Apparently, ASU isn't Dennis Erickson's first job

The newspapers in the Northwest appear to have a man-crush on DE. Somewhat understandable since over half of his jobs have been in the Washington/Oregon/Idaho region. In today's Seattle Times, we get a recap of The nine coaching lives of Dennis Erickson.

Gaddabout's Grades delay

A new job has delayed my efforts to put out Gaddabout's Grades. I doubt I will do one for Washington State game, either, but I promise next week I will publish cumulative results that will allow a better comparison of the early Erickson era to the Koetter era of ASU football.

A Sun Devil (dog) in need

Meet Jake. He needs a temporary home. His Sun Devil dad is leaving in a week for Iraq, and will be gone for at least a year. Jake's dogsitting arrangements have fallen through at the last moment, so we need to find someone who can look after Jake for an extended period.

Jake says: "Currently, I live in Tempe. I'm good with people and kids, and I love to chase a frisbee, go for walks or to the dog park. Occasionally there are other dogs I don't like, and like all Sun Devil fans, I ABSOLUTELY HATE CATS! Please find me a place to stay."

If you know anyone who can help, send an email to tempe.888@hotmail.com

Here's the post from Cactus Ranch that started this.

Update 10/5: looks like Jake has a place to stay! Thanks to everyone for their interest and kind words.

South End Devil Zone T Shirts

I love to see Sun Devils fans taking some initiative to improve the game day experience for all of us. sundeviljohn is taking orders for some sweet South End Devil Zone T Shirts. Click here for details. Great work, John!

Sagarin more impressed than our own fans

While Sun Devil fans continue to pick apart last night's thrashing of Stanford, including insane criticism of Rudy Carpenter here and here, Jeff Sagarin's latest rankings put us at #8 in the nation.

New uniforms made their appearance for the first road game of the season, and much debate ensued. If you had asked me before tonight, I would have told you I preferred gold pants, but I must admit I thought the new maroon pants, with the interlocking AS logo, looked awesome.

Here comes the blitz

Dan Zeiger of the Trib has a good story about the offensive line and their frustrations with pass blocking. There's a passing mention of Oregon State's defensive game plan, which was to force Rudy Carpenter to throw the ball rather than letting ASU get going with the run.

That might seem a little crazy considering Rudy is No. 14 in the nation in passing efficiency and has 11 touchdowns to only 3 interceptions while averaging about 255 yards per game, but that is a reputation ASU earned in 2006. With almost the exact same personnel in 2007, teams are counting on Carpenter and the receivers to log more miscues than big plays. Carpenter's passer rating dropped from an NCAA-leading 175.0 in 2005 to a more average 133.9. The only thing that changed was personnel.

Oregon State saw that on film before rolling ASU in Corvallis: Don't let Rudy and the offense get into a comfortable run/pass rhythm; force Rudy to make plays rather than operating the offense. Last year the receivers were on a different page and when pressed, ASU couldn't deliver. Oregon came to Tempe and held ASU to 33 yards passing.

This year Carpenter and his receivers have been the breakout story as ASU has dug early holes only to explode on teams to the finish, yet the challenge remains the same as defenses intend to force the Devils' passing game to earn their reputation back each game. The good news is defenses have to do this because ASU's running game is strong enough to strike fear into the hearts of opposing coordinators. They have to pay attention to Ryan Torain, Keegan Herring, and that big offensive line. The better news is Carpenter is back to his 2005 form making plays with his feet and finding receivers who are coming back to the QB when things break down. It has helped tremendously that the receiving crew looks like an old-school ASU receiving crew: speed, size, athleticism, attitude.

So what are defenses showing this year? Oregon State came in with a similar game plan as last year on faith that Rudy would show his 2006 colors.

There're two ways to stop a strong running game:

(1) You start with a strong, quick, disciplined defensive line and occasionally blitz from varied angles;

(2) You send numbers into the box.

Oregon State chose Option No. 1 because they are one of two teams ASU will face this year with a strong defensive line. USC would be the other one. They committed six and seven men to the box on first down and forced ASU into converting long second- and third-down opportunities with the passing game. That also meant being able to include some more exotic blitz packages to help the pass rush, but it wasn't always necessary.

ASU essentially starts four guards and a center. It's a good run blocking line, but it is not particularly adept at picking up speed on the edge. There are no Marvel Smiths or Levi Jones in the program to anchor the tackles on either end. The tackle position will change throughout the game depending on what ASU would like to do. If they're going to run the ball Zach Krula will man the right tackle position. When they want to throw the ball it's more likely Julius Orieukwu will attempt to slow the rush there.

