Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Sun Devil News & Notes

Since Arizona State became a member of the Pac-10, it leads the series against Oregon State, 21-3-1, though the Beavers have won two of the last three games played at Corvallis. All-time the Devils lead 24-9-1, going 6-6-1 in Corvallis. In last year's contest ASU came from behind as Oregon State blew a 19-0 lead in large part because of five interceptions as the Devils won, 44-32. The Beavers lost by 12 despite piling up 514 total yards. Rudy Carpenter had 361 passing yards with four touchdowns, including touchdown passes of 64, 43, and 48 yards. This year though the Beavers secondary is among the best in the conference and they have an aggressive pass rush that will challenge the Devils offensive line (like that's a hard thing to do) and test Carpenter's sprained ankle.

The Sun Devils, by the way, are trying to avoid their first six-game losing streak since 1929. In the spirit of useless but fun information, here are some events that occurred in 1929: The St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago involving Al Capone, the first Academy Awards, the establishment of the Grand Teton National Park, Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as the 31st President, Vatican City becomes a sovereign state, the first color television, and the Old West Gunfighter Wyatt Earp died.

Carpenter will make his 39th consecutive start this weekend at Corvallis, leading the Devils lackluster offense that is averaging only 19.3 points per game. Jake Plummer started his final 40 games as ASU's quarterback from 1993-96. In order to finish bowl eligible the Devils must go 4-1 the rest of the way. Wins should be expected against Washington and Washington State, and most likely against UCLA, but the Devils need to pull off an "upset" over either Oregon State or Arizona in order to make a bowl game again this year.

ASU has had 27 players see their first NCAA action this season, many of them should see more playing time as the season wears on as the Devils look to break out of their slump. Erickson has had only three losing seasons in 20 years as a college head coach.

A couple of positives from the game Saturday was the play of TB Ryan Bass and TE Andrew Pettes. Bass ran for 56 yards on 10 carries to lead the Devils rushing attack and Pettes caught four passes for 40 yards from his tight end spot. Also the Devils had almost 70,000 fans at the game, as ASU looks to have its' highest average attendance since at least 1998.

Both Thomas Weber and Trevor Hankins punted the ball three times in the game Saturday. Hankins averaged 37.3 yards with a long of 53 but one touchback and Weber averaged 31.7 yards with a long of 37 and one inside the twenty yard line. Should be interesting to see who gets the majority of the punting duties this weekend, as Hankins showed some potential but also had a shanked punt of just 19 yards.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm starting to feel like Keelay... I should've voted for Keller... I'm not liking the way that Carpenter has been playing lately... Oh, and apparently we need to work on running the ball? Frick! We're screwed... Boo! My sports life sucks. I've never been so depressed about sports in my life...

Anonymous said...

With or without Keller he would have graduated two years ago. Unless you are talking about an All-American offensive lineman name Keller, I don't see how it could make a difference.

Anonymous said...

If Keller would've stayed Carpenter would've more than likely left, yeah? Carpenter started out so promising... His career has been a slow decent into nothing... Of course having little to no time to throw the ball doesn't help and neither does having no running game... I wish Carpenter the bast if he makes it to the NFL but I won't be terribly disappointed to turn the page...

Anonymous said...

*best