Stew I'm ASU alum and former player. We lost a ton on defense and at every level of the defense. We didnt play a lot of young guys but Graham has gone the Juco route to replace what was lost. That does not always pan out. Offense will be okay as long as TK continues to make good choices. But we lost all of our top RB's and I don't think Foster is the answer. He's a local kid and he's a bit light in the britches to be running the rock in the PAC12. But it will be an interesting watch.
Winone all due respect, but I regularly attend practices and ASU has plenty of defensive talent in the pipeline. DJ Foster was has bulked up to about 210, what more do you want?
He's as tough as nails!
Back in your day losing 9 starters was alarming, but not so much anymore. This coaching staff really know how to teach. It's really not 9 starters anyway, Carrington played a lot, so did Hardison, Marcus Ball would have started but was an injury RS. Jaxson Hood and Carlos Mendoza both have been starters but were injured last year.
We have done great with our JC recruits under CTG, Strong, Young, Grice, have been bigtime players. The new crop of JC recruits are all quality and had bigtime offer sheets!
Have faith, this is a much better team than the 2012 team that won 8 games, and the PAC is weaker this year!
So this exists--
a truly remarkable overnight transformation that has happened to the brunt of numerous jokes south of the Mason-Dixon, everyone's favorite clown, the former head coach of USC and the University of Tennessee, the unscrupulous Mr. Lane Kiffin. Even his former boss (Pat Haden) has disavowed himself of Kiffin's presence in the first place for all of his alleged recruiting violations at Tennessee. And in spite of it all, Haden inked that dastardly character (as someone here suggested) Ed Orgeron, also of questionable character (albeit his issue occurred 10 years prior without recurrence) to replace Kiffin mid-season and finish the year. Kiffin's memorable exit happened only 7-8 months ago and did the sh*t ever hit the fan!! Where have all the jabs and jokes about Lane Kiffin suddenly gone? I do recall that the cessation of jokes was quite sudden and remarkably thorough when Saban was courting him to come to Alabama.
So just remember, when Nick Saban speaks, you are wrong.
(about the clown Kiffin)
For the sake of a little sanity here, I am clear about one important thing. I liked USC's offense much better when Kiffin was Carroll's OC compared to USC's offense when Sarkisian was the OC under Pete Carroll. I am not sure how popular my opinion of Kiffin's talents are at this point, but you tide fan skeptics should soon see some proof that Saban got it right.
And also straying just a bit off topic, but not currently off point around here these days, I think that Sarkisian's 4¼ million dollar per year contract should top the list of the most foul of all HC deals thus far this century. That is a whopping big price to pay for mediocrity. You may think you know me and that I am a died in the wool Duck fan and you'd be wrong. Being originally from LA, I spent my whole life following and rooting for USC and to a degree UCLA. I have lived in Oregon for about 25 years, the last 16 of them paying a lot more attention to Oregon football and the last 11 years fully behind the Ducks and to a degree the Beavers. But you never completely abandon the teams you grow up with. The point is that I feel that I am being very objective about my take on Sarkisian because he's been consistently mediocre wherever I have observed him work.
a truly remarkable overnight transformation that has happened to the brunt of numerous jokes south of the Mason-Dixon, everyone's favorite clown, the former head coach of USC and the University of Tennessee, the unscrupulous Mr. Lane Kiffin. Even his former boss (Pat Haden) has disavowed himself of Kiffin's presence in the first place for all of his alleged recruiting violations at Tennessee. And in spite of it all, Haden inked that dastardly character (as someone here suggested) Ed Orgeron, also of questionable character (albeit his issue occurred 10 years prior without recurrence) to replace Kiffin mid-season and finish the year. Kiffin's memorable exit happened only 7-8 months ago and did the sh*t ever hit the fan!! Where have all the jabs and jokes about Lane Kiffin suddenly gone? I do recall that the cessation of jokes was quite sudden and remarkably thorough when Saban was courting him to come to Alabama.
So just remember, when Nick Saban speaks, you are wrong.
(about the clown Kiffin)
For the sake of a little sanity here, I am clear about one important thing. I liked USC's offense much better when Kiffin was Carroll's OC compared to USC's offense when Sarkisian was the OC under Pete Carroll. I am not sure how popular my opinion of Kiffin's talents are at this point, but you tide fan skeptics should soon see some proof that Saban got it right.
