The House Of Heat

Hot diggity, today is the first day of practice! I don't know if this was a Koetter thing or what, but if you're planning on going to practice make sure to call ahead at (480) 965-5053 and get approval to attend. The boys are at Kajikawa Practice Facility (Rural and 6th, Tempe) this week before heading to Camp T next Wednesday.

Even though the mainstream media gets a lot of flack here in the blogosphere, the Valley outlets have been on the ball and done some impressive stuff. In addition to everything mentioned yesterday, Dan Zeiger of the East Valley Tribune does a preview of fall camp and addresses the top 10 questions facing the Sun Devil program. I was actually very taken by this quip of original thought from the first question, addressing the transition from Koetter to Erickson:

Something to watch — though, if it emerges, it will likely not be during the preseason — is how the Sun Devils respond to their coach’s let-players-be-players philosophy. Although Erickson preaches accountability, could ASU choke on the freedoms he gives?

It lends itself to the preconceived notions that Erickson runs a thug program and that trouble brews out of his jetwash after he leaves a particular program, but the point is very valid. I could make the argument that one of the reasons my Fall '98 g.p.a. was a robust 0.67 was that I had too much free time to swill Killian's at the Vine and (theoretically) do bong hits on the roof of my house until 5 am. Just sayin'.

Over at the big paper, Jeff Metcalfe does an excellent job (as usual) of previewing some of the newer faces that will be big-time contributors this year including both newcomers and guys who have worked their way up the depth chart. He also pens a short piece on the coaching change and notes that Omar Bolden, the potential savior of the #2 corner position, will be allowed to practice. Per the same article I'm also stunned to find that the nephew of the O.G. Rudy is an ASU baseball recruit.

Coming soon to Packard Stadium: whiny pipsqueak.

I don't know if it's the coaching change bringing new life to the program or that everybody really hated Koetter for being a jerk to the media, but even the local radio shows are getting on the Sun Devil bandwagon more than usual. KTAR has archived interviews with both Rudy Carpenter and Coach Erickson, and XTRA 910 has an additional hour-long interview with Carp (it's in 4 different parts). For the record I think XTRA's Bickley and Jurecki are twits and KTAR's Doug and Wolf are even worse, but it's nice to hear directly from the guys that are putting the work in to make things better on Saturdays this fall.

Coach E (can we start calling him Eazy-E?) is charismatic and easy to like, but I feel like I'm being set up for a letdown- the more I admire him, the more I know he's going to break my heart even worse, like retiring and leaving us on double-secret probation. Oh well, a smarter feller than myself once said, "tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." Just get ASU to the BCS, that's all I ask. You can get more of Eazy's charm and wit by watching the video of Pac-10 Media day. After the link, click on "archived video"underneath Sparky and the site may require a brief and free registration.

Rudy comes off... like Koetter I guess- not to be insulting, but he's very cerebral and calculated. He sounds like he's coming to grips with who he is and who he needs to be as the leader of this team. He has a fragile psyche reliant upon confidence, which it sounds like he has regained after working with Eazy-E all spring and summer and attending the Manning Passing Academy as an instructor, where NFL scouts told him he has one of the most accurate balls in college today. He said he also really valued being able to pick Peyton Manning's brain at every available opportunity. That confidence will have time to solidify thanks to the home-heavy and soft early season schedule. What will be important is how he rebounds after a bad game or a loss. The playbook will be easier for players to grasp (I'm looking at you, wide receivers) since there's only one for the entire season- apparently Koetter used a different one for each week depending on the opponent.

Erickson's offense allows Carpenter to be more instinctive and quick-thinking as a quarterback rather than over-scheming and removing that intuitiveness that makes good quarterbacks great. Carp's also extremely happy that Offensive Coordinator Rich Olson isn't trying to change his throwing mechanics. He says he wants to “go back to how I was, how Jake [Plummer]was- just playing football.”

The interviews aren't all nuts and bolts. Rudy joked that he and the receivers have been working on end zone celebrations and that new kicker Thomas Weber needs to get ready to kick 35-yard extra points. On the upcoming season, he's looking forward to redeeming himself after last year's piss-poor performance against Cal and the Thanksgiving game against USC is circled on everyone's calendar, although they are all aware of the importance of the in-state rivalry.

“The biggest game for me every year is always UofA” Carpenter added, but after speaking of the emergence of the running game as a strength, he made the quote of the week: “I might not have a lot of TD passes this year but I’ll probably have about 5 or 6 against UofA.” Yippee!

