Yardbarker: Arizona State Sun Devils

Game Day Notes - Arizona St.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:03:43 -0500

USC can't possible lose two weeks in a row can they? That pretty much seems to be the consensus from all the pundits and analysts. I agree with that assessment, but SC is far from being out of the woods after last weeks loss in Eugene. I don't think I am breaking any earth shattering news that SC is officially in some sort of rebuilding/retooling mode. Plain and simple the road schedule, our youth and our thinning depth really exposed many of SC's flaws that many of us are n...

ASU Depth Takes A Hit

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:38:27 -0500

Buried at the bottom Jeff Metcalfe’s story about Deveron Carr possibly getting a start across Pierre Singfield on Saturday against USC is the the real big news of the week so far for Arizona State. Two players from the Devils’ vaunted-but-underachieving units will be shelved for the remainder of 2009. -WR TJ Simpson will have a screw [...]

NCAA Football Betting: California vs Arizona State

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:20:00 -0500

The California Golden Bears and the Arizona State Sun Devils will both be trying to pick up a win on Saturday when they battle at Sun Devil Stadium. Oddsmakers currently have the Golden Bears listed as 7-point favorites versus the Sun Devils, while the game's total is sitting at 51. California took a 49-17 win over Washington State at Memorial Stadium in Week 8. WSU covered as a 36.5-point road underdog while the final score played over the 60-point total. Arizona State was defeated 33-14...

ESPN: Cal, ASU Try to Get Their Groove Back

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:41:00 -0500

Ted Miller It hasn't been an easy season for Arizona State quarterback Danny Sullivan, but often adversity brings enlightenment. Sullivan, it seems, understands the Pac-10 -- and college football for that matter -- perfectly. "You can be a good team the first week and completely change the next week just based on who you are playing and how they are trying to exploit you," he said. California, which visits Sullivan and the Sun Devils on Saturday (3:30 EST, ABC...

Uninspired Devils Drop Pivotal Swing Game

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:41:49 -0500

This blog post will be about as inspiring as the Arizona State Sun Devils effort was in tonights 33-14 loss to Stanford. Here are the facts. The Sun Devils defense came to play for one half. The offense came to play for zero minutes. Danny Sullivan struggled mightily again and ended up on a trainer’s table. Brock Osweiler, admittedly, [...]

Sullivan looking forward to heading home

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:33:40 -0500

When the Arizona State Sun Devils last visited Stanford in 2007, Danny Sullivan was a sophomore backup quarterback playing behind firmly entrenched starter Rudy Carpenter. The Sun Devils easily beat the Cardinal 41-3, and Sullivan got garbage time duty, completing his only pass of the night–a 7-yarder to Jeff Gray. Two years later, things are [...]

UW vs. ASU Recap

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:30:00 -0500

Coming into their game against the Arizona State Sun Devils, the .500 Huskies had struggled with a quite a few aspects of the game. Against Stanford, the physicality of the Cardinal and the power running game of Toby Gerhart shocked the Huskies coming off their upset of USC. And last week, UW could not stop one simple play until the end of the game, the bubble screen.

Consequently, on the defensive side of the ball, the Huskies came into Tempe with a new scheme to stop the run, and Nick Holt hoped he had ironed out the troubles with the bubble screen. In the end however, big gains through the ground gave momentum to the Sun Devils, and a new offensive play arose for the Huskies to mishandle, the reverse.

After a promising pass from Locker to Aguilar for a 49-yard touchdown, Arizona State responded with two momentum shifting drives. The second drive took advantage of a reverse play in the early minutes of the first quarter by T.J Simpson, which went for 30 yards. They ran what looked like a nearly identical play with Kyle Williams, but this time the Sun Devils capitalized off the Husky defense that thought they saw a repeat of the play that hurt them earlier.

Instead of Williams running the ball around the end, he passed to T.J Simpson in the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown, putting Arizona State up by a score.

The lack of physicality on both sides of the ball for UW also proved deadly. On offense, the line was completely manhandled by the superior play of the ASU defensive line. All game, Locker was under pressure, and in this game his feet could not save him. Also, not surprisingly, the inconsistent running game of the Huskies continued.

