June is here, barely, but it's here. That means the college football season is creeping closer and closer for us college football fans. For fans down here in the desert the question is how good will the Sun Devils of Arizona State be? The answer should be very good. The Devils have quality for almost every facet of a division one football team.
Let's start with their head coach, Todd Graham. I was a person who was pretty skeptical of Graham when he showed up in Tempe. The way he had jumped from job to job and how he left the program at the University of Pittsburgh caused me to look at him with a great deal of skepticism. I asked "How long will he stay?" He said all the right things and even said that the ASU job was his dream job. Really? ASU, a dream job. That's the first time I had ever heard that. However, he has turned that skepticism into belief in many fans and even in me. He has won over 20 games the last two years, been in contention for the division title, and put some excitement back into a program that had been mired in mediocrity for a number of years. He's got his recruiting going very well, his coaching staff has been intact, and he has endured himself to the community. He leads his team by showing them how to be disciplined and what it means to work hard. He is the pillar for his players and it's certainly showing in their play on the field.
To survive and win on the D-1 level in college football you need consistency at the quarterback position. If you have a quality quarterback, you have a better chance of winning. Just ask the Oregon Ducks that question and see the response you'll get. The last few years the Sun Devils have had Taylor Kelly under center, this year, they will have Mike Bercovici. Berco, as people around these parts call him, played in relief of Taylor Kelly last year when Kelly went down with a leg/ankle injury. Fans quickly saw that Bercovici was more than capable of providing a spark to the team and leading the team to wins. To me, he was and is a more complete quarterback than Taylor Kelly was. He could run an offense from under center much than Kelly, has a stronger arm, can run the read-option packages/offense that the Sun Devils use, and is a more vocal leader than Kelly. Add those items up and you have a quarterback that can certainly lead a team to many victories during the Pac-12 season. What made fans take notice is the way he lead the team to a win at USC in the last few minutes of the game. His "Jael-Mary" pass to Jaelen Strong at the end of that Trojan game caused fans to want to see him under center as opposed to Taylor Kelly. The Sun Devil fan base get their wish all year in 2015 and hopefully he can deliver what the fans want.
The running game will be the focus this year because they have the horses to do just that. They will have three backs to drive those opposing defenses crazy. The Devils have Demario Richard, a two-way back in Kalen Ballage, and the speedster Gump Hayes. Through spring and summer practice they will probably start focusing in on how to use each one of these backs. Hayes will more than likely be the "home run" back because of his speed. Give the ball to him to see if he can break off big yardages. It all remains to be seen because the back they have had in the backfield the last three years is being moved into the slot position.
D.J Foster and his creativeness in the open field will be moved to the slot. The passing game will be something that defenses will be trying to take away from the Devils. The Sun Devils are having to replace both of their starting tackles and find replacements for Jaelen Strong who went to NFL, Cameron Smith who will miss the entire 2015 season with a knee injury, but they are lucky in that they picked up UCLA transfer Devin Lucien. It is quite obvious at this point that Foster will be Bercovici's main target, so he needs to become very good at route running, getting off of press coverage and beating the double team so he can help his quarterback out. This new receiving crew will get a test right out the gate with the game AT Texas A&M. How they react to this type of environment could dictate how much success the team has in the early part of the season.
Defensively, the Sun Devils will be returning seven starters. This was the biggest question mark going into last year, but by the end of the year this defense was playing very well. They were flying around to the ball, making hits, getting stops and with all that experience they gained in 2014 it will only end up being a bonus for them for 2015.
The strength of this defense will be the back seven. ASU can rotate five linebackers without much dropoff. Christian Sam and DJ Calhoun will be two of these linebackers to watch because they were pressing for more time last year and they have the sideline to sideline speed that Coach Graham absolutely loves to have in his linebackers. One of the biggest losses last year was safety Damarious Randall. However, Coach Graham believes that safety James Johnson will help negate that loss Randall, but it is hard to replace first round talent.
The one true concern that fans will have about the Devils is that they don't have a true pass rusher. They did land highly touted recruit Davon Durant who would have been plugged in as the pass rusher. However, the best laid plans sometimes get destroyed by dumb decisions. Durant was suspended indefinitely by ASU once he was arrested on domestic abuse charges. For the moment, having that consistent pass rush is a question for the Devils.
In the end, the Devils have the talent to contend in the South Division for sure and in the Pac-12 in general, but the schedule is tough. They have games early on against Texas A&M, USC, at UCLA, and at Utah. Coming out of that stretch with just one conference loss would be amazing. Three out of their last five games are at home with only away games at California and Washington State to end the year. The Territorial Cup is also at home against their hated rival Arizona. I think it certainly could come down to USC and ASU for the South Division. Forks Up Devil fans!
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