Dback Jon

Cal leading 17-7 in the second.

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R.I.P Tim Minnick

The KING of Cards

82CardsGrad

ASU reminds me so much of the Cards...

No run game...
No pass rush...
Can't protect the QB...

And, they look so overmatched at virtually every position... I do have to say that that Williams and Magahee are tremendous wideouts! Uhh.... oh yea - just like the Cards....

redforceone

Nothing like the Cards - they get calls from the officials...

Brian in Mesa

Another UGLY loss.

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HONEY BADGER DON'T CARE

Nasser22

Well there goes any hope at having a good season. Now we're playing to be bowl eligible and prevent total embarrassment.

ajcardfan

That UNLV loss was just a season-wrecker. It totally exposed our flaws for Georgia and Cal and ruined our confidence. I thought this game was going to get completely out of hand when Cal was up 17-0. The only bright spot is that we held Cal to 7 points after that.

I knew this season was going to be tougher than last, but the UNLV loss was the wild card no one saw coming.

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We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it.

T.H. Huxley

The Commish

Our offensive line has officially screwed our season.

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Renz

Whatever happened to this guy?

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Nasser22

I still have faith in the guy. He's recruiting well and we had a very good season last year. I'll give him a few more recruiting classes. Erickson seems to be bringing in better and better athletes so well see if they can get the job done in the next coulple years.

TucsonDevil

Wow, how many years do you think Erickson will be around? I guess one might guess he will stay until John Elway's boy has moved on; that could be a logical guess since he has personal ties to the Elway family. If it weren't for that one fact, I would guess Dennis would be gone after the next 'good'* season. He can't leave before then, since that would ruin his reputation. Since the Pac-10 really only has one dominant team, you just need to knock them off and you can take the conference. Despite what everyone says (for the pollsters) running through the Pac undefeated isn't that hard. There are generally 2-3 teams that are just terrible each year.

BTW, I fault Rudy Carpentar and the Offensive Cordinator more than anyone or anything else for this year's performance. There is an utter lack of creativity in the game plan, and Rudy just seems to be going through the motions - zero heart. What happened to this guy over the summer?

*good would be defined as BCS Bowl... anything less would be unacceptable.

nashman

Maybe the run, run, pass on 3rd and long playcalling doesn't work so well? Rich Olsen has been terrible this season with the playcalling he should be gone already! Season is over and the team knows it, don't be surprised to see stinker games like this the rest of the season.

MaoTosiFanClub

I don't think Erickson has regressed as a coach, it's that he doesn't have the talent and resources he did at Miami while many ASU fans seem to have similar expectations for him and their program as a whole. It's extremely difficult to build a powerhouse when Arizona HS football is weak and you have USC and Texas doing their thing in the two closest geographic areas with elite talent.

HooverDam

Um, you do realize its year 2 of his program, right? How did Mike Stoops do in year 2? Or year 4 even?

Koetters kids aren't for the most part going to be able to compete consistently against top 25 teams, we saw that when he was here. Koetter was recruiting against schools like Boise St, Wazzu, et cetera most of the time. It'll take Erickson a while before he can keep the majority of Blue Chip talent in Arizona to stay home and go to ASU.

I think that not next year, but the year after (year 4) will be the year when ASU is able to take it the 'next level', i.e. a BCS birth. Next year they'll have either the unamazing Danny Sullivan at QB or a very young player in Szadkkkykakakyyie or Stangel, so I don't expect much more than a Las Vegas bowl type season, which is sadly looking like what this year is devolving into.

MaoTosiFanClub

I'm not sure how you can project ASU being a BCS team in Year 4 while at the same time saying they'll struggle this year and next. If ASU performs as mediocre as you say there's little chance Erickson keeps the bulk of the blue chip talent at home (and suggesting one can build a powerhouse around Arizona HS football talent is laughable) when there's USC and others already loading up the top AZ kids despite ASU coming off a 10 win season. I'd also like to point out the misconception that Koetter competed with Wazzu and Boise for recruits while Dennis is competing with the big boys. Dirk's first full recruiting class in 2002 was rated #17 in the country per rivals while Erickson's this last fall in 2008 was 21st.


ASU will become an elite program when one of two things happen:

A) the local talent improves by leaps and bounds over what it is currently.

B) ASU stacks together a few 9+ win seasons which would allow them to consistently get into living rooms of elite kids nationwide especially in Texas and SoCal.


Time will determine if Erickson can accomplish it, he certainly has the pedigree. But it isn't going to happen with the relative ease that you suggest.

HooverDam

^In 1995 ASU didn't even go bowling, the next year they were more or less playing for the National Championship. Teams jump from lower/mid tier bowls to higher tier bowls all the time.

I didn't ever insinuate that ASU would be building a championship caliber team around Arizona HS talent. But they do need to keep in state talent home, as the Valley grows, the talent has gotten better and it will continue to improve. You're comparing Koetters first class and Ericksons first, but what about Koetters other classes? I think a better way to look at recruiting classes than stars and numbers that recruiting sites put on them is to look who the school is recruiting against. It wasn't always the case, but it did seem like a lot of the time Koetter was recruiting against lesser schools.

I also don't know where I suggested in anyway that ASU becoming an elite program would be relatively easy. I think it will be quite difficult, but if it is accomplished, it'll probably happen in year 4 of Erickson at the soonest. I'm not sure how thats a wild prediction. He won 10 games his first year (an easy schedule certainly helped), could still manage to have a decent year this year, and who knows what will happen next year (though like I said, w/ a young QB, my hopes arent too high).