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Man that was some bad basketball. The Arizona State Sun Devils stank it up in a 47-43 loss to USC Saturday. Wow, my landlady could have scored more, and she’s 48. Sadly this puts us 0-2 in PAC-10 play. From azcentral.com; “The Sun Devils were dreadful offensively Saturday night, producing just 11 field goals in a 47-37 loss to Southern California. It was the first time ASU’s been held under 40 points since Nov. 27, 1991. Demetrius Walker led the Sun Devils with 11 points. Jamelle McMillan added 10. Derek Glasser finished 1 of 8 from the field. Ty Abbott was 0 of 7. Overall, the Sun Devils shot 24.4 percent, their worst performance since at least the 1987-88 season” Man, where is the scoring going to come from against quality competition this year? How about this from fanster.com; “ASU’s offense was so downright pathetic, I expected Danny Sullivan to check in at point guard for the Sun Devils. Since we’re on football, there were two games on Pac-10 gridirons this past season that were higher scoring than Saturday’s stink fest in L.A.” Ha Ha, Danny Sullivan? Where are you going? I ain’t through with you by a damn sight!!

So who is going to be the starting QB for the Sun Devils this week vs UCLA on Saturday? Does it even matter? Everybody seems banged up, Danny Sullivan with a bicep injury, Brock Osweiler has a hurt shoulder (non-throwing arm) and Samson Szakacsy has had a bad elbow all year. Szakacsy did a pretty Ok job in the loss to Oregon. From houseofsparky.com; ”It wasn’t ALL bad, however. Samson Szakacsy played well given the circumstances, and it is nice to get him playing time in a loud environment such as Autzen Stadium. He ended up going 13/22 with a TD pass, and he also ran for 9 yards on 5 attempts.” As a fan I don’t know what to expect from these guys anymore and my expectations are low. It looks like Szakacsy is going to get the start for better or worse. From ktar.com; ”With all of those factors in play Erickson is not going to rush to make a decision about who will be the signal caller when the Sun Devils travel to UCLA on Saturday. “We’ll just wait and see, I haven’t decided what we are going to do yet,” Erickson said. Erickson does expect Sullivan and Osweiler to be back and available but will need to see how practice goes throughout the week. In practice Szakacsy is expected to take most of the snaps with the first team this week. If Szakacsy would start on Saturday if would be his first career start.”

Its pretty much a done deal, Danny Sullivan injured his bicep and did not throw in practice Wednesday. And because of the injury Samson Szakacsy will likely be the backup to Osweiler. From eastvalleytribune.com; ”There is a question as to whether Sullivan could even be the backup. Samson Szakacsy has been taking the repetitions with the second team, and if Sullivan’s injury doesn’t get better, Szakacsy would be the backup. Erickson said Osweiler has done OK in the two days of practice this week. He’s not making every perfect throw or making every perfect read,” Erickson said. “He’s learning. He hasn’t played, so it’s like any guy that hasn’t played at that position. He’s like anybody else. It will be a tremendous learning experience.” This game is definitely going to be a learning experience. Playing at Oregon is never easy. From fanster.com; ”Forget that it’s Osweiler’s first start for a moment though; let’s get straight to the fact that his grand debut will take in the most hostile of hostile environments. Autzen Stadium eats players alive. Ask Matt Barkley. Brock’s first career start will be an ultimate test of his young mental strength. He already took in one complete half against a perennial conference power; a highly diluted 2009 version of USC, mind you; but he held his own.” At the very least you hope Osweiler can keep us in the game and maybe put together a game winning drive to win it at the end. I hope.