Despite one homerun by Chris Polk, for 23 yards, the Huskies could not move the ball on the ground, putting them in a tough situation against a team that takes much pride in their defense.

For the struggling defense, the woes continued. Simply put, the defense just does not have the talent that is present on the offensive side of the ball. Certainly, Nick Holt is an experienced defensive coordinator, but it may take him a few years to recruit the talent that is present on the offensive side of the ball because of the misdoings of the Willingham staff.

As it is now, the defensive line cannot get pressure on the quarterback, and this gives quarterbacks all day to navigate their way through a weak secondary. Danny Sullivan of ASU passed for 263 yards and a touchdown in this game, and he certainly made the Husky defense look inexperienced at times.

On the run, the front seven is continually overpowered by superior play as they were on this Saturday in which the Sun Devils rushed for 169 yards.

But this game was really defined by the lack of mental toughness for both teams. It was an ugly game, dominated by penalties, and neither team really deserved to win. The Huskies racked up 124 yards on 12 penalties, and as a result, it seemed that every decent gain through the air or on the ground was just to get back to the original line of scrimmage.

On defense, big stops were canceled by bone headed penalties. In the first quarter, it seemed the Sun Devils were loosing their cool mentally, and they certainly did. All game, ASU’s defense was wasting energy taunting and yelling at the Huskies. It was reasonable to think Locker and the Huskies would capitalize off this immaturity, but they fell into the same trap themselves and it became more of a dogfight than a football game.

The Huskies cannot expect to win when they turn the ball over and make ample penalties.

However, it is somewhat comforting to see that the Huskies were in the game till the final seconds against a formidable opponent, even though the Huskies played horrifically. The play everyone will be talking about is the third and one at the end of the fourth quarter. Instead of running the ball, or giving Locker the short pass or run option, Sarkisian unsuccessfully took a shot down the field.

It seems Sarkisian expected the corner to bite on the slant route as he did earlier in the game, leaving the deep route open, but this was not the case. This meant the Sun Devils got the ball with only seconds on the clock, and it seemed the game would head into overtime. But the lack of heady play continued for the Huskies.

Chris McGaha, who was sick all week felt much better after he somehow got behind the Washington secondary for his only catch of the game, a 50-yard touchdown to put ASU up by a score. This left the Huskies with one Hail Mary attempt, which ended with a pick to end the game.

This series of events at the end show Steve Sarkisian is still developing as a head coach, and there are signs he could be a great one, but he will most definitely learn from Saturday’s loss. The Washington staff lost control of their players, and in the end, perhaps a bit of over coaching on the third and one play hurt Washington’s chances.

Surely, however, Sarkisian will work hard to get his team ready for one of their toughest games of the year at home against the No. 12 Ducks. Jeremiah Masoli will most likely return in that game, and he will certainly be tough assignment for the UW defense. It will be very interesting see how the Huskies respond in this game; they need to put this past Saturday’s game behind them and remember their true identity as a well coached, smart football team.

The Husky faithful will continue to bark for Sark, this game was simply a bump in the road that Washington will overcome.

ASU shocks U-W on Sullivan bomb with :05 left

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:30:26 -0500

TEMPE, Ariz.(AP) Danny Sullivan threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Chris McGaha with five seconds to play Saturday night to give Arizona State a stunning 24-17 victory over Washington.

The Pac-10 is getting defensive

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:52:13 -0500

It wasn't long ago when the nation said the Pac-10 is soft because they didn't play defense well. Many claimed the conference was an offensive oriented one--and on most accounts they were right. But things appear to be changing. To start week seven of the college football season the Pac-10 has five teams ranked 21 or higher in total defense. Let’s take a glance at those five teams.

An Arizona State Weblogger Talks About His Team

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:55:10 -0500

Blogging delays, both here at home and out in the Grand Canyon State, caused this posting to hit the internet later than any of us would have liked, but you may think of this as a special bonus posting.I exchanged questions with SB Nation's Arizona St. Sun Devils blogger, Cory Williams. My responses to his questions appear at House of Sparky, while his answers to my inquires appear after the jump. Dawg Sports: Whom should the Bulldogs fear on offense? House of Spa...