See, the mainstream isn't so bad. I'm a total linkwhore for Everyday Should Be Saturday, but their site is down right now since they have server issues. Do you think espn ever has that problem? I think not. Eh, fuck that shit. On a final note, I have a new must-read-daily fanboy crush on another blog, Kissing Suzy Kolber. It takes "crude" to an artistic level and it's good enough that it actually makes me care about the NFL and fantasy football. Their pop-culture references make me look like a boorish 50-something golf-playing husband and they host a weekly reader's mock draft that's fucking spectacular. Pothead Simpsons fans really make the best journalists, after all.

Labels: anecdotal evidence, blog links, Dirk's a horse's ass, Greatest Fark Evah, hatred for the 4-letter network, I miss college, QnA, Shut up Carp, the new era

Through a lot of linking I found a roundtable discussion brought forth by Trev Alberts of FireMarkMay.com that, while a month old, could use my attention. I'm not yet a blogpoll member but I aspire to be, so here goes...

Your Home Field Advantage

Give the more zealous portion of your fanbase a religion. What's this cult following? Feel free to give the splitters a derogatory nickname.

We all bow to Frank Kush, the patron saint of Sun Devil football who was professionally crucified by those whom he had come to enlighten- a camp catalyzed by a false idol, none other than a flag-waving kicker. (as everyone knows, kickers are NOT football players) The congregation became disillusioned and dissolved in the following years by carpetbaggers such as Rodgers and Cooper, then demoralized by Marmie the incompetent. Savior Jake Plummer had come to restore joy to the desert, but by that time the barbarians of professional sport had fully infiltrated the holy land and many followers had converted to the dark side. Our sect became divided in recent years, falling into the camps of lovers and haters and split by one man's papacy, Dirk Koetter. Koetter was forced out after piss-poor performance and record-setting bad decisions, which allowed for the new savior to enter our church, one Dennis Erickson. In a throwback to the old testament of Kush, Erickson preaches ideas once thought to be antiquated, like a running game and a physical defense. Lovers and haters are reunited and hope is restored in Sun Devil Land as we wander through the desert, although not-so-aimlessly anymore.

If this piece doesn't get me into hell for violation of the 1st Commandment, nothing will.

Your biggest rival is in town, and College Gameday is coming....to your citaaaaaaay... Create a blatant corporate sellout promotion to appeal to the mass unwashed.

In the spirit of espn being onsite, Pat Tillman's death will be exploited to the grandest extent. Gold-colored Army Ranger berets will be administered to the first 50,000 attendees, the marching band does a patriotic 4th of July-style set at halftime, and there is a missing man flyover to accompany the fireworks after each Sun Devil score.

Add one local delicacy to your stadium's concessions. Post-tax pricing is optional.

Other than alcohol? For four bucks apiece, Filiberto's (or whatever it's called now) offers burritos made to order. The tortilla throwing tradition takes on a whole new level when players and cheerleaders start slipping on fresh-made guacamole, but Michael Crow puts the kibash on the whole thing after a male cheerleader dies when a chorizo and egg burrito funnels through a megaphone and asphyxiates him. Jan had spirit, yes he did...

With an unlimited AD budget, add or subtract one thing to your school's gameday experience that has nothing to do with football.

Lot 59 is replaced with sod, shade trees, and plumbing facilities because quite frankly we are light years behind the Southeastern schools when it comes to tailgating, mostly because spending all day on shadeless blacktop in 110+ degree heat is no one's good time. For extra income the former parking lot is a nine-hole, par-three golf course during the week and a 10-story parking megastructure is erected for regular student parking where the bullshit Alpha Drive fraternity houses once sat.(hollaback old school Adelphi row!) We can put it right next to the football team's brand spankin' new indoor practice facility.

Just imagine a grove of oaks 160 yards that way.

General NCAA questions

Coin a hilariously unrealistic stereotype that you would like to "make stick" for this upcoming season.

The Stoops regime is fired from Tucson and they moochingly move back into brother Bob's McMansion basement in Norman, all while trying to raise a young daughter/sissyboy. Think My Two Dads but with three guys, two of whom are gay. And a lot of strained-faced yelling.

Redesign your conference or independent schedule with reckless abandon. Be prepared to include compensation for jilted schools and conferences in your explanation.