USC is coming to Tempe after losing big to Oregon. The Sun Devils have a 9 game losing streak against USC and unless the we play a perfect game that streak is going to continue. By “perfect game” I mean no turn-overs, establish the running game, play excellent defense and I don’t know, start someone else at quarterback! We have our work cut out for us. From statepress.com; ”And if ASU wants to beat USC for the first time since 1999, it will have to start faster. The Sun Devil offense fell behind by at least 14 points before scoring its first touchdown for the second consecutive week against Cal and currently ranks seventh or lower in the conference in every major offensive category. We’re just not consistent, [and] we’re digging ourselves in a hole to start the game,” Sullivan said. “We’re leaving ourselves in tougher third-down situations — third-and-nine to 11. That’s hard. We do fine when we get in manageable third downs, but we haven’t been doing that.” Sully, Sully. It was cool to see Samson Szakacsy take a couple of snaps last Saturday and maybe, hopefully we will see the same against USC. “Another player that could also weave his way into more game action is sophomore quarterback Samson Szakacsy, who recorded his first pass attempt, completion and touchdown on the same play in the second quarter when he was inserted into the game inside the Cal 5-yard line and found senior tight end Jovon Williams in the end zone on the first play of the drive. If his arm was totally healthy, it’d be different, because he gives you a little bit of a different dimension,” Erickson said. “But [the arm strength is] not there, so we’ve just got to kind of pick and choose what we do with him. We’ll continue to use him in a limited basis — goal-line [and] short-yardage [situations] — [and we’ll] do some option stuff with him and try to take advantage of his athletic ability.” We have an uphill battle ahead of us. ASU needs to win two of the next four games to be bowl eligible.

That was horrible performance put on by the Sun Devils Saturday against Stanford. The offense is always shaky but this time the defense decided not to show up. It was going to be tough but the defense didn’t even put up a fight. From azcentral.com; ”It was head-scratching the way Stanford’s offense picked apart ASU, which came into this game ranked first in the conference in total defense and rush defense. The Sun Devils had allowed an average of 57.8 rushing yards per game. The Cardinal had that by the second quarter Saturday.” That sucks, and to think we will be facing Jahvid Best , one of the “best” running backs in the nation on Saturday. And good old Danny Sullivan? He reverted back to his uninspiring ways. And Sullivan is still going to get the start against Cal this Saturday. And how about penalties? Vontaze Burfict added two more personal fouls in the first half. So we had that going for us. Is the season over for the Sun Devils? Should we throw in the towel? If so can we please start Brock Osweiler! I don’t think so. Osweiler is not going to start any time soon. Things could get worse before they get any better if they get better at all. We face Cal then USC. Jeez , I hope we can at least beat Arizona. it looks like that may be the only thing that could salvage this season.

The Sun Devils had a lot of penalty yards in the win against Washington. One of the main culprits was a freshman linebacker named Vontaze Burfict. Burfict isn’t just any player he was the highest-ranked football prospect ever to sign a letter of intent to attend Arizona State University. He is ferocious, playing at the highest intensity at all times. He is going to have a great career at ASU. Right now he is young and playing on raw emotion. And Dennis Erickson doesn’t seem to mind to much. From azcentral.com; “The last thing Erickson wants is to water down Burfict’s passion. “He got carried away,” Erickson said. “That’s how he is, but he’s got to control it. I love his intensity. I don’t want to slow his intensity down because it’s contagious for the rest of the players, for the fans and for everybody involved in the program. But he’s got to be smart, and I know he will.” Burfict is exciting to watch and just one of the many reasons the ASU defense is one of the best in the nation. The game against Stanford is important, there are a lot of important PAC-10 games this weekend like USC vs Oregon. A win against Stanford would do a lot for our bowl prospects. From fanster.com; ”Both the Sun Devils and Cardinal, sitting at four wins a piece, need a win on Saturday to buoy each of their fragile bowl dreams. ASU and Stanford both come up on a brutal stretch of games after they face-off in Palo Alto this weekend and would desperately like to take this one to to a place where they’ll only need to steal one win down the stretch to earn a bowl berth.” Lets go Sun Devils! I hope Danny Sullivan can pull another game winner out of his ass!

Man that was one hell of a game!! It was close to a sellout at Sun Devil Stadium and those in attendance got to watch one of the best college football games of the year. Danny Sullivan threw a game winning touch down pass to Chris McGaha in the final seconds for 24-17 victory. Thats right sport fans I said Danny Sullivan. Earlier this year I was at the Idaho State game sitting with a bunch of ASU fans and as the Devils took the field when someone in the crowd yelled “Hey Sullivan, kill yourself” everyone in the crowd laughed. I think on Saturday night he may have just redeemed himself. On my Facebook page I said “wow Danny I didn’t know you had it in you” A friend commented back “he Didn’t, UW defense fell asleep”. He has a point but I think a more important point was Sullivan saw an opportunity and took it, under pressure. That success is going to a a lot for his confidence. From fanster.com; “I think the game-winning strike to McGaha capped off what was a real night of growing up for Danny Sullivan. For the first time all season, he looked confident. Cool in the pocket. Dare I say…in control? I dare. He was in control of the football game.” Dimitri Nance had another solid performance, Thomas Weber was off all night, he is no where near %100. Penalties. We had 99 yards in penalties, The majority of those came in the first half. Vontaze Burfict was responsible for three personal fouls. That guy is an animal. I thought he was going to tear some ones head off and shit down their neck at any moment. From houseofsparky.com;”Vontaze Burfict is extremely talented, but he needs to check himself before he wrecks himself: He runs around like he is about to kill whoever gets in his way, and I love having him on our side. But at times last night, he was literally out of control. We cannot have him committing so many penalties. It makes us look bad and ruined several good defense stops. In time, he will be considered one of the best. For now, he needs to realize what is important- making plays before the whistle blows.” And how about Chris McGaha, only caught one pass but it was the one that counted. How could you leave one of the best receivers in the country open?