Against Stanford Shawn Lauvao will replace Robert Gustavis at starting left guard, a side of the ball where left tackle Brandon Rodd, another former guard, might possible wish he could switch. It's a move in which coaches are probably expecting to see more of the twists and stunts Oregon State showed (and something virtually guaranteed against USC, which loves to run 4 wickedly athletic lineman while dropping 6 or 7 into coverage).

This line does not lack size or experience, and there's really no reason why they've struggled as much as they have against the pass rush. ASU is tied with UCLA for last in the conference for sacks surrendered with 9. It was especially rough against Oregon State's twisting defensive line, who caught Rudy 4 times and hit him hard many times more. But the line is smart and capable of correcting the mistakes, which would go a long way to giving ASU a real chance to break into the upper echelon of the conference this year.

Gaddabout's Grades note

Was checking the conference numbers today and thought these were interesting:

In the Pac-10 this year so far ASU is:

* 3rd in turnover margin at +4, or +1 per game.
* 2nd in 3rd-down conversion at 46.7%, behind USC's 55.3%
* 2nd in defensive 3rd-down conversion at 30.2%, behind UCLA's 28.8%
* 10th in penalties, averaging an even 8 per game

Considering how rough it's been in efficiency, it bodes well all but the last number are well above passing for historically good teams.

Gaddabout's Grades: Oregon State

As badly as ASU played in the 1st quarter, they magically made their inefficiency disappear over the next 3 quarter to turn around a 19-0 deficit into a 44-32 win.

3rd Down Efficiency

Off. 6 of 16, 37.5%; Def. 5 of 13 38.5%: A virtual draw in percentage is never a good sign, but this was flipped dramatically in the second half to balance out the game numbers. The fact that ASU had three more 3rd down opportunities is probably a number we need to look at more closely. OSU actually won the 1st down battle, 28-19, mainly because they were picking up more yards on 1st and 2nd down and their rushing game was in much better shape than ASU's.

Grade: C-

Turnovers

Ratio: +4. This really comes down to 5 interceptions taken by ASU to 1 taken by OSU. Both teams lost one fumble, but ASU actually put the ball on the ground 3 times. Redshirt freshman Sean Canfield wasn't making great decisions, but you never complain about an opponent's young QB having a bad day. ASU was playing good defense in the second half, and that's really what counts, and Robert James continues to do his best Darren Woodson impression.

Grade: A

Penalties

6 penalties, 60 yards: A dead heat again, but a big improvement over previous games. These pair of eyes saw many penalties that could have been called on both sides, but the crew seemed determine to keep their flags in their pocket. Six flags a game is right about where ASU wants to be, no more. It's historically a good number.

Grade: A-

Summary

Overall grade: B+. It's almost impossible to draw any conclusions about this game or even this team so far, but it does seem clear ASU has a focus issue to start the games. They've been down double digits to Colorado and Oregon State, and generally made all of their worst mental mistakes in the first halves of the four first games. I'm guessing this is how the team is responding to the looser atmosphere around the program these days. These are still Koetter's recruits and they're used to being over-prepared and generally uptight in big games. The good news is when they're dialed in (such as on they are on the comeback trail), they can be a very efficient football team. The bad news is the kinds of mistakes they made so far aren't forgivable against the best Pac-10 teams. You never want to put too much emphasis on one aspect of the game, but here's to the coaches figuring out why players aren't coming out of the gate ready to play football.

OSU was better with Erickson

Last Friday, the Oregonian published an interesting column by John Canzano. Talking to Beaver fans, Canzano writes:

You miss the guy. It's OK to admit it, even if your old silver-haired mercenary is coaching on the other sideline now.

I never thought I'd write this, but while the celebrating and gyrating is going down on Saturday, try to keep it together.

The streak must end

Without wishing to re-open old wounds, probably the most disturbing statistic of the Dirk Koetter era was the "0-for-California" streak. It's not like he just lost consistently at USC, he also lost consistently at Cal (less excusable), UCLA (even less excusable) and Stanford (totally inexcusable).

Anyway, all that can end on Saturday night at the farm. With ASU starting the week as two-touchdown favorites, I'd call this game a "must win".

We're number 23, we're number 23

In years to come, hopefully a twenty-third place ranking will not be cause for celebration in Sun Devil nation. However, after the disappointments of recent years, any recognition for ASU is to be welcomed. The AP poll continues to prove its superiority over the Coaches Poll, not just because ASU is ranked higher. I mean, how is Louisville still getting 18 points from the coaches after losing at home to Syracuse? Meanwhile, the Sagarin Ratings continue to love the Devils, who this week are number 11.

Nice to see that the Associated Press article on the new poll featured Dennis Erickson and the Devils. Lots of good pub for ASU in newspapers around the country this morning.