Jeez this thing is getting long. The Pac-10 finally got it right with the full round-robin schedule, no need for me to go fucking with it. As for the OOC slate, I'd like to see the Sun Devils take on more teams in the northeast and upper midwest. ASU is so popular with non-athlete students that it offers virtual orientation in Philly, Chicago, and Seattle, and this desire to escape the miserable fucking cold of those God-forsaken places ought to be exploited for recruiting purposes. Imagine getting on a plane in lake effect snow-ridden Buffalo in February and landing in Tempe where it's 75 and sunny for an official visit, and now envision a behemoth 18 year-old signing on the dotted line.

Following up on your new realignment, blow up the BCS and devise a national playoff system, money grabs and missed exams be damned. Using your new fantasy conferences is optional.

The existing bowl games get used on a rotating basis as neutral sites for a 16-team playoff, and the ones that aren't selected for the bracket games can be held as exhibitions, like a football NIT. More traditional bowls like the Rose and Fiesta are used for the latter rounds and they rotate much like the BCS does now. I'd like to suggest that the current conferences be blown up and reorganized into equally sized divisions (while eliminting those bullshit conference championship games) for the purpose of selecting some of the participants in this proposed playoff, but that's just crazy talk.

Elect one public figure to replace NCAA president Myles Brand. Anyone with proper name recognition is eligible.

Charles Fucking Barkley, and I don't think I need to explain myself. Even though he's a basketball player, being from Alabama he should intuitively understand the importance of college football.

Be sure to check out others' responses in the comments section of FireMarkMay's original post.

Labels: anecdotal evidence, blog links, Dirk's a horse's ass, dirty icky recruiting, Greatest Fark Evah, movie references, Pac-10 business, QnA, tailgating, UA morons

Oh so bored at work... thank God for the internet! Zach from U-Dub Dish and I did a little Q&A this morning in anticipation of Saturday's game in Seattle. Both teams are viewing this as a must-win situation which should make for a smacktacular battle between the two foes, considering their comparable records. ASU is down and UW is up, creating a fairly even on-field matchup. Here she goes...

1) How did a team that threw 5 interceptions hang with a team like Cal? Do you feel like this year's success has been done with smoke and mirrors or are you starting to believe in what Ty is doing? Are you surprised by this turnaround or did you see it coming?

The Cal game I think was a fluke. Cal, a team I'm quite familiar with, look downright bad Saturday. Nate Longshore wasn't in sync and the defense seemed uncomfortable. I do think this team's success (though it's hard to call 4-4 all that great) is a product of Willingham's system. The team is very disciplined, and for the first time as a team, they believe they can win.

2) Be honest, were you getting sick of watching UW slowly turn into a "basketball school?" Do you harbor any hatred for Rick Neuheisel (you know he's from Tempe, right)?

Tough question. I'm a huge basketball fan and care a helluva lot about UW hoops. But I do long for a big-time football atmosphere again. I came to UW in 2002 from California because I wanted a football school. It didn't exactly work out that way. Ideally, the football program would come back, the b-ball team would stay solid, and UW would be like Florida or Texas; football schools with a damn-fine basketball team.

As for Neuheisel, ya, thanks for nothing, Chump.
We're right behind you, buddy.

3) How confident are you in Carl Bonnell? Do you feel like he is "the future" or do you think last week against Cal was a 1 game aberration and his youthful colors will shine this week?

Bonnell is certainly not the future. That would belong to true freshman QB (who is redshirting as of now) Jake Locker. Though I was delightfully surprised by Bonnell's poise. He threw the long ball well and scrambled at the right times. I think he's capable of leading the Dawgs to a big win over the Sun Devils Saturday, though I wouldn't be shocked if the Huskies lay an egg.

4) They don't show many U-Dub games on the east coast, and subsequently I haven't seen the Dawgs in action. Name your biggest threat on offense and a guy ASU should be targeting on defense. Conversely, list an offensive area that needs improvement and a defensive standout for the Huskies.

The biggest threat on offense was Isaiah Stanback, but now that he's hurt, that opens it up. I'd say WR Sonny Shackelford is a playmaker. He can go and get the long ball and had made some difficult catches all year. I'd put your best DB on him.The defense has been pretty good, and last week Dashon Goldson was a big part. The DB shutdown Cal's DeSean Jackson and is a playmaker in the secondary.


5) Is a part of you scared shitless that ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter will finally have a breakout game this Saturday?