Our quarterback throws three interceptions, the team combines six total, the kicker misses two extra points and our head coach gets tackled on the sideline. You’d think it would be a loss but ASU managed to pull it off with a 27-14 win. Danny Sullivan still sucks and Dennis Erickson is still behind him %100. It wasn’t all that bad was it? From eastvalleytribune.com; “He did throw a pair of touchdown passes and was at the controls for all four scoring drives, including an impressive two-minute drill to close the first half in which he connected on 6 of 7 passes — five of them to Kyle Williams, who had a career-high 13 catches for 126 yards.” At least Brock Osweiler got a few snaps on three possessions in the second quarter. “The 6-foot-8 freshman — who had a large rooting section on hand from his hometown of Kalispell, Mont. — completed 3 of 4 passes for 21 yards, but fumbled away a snap and missed on an easy third-down pass to a wide-open Gerell Robinson that “I complete 99 times out of 100,” he said. “I’m just really hoping my performance today leads me to getting some more time out there on the field. I’m to the point where I’m ready to roll and whatever this team needs me to do I’m ready for.” I bet he could do a lot better if he had more playing time. Our kicker is almost as bad as our quarterback. Bobby Wenzig missed two extra points. Thomas Weber needs to get healthy and fast! Then coach Erickson gets taken out in the third quarter, apparently by one of his own players. He was on his back for a moment then yelled the staff to fuck-off when they wanted him to sit down for the rest of the quarter. Now the good news. The defense played great as usual. From fanster.com; “After registering just 1 sack in the Sun Devils’ first 4 games, the defensive line imposed their will and dominated on Saturday, piling up 9.5 sacks against the Cougars. Granted, the Washington State offensive line was banged up, and was starting 253-pound freshman Alex Reitnouer at left guard, but it’s still an impressive performance. The trio of Lawrence Guy, James Brooks and Dexter Davis combined for 6.5 sacks by themselves. I think the overall domination was a combo of Wazoo’s line being overmatched and ASU’s talented front four getting sick of hearing about how they only had one sack on the season.” And Dimitri Nance had a career high 113 yards rushing. Good job buddy. You can’t really put any of this into perspective because WSU sucks. If any of this post doesn’t make sense or is not true it’s because I didn’t actually see the game. For some insane reason the game wasn’t on TV. Thanks PAC-10.

Well some good news for ASU came out of the Oregon State game. In a season where dropped passes have killed us, the man with the golden hands, McGaha, caught 15 passes Saturday night. Thats second most in school history. sportingnewstoday.com says “Highlight-reel wideout has arguably the best hands in the country” The record is 19 set by Ron Fair in 1989 and I think that record is safe this year as long as Danny Sullivan is quarterback. I don’t think McGaha is thinking about individual accomplishments. From azcentral.com; ”Right now, it doesn’t mean anything because we lost,” McGaha said of his receptions, which went for 165 yards. “I’m sure maybe later on it will mean something, but right now I’m kind of bitter about the loss.” Can you imagine what kind of numbers this guy would put up if he had a competent quarterback throwing him the ball.