Too Much Information: Georgia Bulldogs v. Arizona State Sun Devils

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:21:13 -0500

This week, Too Much Information comes to you literally a day late and figuratively a dollar short, for which I apologize profusely. I can only offer in my own defense the fact that, on Friday, I had other matters with which to deal, so I’ll be honest with you . . . what you’re getting this time around may fall more in the category of Just the Right Amount of Information; viz.: Odds and Ends Mark Richt’s teams are 34-4 in out-of-conference games and have gone 22-1 against non-SEC opp...

Six Points: What we learned from ASU’s 50-3 win over Idaho State

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:58:36 -0500

It was supposed to be easy. It was. Arizona State crushed the Idaho State Bengals 50-3 to open the 2009 season at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday night. The Devils racked up 199 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground while Thomas Weber tied a school-record with 5 field goals in the win. But this [...]

Indians Blow 7-0 Lead to Rays; Are We Having Fun Yet?

Fri, 15 May 2009 23:27:57 -0500

Long about the top of the fourth inning of Friday night's game, just about the time Shin-soo Choo blasted his two-run homer giving the Tribe a 7-0 lead, I began to think - "I'm finally having fun."

The baseball season is just about six weeks old now, and not one of those weeks has brought any enjoyment to Tribe fans.

That started to change this week.

Going into Friday's game, the Tribe had won 3 of their last 4 games, put together their first winning streak (2 games) since mid-April (also 2 games) and had whittled their deficit in the A.L. Central to 4 1/2 games.

And for the first 3 1/2 innings Friday, they were blowing out Scott Kazmir and the Rays.

And then all the ugliness of the first five weeks returned.

The offense shut down completely, putting up just two hits in the final 5 2/3 innings.

Starting pitcher Anthony Reyes was unable to get out of the sixth.

The bullpen - which seemed to be getting itself together at least a bit recently - took a sharp turn back toward hideous.

Tony Sipp, brought in to get out one lefty, walked that lefty.

Jensen Lewis followed, getting smacked for 3 hits and a run over 1 inning and leaving a mess for Raffie Betancourt in the seventh.

Betancourt came in with one out and runners on second and third and the Tribe still clinging to a 7-6 lead. A strikeout, an intentional walk and a popout later and it looked like maybe things might be OK.

Until the eighth inning, when Betancourt gave up a dinger to the first batter of the inning - Ben Zobrist.

And then the ninth inning when Luis Vizcaino - making his Tribe debut - gave up a blast to B.J. Upton - the first batter Vizcaino faced as an Indian - and we were right back where we've been for the past five weeks.

There was a time when this game was fun. I swear it. Sometimes it feels like it will never be that way again.

Sam Keller Suing EA Sports & NCAA, What a Crybaby!

Wed, 13 May 2009 22:47:55 -0500

Sam Keller might just be the biggest baby on this planet. I for one think it would be very awesome if I was the starting quarterback at a major university and had a video game version of myself to show all my friends to keep forever. Most of us create ourselves on the games anyways just to imagine what it would look like to see ourselves playing QB or RB or some other position at a division I college. For Keller that means easy money after failing to reach his goal of playing football in the ...

Duel in the Desert

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:26:48 -0500

As the big game approaches my skin crawls with hatred for the scummies. I can not tell you how much venom I have deep in my heart for those classless chuckle heads from Tempe. To quote a dear friend of mine, "The two easiest things to get in Tempe are STD's and a Degree."(Thanks Dom)

ASU's Sparky Running For County Supervisor

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:17:15 -0500

Described as an up-and-coming Democrat, 24-year old Ed Hermes was Arizona State's mascot for four years before graduating in 2006, and a one-time contestant on MTV's Room Raiders. He is looking to become Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors' youngest member ever.

GAME - UNLV Rebels @ Arizona State Sun Devils 09-13-2008

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:47:46 -0500

Chris Jessie Pictures and Video

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:41:16 -0500

The now infamous Chris Jessie has been found. Pretty funny stuff. He clearly married up, onto Texas' sideline. Let's hope for Him Mack Brown lets him stay in the family.