I keep waiting for Carpenter to explode and am scared that it could be Saturday. The UW secondary was miserable earlier this year, making mediocre QBs look like the second-coming of Joe Montana. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Carpenter comes out big.
He is DEFINITELY due.

6) What will it take for you to be confident in saying that, as far as football goes, "UW is back?"

Another good question. For UW to be back, I think it'd take an eight-win season followed by a solid recruiting class.The wins speak for themselves, but the recruiting is when you know that Washington is a powerhouse again.For example, Jonathan Stewart, Oregon's solid running back, is from about an hour south of Seattle. If UW was "back," Stewart would be a Husky. Same goes for Cal LB Anthony Felder and USC DB Taylor Mays, who are both from Seattle.There's a lot of talent in Western Washington and these guys are going elsewhere -- likely because Washington isn't what they once were. Once the wins come (another year or two, I think) the recruiting needs to follow and Willingham must grab the top talent from Western Washington and the rest of the Northwest.

Labels: Pac-10 business, QnA

In an effort to get some dialogue going, I contacted the gentlemen at BoiFromTroy and we went back and forth regarding this weekend's matchup between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the USC Trojans, something that turned out to be a fun and insightful exchange between two passionate fans. Wait, I didn't mean it like that. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Shit.

1) Why should I watch this game? Does this year's Trojan squad have weaknesses, and if so what do you feel they are? In addition, are they problems that can be exploited, or will Carroll shore up these isues through film study and practice?

Unlike the previous four editions of USC Football, the 2006 Trojans lack the explosive playmaking we're used to. The offense is still good--but it's methodical and sometimes has to settle for a field goal here or there. The Trojans have also failed to keep their advantage in turnover margin in Pac Ten play.

2) The fans of both teams seem to be geting a little restless with this year's drop off in play. Are you buying into the whole "USC's vulnerable" thing, and are you secretly laughing at overconfident ASU fans after our "prolific" passing attack threw for 33 yards against Oregon?

Oddly, I have not been woried by the close calls the last three weeks. I do wonder how USC would do in a shoot-out. USC's secondary is the weakest link of its defese. So if Brian Cushing, Lawrence Jackson and friends cannot get any pressure on Carpenter, it could be a long day.

3) I'm not gay, but I find it fascinating that you have the weekly gay viewer's game watching pick each week on your site. Anyone on ASU's team catch your eye? Just curious.

LOL. If I had to choose, it would probably be Zach Miller.

Yeah, I think he's dreamy too.

4) Is there anything about ASU's team that actually concerns you about Saturday's game, or are most of USC's worries inwardly focused?

That y'all score more points than us!

5) What's the word on the health of the Trojan wide receivers? Anyone else out of the lineup that I need to know about?

Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith might be back, but they're not 100%. Patrick Turner stepped up with 12 receptions, just a week after Smith got 11 against Wazzu. Under the radar are freshmen Vidal Hazelton and Travon Patterson, as well as Tight End Fred Davis--but you may notice that QB John David Booty has a bad habit of not checking off his primary receiver, so look for Numbers 8, 2 and 1 to get the ball...in that order...if they're on the field.

Flashbacks=Nightmares

6) A little off topic, but how worried are you about any possible fallout from the Reggie Bush thing? This looks to be the only glimmer of hope for nine of the teams in the Pac-10 for a looong time.

Not so much. If it happens, it happens. But Reggie says there is nothing to worry about and we're just focused on winning games...and this week, that means beating the Sun Devils.

They fired back with a series of questions of their own, and you can read my responses here. I hate giving predictions (mostly because I hate being wrong), but I thnk you can get a sense of how I feel about this weekend's game. I thought, going into the season, that the Cal road game would be the tougher of the two, and I'm still sticking to that even though a losing margin of 28 shouldn't be too hard to beat. The differences between a close game and a Trojan blowout are penalties and turnovers, so if ASU can right the ship in those two areas I'd feel a little better. The lingering dilemma is that these two catergories were problematic for the Devils all season long, even in the victories (remember those?). I feel a little better about Carpenter taking the snaps after reading this puff piece by the AZ Republic's Paola Boivin, though. It's good to get back to your roots, and I don't think anyone would argue against the notion that Rudy has definitely been thinking too much. Here's to better times, and toast now because apparently they don't sell beer at the Coliseum anymore. Egads!

Labels: anecdotal evidence, blog links, QnA