So do you remember what we were talking about at the beginning of the season? Well I think we are right back where we started. Can the Sun Devils finish above .500? The only reason I ask that question is because of who is starting at quarterback. Danny Sullivans play cannot win a game. I think he is respected but I don’t think he inspires confidence from the fans, media or his teammates. From fanster.com; “Twenty years from now, folks will thumb through the Arizona State football media guide (or whatever the digital version of it looks like) and see that Sullivan completed 32 of 58 passes for 332 yards against Oregon State. But anyone who watched last night’s game knows that Sullivan is doing his best, but doesn’t belong as the starting quarterback for Arizona State. By all accounts, Sullivan is respected by his teammates, and gives it his all every Saturday for head coach Dennis Erickson. But he’s got an average arm at best, isn’t mobile, lacks accuracy on mid-range and deep throws, and if his post-game press conference on Saturday is any indication, doesn’t necessarily display the requisite thick skin successful quarterbacks possess. Sullivan was short with many of his answers, thought he played “good enough” and left in a huff about 4 minutes into the proceeding. Sullivan’s reaction reminded many in attendance of a sore loser who just wanted to “take his ball and go home”. Having a quarterback struggle this much wouldn’t be so bad if said quarterback was a freshman. There’s always the possibilty a freshman quarterback will improve. However, I think we are seeing senior Danny Sullivan at his best and that just isn’t good enough. There are other problems with this team, The Offensive line leaves a lot to be desired and special teams have struggled. There are also some really positive things about this team, The defense is great and the running game featuring Dimitri Nance has been impressive at times. If we take those positive things and couple them with Brock Osweiler I think we have a shot at a winning season.

Love this time of year! October is good times, cool temps, football, playoff baseball and costumes. Its hard to beat. And those cooler temps will make enjoyable to watch the Sun Devils take on Oregon State Saturday night in Tempe. Its been 40 years since the Beaves have beaten ASU in Tempe. Thats 16 straight since 1969. And the last time Oregon State won any game in Tempe was 2001 under some interesting circumstances. From kgw.com; ”The Beavers’ only victory in Sun Devil Stadium since the Nixon Administration came on Jan. 1, 2001, when they blitzed Notre Dame 41-9 in the Fiesta Bowl. Oregon State’s coach that day? Dennis Erickson, now in charge at Arizona State.” Jeez, Erickson has been everywhere hasn’t he. I think this is going to be Danny Sullivans game to quite the critics. There are a lot of Sun Devil fans who want to see Brock Osweiler take the reigns. Over at fanster.com they are singing a different tune; “We have seen Brock Osweiler in practice and in exactly one half of one game…against FCS Idaho State, a team whose defense gave up in the 2nd half. Brock’s performance against the Sun Devil defense in practice has been admirable by all accounts and he did play very well in his appearance against the Bengals. However, to throw him into the fire right now, in the midst of what’s shaping up to be the most unpredictable Pac-10 season in a long time, just isn’t going to put ASU in any better position to win. Brock may be more accurate in game action…that’s yet to be seen but he could be…but that will not make any difference if these wide receivers can’t catch the football.” I think the Devils game plan this year is pretty straight forward. Have the defense play awesome , and limit turnovers by establishing a strong running game and having a quarterback who is conservative and avoids forcing the action. Lets hope that plan comes together on Saturday.

PAC-10 play starts on Saturday for the Sun Devils when they take on Oregon State 2-2. This is an important game because the PAC-10 is wide open and a win could bring us closer to playing in the post season. And it looks like Danny Sullivan is going to remain the starting quarterback. In fairness there were some dropped passes in the second half that were not Sullivans fault. What ever the case may be, Coach Dennis Erickson still has confidence in him. From fanster.com; ”Sullivan completed just 10 of 32 passes for 116 yards with one touchdown and one interception in ASU’s 20-17 loss. And he, himself didn’t sugarcoat his performance after the game. “I didn’t play my best game and that’s the worst part about it,” Sullivan said. “I feel so bad for this team because the defense played so well. There were some plays that I should’ve made that I didn’t make and it sucks.” I suppose you could say he didn’t lose the game. What ever. Look if he is going to be the starter, lets get behind him and focus on Oregon State, we have a great defense and a great running game and with Sullivan’s game management, that should be enough for a win in our PAC-10 opener.