And also straying just a bit off topic, but not currently off point around here these days, I think that Sarkisian's 4¼ million dollar per year contract should top the list of the most foul of all HC deals thus far this century. That is a whopping big price to pay for mediocrity. You may think you know me and that I am a died in the wool Duck fan and you'd be wrong. Being originally from LA, I spent my whole life following and rooting for USC and to a degree UCLA. I have lived in Oregon for about 25 years, the last 16 of them paying a lot more attention to Oregon football and the last 11 years fully behind the Ducks and to a degree the Beavers. But you never completely abandon the teams you grow up with. The point is that I feel that I am being very objective about my take on Sarkisian because he's been consistently mediocre wherever I have observed him work.
The greek posted odds to win the divisions, and their numbers came out like this for PAC S!
UCLA +150
ASU +175
USC +200
UA +800
UU +2000
CU +5000
Obviously this linemaker sees little difference between the top 3. CU and UU are irrelevant, IMO UA rates the dark horse/spoiler tab, if they find an effective QB they will be dangerous!
UCLA has the best personnel, however they draw both UO and Furd from the North and travel to Tempe for an early showdown! ASU will have to outscore people, and will be capable of doing that! USC will rollover their depth issues from last year, they played only 12 defenders in their win over Furd!
UCLA +150
ASU +175
USC +200
UA +800
UU +2000
CU +5000
Obviously this linemaker sees little difference between the top 3. CU and UU are irrelevant, IMO UA rates the dark horse/spoiler tab, if they find an effective QB they will be dangerous!
UCLA has the best personnel, however they draw both UO and Furd from the North and travel to Tempe for an early showdown! ASU will have to outscore people, and will be capable of doing that! USC will rollover their depth issues from last year, they played only 12 defenders in their win over Furd!
~Stew...just remember, when they list a kid at 210, realistically you can drop about 10-12lbs. They always over inflate a skilled players weight. Also factor in the heat. Even if he started the season at 210, everyone always drop weight from the rigor or practice and games in the heat. It's not just the pounds, it's his frame as he's a thin guy to begin with. I don't like thin RBs as they dont' tend to be durable.
My .02 cents. But believe me, I'll be rooting them on.
Culturalstew,
I am very glad to see that you bring with you a lot of familiarity and knowledge about Arizona football, particularly about the Sun Devils. As you mentioned, you seem to have pretty decent in depth knowledge of the Pac overall and your take on various aspects of the conference appears to be quite level-headed. People like you are exactly what we need around here. I encourage you never to hold back any possible conflicting opinions you may have when the situations arise.
You might discover that the greatest flaw you will find about this board is when the party line or popular opinion goes down and it happens here more often than not. So don't be afraid to be different if that's the direction your thoughts happen to be taking. Be yourself and be bold about it if it comes down to it. You'd be surprised to find out how well your personal knowledge stands up to many of the hired pundits that guide public opinion in the press. (AKA: "professional cheerleaders") Give me a guy that knows what he's saying according to the details of his own experience any day. This is my 16th year on this board and that is the most sound advice I have to offer anyone with your background. I am also looking forward to some quality repartee in game threads between you and WinOne who contributes some pretty unique info himself.
So welcome and BOL.
I am very glad to see that you bring with you a lot of familiarity and knowledge about Arizona football, particularly about the Sun Devils. As you mentioned, you seem to have pretty decent in depth knowledge of the Pac overall and your take on various aspects of the conference appears to be quite level-headed. People like you are exactly what we need around here. I encourage you never to hold back any possible conflicting opinions you may have when the situations arise.
You might discover that the greatest flaw you will find about this board is when the party line or popular opinion goes down and it happens here more often than not. So don't be afraid to be different if that's the direction your thoughts happen to be taking. Be yourself and be bold about it if it comes down to it. You'd be surprised to find out how well your personal knowledge stands up to many of the hired pundits that guide public opinion in the press. (AKA: "professional cheerleaders") Give me a guy that knows what he's saying according to the details of his own experience any day. This is my 16th year on this board and that is the most sound advice I have to offer anyone with your background. I am also looking forward to some quality repartee in game threads between you and WinOne who contributes some pretty unique info himself.
So welcome and BOL.
I wasn't going to say very much about ASU however you have begun a pretty good evaluation of them yourself.... perhaps a bit over the top... perhaps. They will not be rebuilding as many think, rather reloading across the board in large part. IMHO a pretty big order to repeat, and that might not be seeing quite eye to eye with you, but not very far off.
