(Marana, AZ) After the 49-13 beatdown the Sun Devils took at the hands of the Oregon Ducks last Saturday, here’s my assessment of what has been and what’s ahead.
First, let’s recap the action from the Oregon game. ASU was outmatched from the beginning as most teams that have faced the Ducks have been.
In games decided by more than two touchdowns., Oregon has outscored their opponents 325-67. Those games were against Portland State, Hawaii, #19 Colorado, Stanford, #13 Utah, California and Arizona State.
ASU was just the latest victim of arguably the best team in the PAC-12 this season. Only a narrow loss to Washington, and Texas Tech, USC and Washington State lost to the Ducks by two touchdowns or less.
Even with Coach Kenny Dillingham knowing what schemes Oregon would run from his time in Eugene, he found out the hard way that these Duck athletes were much harder to tackle than the Devils’ scout team had prepared them for.
Time after time on Saturday, Arizona State found themselves in space with an Duck running back, receiver or quarterback Bo Nix staring at them with the ball and more times than not, the Sun Devil defense would whiff at making the tackle.
I would have initially said, “their angles or not wrapping up the ball carrier were not on par with what they’ve been coached to do,” but after looking at film from other opponents Oregon has laid waste, it was very apparent that its more the Duck athletes’ skills in the open field than just painting a broad view of everyone else not being a good tackling team.
That being said, ASU definitely still needs to work on tacking as they have been up and down in this area for most of the season.
Let’s take a quick look at what else has been a major contributing factor in the Devils lackluster season to date. First of all, the injuries have mounted up to resemble a MASH unit on offense. I can’t think of one game where all the offensive starters have been healthy in the same game. Now football pundits will say, “every team has injuries during the course of the season,” and that’s true. Has one Power 5 team in the nation been relegated to playing their scout team quarterback this year and every offensive lineman has been hurt throughout this season? It is what it is, but that’s a major factor of being unsuccessful.
Next, the quarterback “experiment.” Once the self imposed Bowl ban was announced, it totally deflated the team’s outlook on the season from the coaching staff, to the players to the fans. This decision was made by Athletic Director Ray Anderson, who resigned last week under an enormous amount of pressure from the Alumni to the ASU faithful.
Incoming true freshman Jaden Rashada was a four star signal caller out of high school. The Sun Devil quarterback of the future, yet he didn’t take a single snap in spring practice and very few at Camp Tontozona. He was named the starter in game one against Southern Utah and came away with a narrow win over Southern Utah (FCS).
Oklahoma State came to Tempe and won 27-15. ASU’s defense would play tough, but eventually was worn down by the Cowboys. The offense struggled once again, scoring all fifteen points in the first half.
The telltale sign reared its ugly head the following week against the Fresno State Bulldogs. The Mountain West team dominated all phases of the contest and shutout ASU 29-0.
In those three games combined, the Sun Devils scored only three points in the second half and it was glaringly apparent an offensive change was needed. Dillingham also took over the play calling duties.
Now, it was reported to the media that Rashada had been injured which really wasn’t the case. He had slightly aggravated an old high school injury but was never in a cast, boot or anything else on the sidelines, only dressed in sweats. He was being held out to save his redshirt year after being ineffective.
Rashada has a lot of potential and most likely will still be their quarterback in coming years, but it was really unfair to him and the other quarterbacks to throw him into games when he obviously wasn’t ready. He has the strongest arm of any of the quarterbacks, but has problems with passes that need “touch” or swing passes to he running backs which often were at their feet or five feet over their heads instead of hitting them in-stride.
In subsequent weeks, the offense production improved somewhat, but with the offensive line’s injury problems there still hasn’t been the continuity needed to be successful.
With the Territorial Cup coming up this weekend, Arizona State just needs to look in a mirror at their rivals in Tucson.
Both schools were put in the exact same position. Coaches being fired and leaving the cupboard bare for the new incoming head coach.
Arizona hired Jed Fisch, a virtual unknown in college football but with an impressive NFL resume. Fisch took it on the chin in his first campaign with the Wildcats going 1-11. Using the transfer portal and getting a highly ranked recruiting class, he improved to 5-7 last year and this season after a slow start, has turned heads nationwide by beating several ranked teams in the second half of the season. The Wildcats have an opportunity to play in the PAC-12 Championship Game in Vegas if they can win in Tempe and the Beavers can up end their rivals in the Civil War Game.
ASU hired Kenny Dillingham from Oregon, who had no college head coach experience but had been very successful as the offensive coordinator for the Ducks. He assembled a who’s who of iconic high school coaches from the Valley’s big programs. He also through the transfer portal, got several Arizona high school players to come back that were ignored by Herm Edwards. The biggest catch was running back Cam Skattabo in the portal from Sacramento State. He still needs to land a big recruiting class to bolster his portal picks and add much needed depth.
Theres now hope again at the Buttes that Dilly can return Arizona State to football prominence. Patience is the key as Rome wasn’t built in a day.
ASU is two years behind their rivals to the South in their rebuilding efforts. In an apples to apples comparison, He’s won three games so far and possibly four which would best last year’s record (3-9) in his first year and much better than 1-11. What the Devils do in the next two years will answer a lot of questions.
In an age of no patience and wanting instant success by the fan base and alumni, you have to give Dillingham at least three years to right the ship before fair judgement is levied.
ASU will be back, it’s just a matter of how soon and will the new Athletic Director when hired get onboard with this coaching staff?
All that aside, it’s Territorial Cup Week, Rivalry Week or Hate Week whatever you want to call it. All the focus is on the clash with the high flying Wildcats at Mountain America Stadium at 1:30 pm on Saturday.
Let the shenanigans begin!