You know, when all is said and done, the Devils lost an away game to a Bulldog team that is undefeated in the SEC, by a field goal. That doesn’t make it any easier to stomach but I think it is wise to take a step back and realize what the expectations were at the beginning of the season. The loss by USC really puts this PAC 10 season up for grabs. As for the loss against Georgia. Really only two names stand out. Dimitri Nance and A.J. Green. First the good guy, Dimitri Nance. Nance ran for 92 yards and added another 47 yards in receiving. In fact he was our best receiver. Now the bad guy. watching the game it really seemed like the A.J. Green show. He had 8 receptions for 153 yards and a touchdown. And Green blocked a punt that would have given us the lead. Then there is Danny Sullivan. I believed he would have a decent game because he would be conservative and not try to take over or force passes. He definitely did not try to take over and I think that has more to do with his ability, or lack of. His accuracy was horrible. Brock Osweiler is bigger, stronger, faster and more accurate. I would really like to see him get more playing time. Well its time for PAC-10 play to begin. ASU will face Oregon Sate this Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium and I still believe we have an opportunity for a great season. 

I love a challenge. And so should this Sun Devil team. Well lets get to the match up. Georgia’s defense is bad, at least on paper. However the Bull Dogs are undefeated in the SEC. From azcentral.com; ”Georgia ranks last in the conference in points allowed, passing yards and total yards but still managed to win the past two weeks largely on the back of the offense.” ASU’s offense is firing on all cylinders. And Danny Sullivan may be the perfect quarterback for this game. What I mean to say is Sullivan is expected to manage the offense. That is exactly what is called for. Manage the offense, do a nice mix of running and passing plays and don’t turn the ball over. Our quarterback does not need to carry us on his shoulders. I think the Sun Devil defense will be the key to the game. If the defense plays to its potential the rest of nation is going to take notice.

The Devils do have some concerns, kicker Thomas Weber is going to miss 5-6 games. Walk on Bobby Wenzig made all 5 extra points and a 24 yard field goal against ULM. Lineback Mike Nixon might also see some kicking duties, he was the kicker at his high school as well as the quarterback and safety, From azcentral.com; ”I’ll get a feel and see what happens,” Erickson said. “To be honest with you, I never lost a kicker during a season. All of the years I’ve done this, you wouldn’t think there would be very many firsts. But this is a first. It’s not like you’re three-deep at kicker. That’s not how you operate. You don’t put that many on scholarship.” And then there is the weather. 60 percent chance of showers on game day. I believe that will be in our favor, it will help our defense and if we establish a running game early it should not hurt our offense.

One last thing. I was reading over at pitchforknation and came across this; “Georgia fans are oblivious to anything about your program.  We know you’re from McCain country and your mascot is the Sun Devil.  Beyond that, you’ll be hard pressed to find 10 people that could name 5 players on your team.  Our fans are pretty up to speed on the SEC and Tech.  But you guys are wildly off our radar.  Most of us have probably only seen ASU play twice in the past 3-5 years. Once against us and once against USC on Thanksgiving Night.  Maybe some folks saw the Holiday Bowl.  You are almost never on TV here, and if you are…it’s the 10:00 Fox game.  By then, we’re getting ready to doze off after a long day of tailgating.  If you’re looking to talk match-ups about the game with our fans….good luck.  We just know we’re going to win because we watched what happens when you guys played those other games.  You got mauled.” What ever pigf*#kers, its payback time, Go Devils!!!

Saturday Night was a great night, ASU got the win and I got to hang out on Mill with one of my best friends, who happened to be sporting a new mustache. The verdict on the stache, guys thought it was cool, girls thought it was creepy. The verdict is still out on this Sun Devils team. It has nothing to do with their performance but more to do with their competition. We can talk about the numbers put up against ULM, 38-14 win, 4 touchdowns and a field goal. Two of those touch downs came from Dimitri Nance who ran for 89 yards. Danny Sullivan threw for 220 yards, a career high. It’s difficult to put any of these numbers into context until we face better competition. That will come next Saturday against Georgia. one statistic that is in our favor going into Athens is the fact that we have not turned the ball over. From pitchforknation; ”Dennis Erickson said after his team’s win over ULM that he wasn’t “totally happy” with the performance. But when pointing out the positives of the game, a huge smile washed over Erickson’s face when he mentioned that the Sun Devils have yet to commit a turnover in 2009. Guess, what? At +8 in turnovers in two games, the Sun Devils lead the nation in turnover margin. And looking ahead once again, Georgia has coughed up the ball 9 times in their first 3 games. Look for the Sun Devils to attack the football once again on Saturday.” Turnovers could kill us against Georgia. Vince Marotta at Pitchforknation had another great point. The weather was awesome. The evening had nice mild temps perfect for watching a football game at Sun Devil Stadium, or cruising up and down Mill Ave. Man, Its just like Wooderson said. I get older and those girls stay the same age.