Graham will only need to bolster Taylor Kelly's leadership and if Kelly turns out to be as good as he seems to be, he will carry the team often.
Graham will only need to bolster Taylor Kelly's leadership and if Kelly turns out to be as good as he seems to be, he will carry the team often.
I don't see a solid case for defenses that find themselves up against a well tuned spread offense WITH A VERY GOOD DUAL THREAT QB. Case in point, Alabama vs TAMU two years in a row, albeit the tide did survive the rematch but not in a very convincing fashion.
I am aware of LSU and Auburn vs the Ducks, but it wasn't so much about dominant athleticism and style as it was Oregon's lack of size on both lines. Oregon lost the game on the LOS because they were being literally manhandled in spite of their speed. Now that the Ducks have put on 100+ lbs. on both lines through diet and S&C, and claim the additional weight has hit the sweet spot between too big/too slow and bigger but just as fast as before -- then couple that with a solid dual threat QB (such as Manziel or Mariota) who extends plays on his own -- we'll see which way the ball bounces.
Much has been said about LSU's defenses vs the spread option offenses and how successful they have been, but there was always a contributing factor or shortcoming in the opponents they faced that helped their cause.
The problem with many teams today is they don't have enough offense. That's where they can run into trouble. There are schools like Florida or TCU that are at or near the top in their conferences in defense every year, but they don't have any offense whatsoever. If either of these teams had any kind of offense they would be dangerous. The key in today's game is you better have the whole package if want to swim with the big boys...
Before we just give Bama the "excellent defense" label, let's see how the continue to hold up against an SEC in which more and more teams are going spread and up tempo. The last few times they came up against these type of teams their defense has been less than stellar. Now with that being said, you've got to think that Nick and Kirby are in their meeting rooms now working on a new defensive scheme however going smaller is completely against what Saban likes to do. He's more of a defensive substitution/package guy which allows him to match his best against your best. Uptempo ruins this for him because he cant get is subs in the game fast enough and his bigs get gassed.
Last 4 Bama performances against true spread teams starting with Ags in 2012
Sugar Bowl - Oklahoma 45 pts/430yds
Iron Bowl - Auburn 34 pts/400yds
Ol'Miss 0 pts/ 200yds
A&M 42 pts/640 yds
A&M 29 pts/420 yds
Last 4 Bama performances against true spread teams starting with Ags in 2012
Sugar Bowl - Oklahoma 45 pts/430yds
Iron Bowl - Auburn 34 pts/400yds
Ol'Miss 0 pts/ 200yds
A&M 42 pts/640 yds
A&M 29 pts/420 yds
I dunno, the Bama results are telling. They are widely regarded as have the best D personnel in the game! It is exceptionally effective against the so called pro style offense but got slapped around by good spread teams.
Defending the read option you mus play strict assignment football, every defender is responsible for an area of field. Overcommit, or guess wrong in some way creates a void, and that could allow a big play! Playing against the read option I've seen defenders break discipline play after play!
This how good defenses wind up yielding 50-70 pts!
Defending the read option you mus play strict assignment football, every defender is responsible for an area of field. Overcommit, or guess wrong in some way creates a void, and that could allow a big play! Playing against the read option I've seen defenders break discipline play after play!
This how good defenses wind up yielding 50-70 pts!
Past ten National Champions with average points allowed during the season.
2013 Florida St. (11.1 ppg)
2012 Alabama (11.6)
2011 Alabama (7.7)
2010 Auburn (24.1)
2009 Alabama (12.6)
2008 Florida (12.5)
2007 LSU (19.9)
2006 Florida (14.5)
2005 Texas (16.4)
2004 USC (12.9)
The past ten title winners gave up an average of 14.3 points per game. That's called DEFENSE. I'd bet a dine to a donut this year's national champion won't give up move than that average.
2013 Florida St. (11.1 ppg)
2012 Alabama (11.6)
2011 Alabama (7.7)
2010 Auburn (24.1)
2009 Alabama (12.6)
2008 Florida (12.5)
2007 LSU (19.9)
2006 Florida (14.5)
2005 Texas (16.4)
2004 USC (12.9)
The past ten title winners gave up an average of 14.3 points per game. That's called DEFENSE. I'd bet a dine to a donut this year's national champion won't give up move than that average.
