sark at USC where Athlon had this to say "USC has the best collection of top-end talent in the league but the Trojans are still lacking depth...also, we're not sold on Sark, who has never lost fewer than three PAC games in six seasons as a head coach in the PAC"...
Okie Dokie...so these are the questions for the day...
1) Who is going to emerge as the best coach after this season from the Graham, Mora and Rich Rod group..??
2) Are the Cardinal going backwards under Shaw..??
3) Will the Trojans win the South and the PAC with Sark at the helm..??
I think it will also be interesting to see what happens at Oregon with Mariota gone and I'm looking forward to see how Andersen does at Oregon St and to see how Petersen does at Wash, especially since he didn't set the world on fire last year with three first round draft picks on the team...
I also think that the PAC South is the top division in not only the PAC but, perhaps, the entire country...
Have a great Memorial Day and thanks to all that are serving and have served this great country of ours...
G'day Mates...Championships or Bust...Go Devils!!!
