Notes on this Weekend's Game

The Devils will not only host the #3 Georgia Bulldogs, 12,000 of their closest friends, and an ABC National Audience, but will also be celebrating "Champions Weekend." ASU will be honoring former player Randall McDaniel and former coach John Cooper Saturday night, as they will be inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame in December. McDaniel will also see his number immortalized on the pressbox facade with the likes of Pat Tillman, Danny White, Whizzer White, Bobby Mulgado, John Jefferson, Mike Haynes, and Ron Pritchard. This is something slightly similar to the night where ASU named the playing field after Frank Kush. The Devils did so at halftime of a nationally televised game against #1 Nebraska and ended up shutting out and stunning the top ranked Cornhuskers 19-0. Does the similarity mean much? Not really, but i'll take anything at this point to help our cause this weekend. McDaniel is arguably the best offensive lineman to ever play for the Sun Devils. He was selected in the first round of the NFL draft after helping ASU win the 1987 Rose Bowl and was a first team All-Pac 10 selection twice. He had a 14 year NFL career and earned 12 Pro Bowl appearances en route to being named to the NFL's All-Decade team. Coach John Cooper was head coach at ASU from 1985-87, leading the Devils to three bowl games and having an overall record of 25-9-2 in Tempe. Cooper led the Devils to their first Rose Bowl berth in 1987 and beat Michigan to finish the season ranked #4 in the country.

An additional note about getting prepared for this weekend's game: ABC set up their quarterback "eye-in-the-sky" camera today at Sun Devil Stadium and are on campus to start setting up for the national broadcast come Saturday evening. Also, the Georgia fans are rolling into town. There were about a dozen or so walking around campus and the stadium today at various times.

ASU-Georgia Tickets

According to the Arizona Republic:

The ASU ticket office has announced that single-game tickets for the ASU-Georgia game on Sept. 20 are sold out, and that the only seats left for the Georgia game - about 3,000 of them - are available on a season-ticket basis.

Season tickets are sold out in the upper level endzone sections. Those are areas for which many Georgia fans were purchasing season ticket packages for $99 throughout the summer in anticipation that the single-game seats would not be available.

Single-game tickets for the Georgia game were to be priced at $65.

If any remaining season tickets are not sold by Sept. 9, ASU will then make those tickets available on a single-game basis.

Single game tickets for the rest of the 2008 ASU football schedule go on sale Thursday morning at 9 a.m. In addition, fans can buy tickets to four of ASU's road games: at California (Oct. 4), at Oregon State (Nov. 1), at Washington (Nov. 8) and at Arizona (Dec. 6).

News & Notes from Opponents

A Couple Notes from around the Pac-10:

Arizona ticket sales are down 13.7% from last year, as currently they have only sold about 22,000 season tickets. Last year the Wildcats averaged 52,000 fans with about 25,000 of them being season ticket holders. On the flip side, ASU has sold more season tickets already than they did last season, and that's without about 5,000 Student Tickets that have yet to be sold. The Sun Devils will most likely end up with a whopping 50,000 season ticket holders this season (out of 71,706 seats at Sun Devil Stadium), the 50,000 season tickets holders would almost fill the capacity of Arizona's Stadium. The Sun Devils are on pace to sell their most season tickets in 15 years.

ASU is keeping mostly injury free (keep those fingers crossed!). The only injury of concern right now is really just WR Nate Kimbrough's, and the good news there is he won't have to have surgery on a fractured bone under his eye. Originally expected to miss up to a month because of the freak weighlifting accident, Kimbrough is expected to start practicing this week. A couple of other minor Sun Devil injuries are WR's McGaha (foot), Williams (concussion), and Jones (concussion). Tailbacks Herring (Shoulder) and DeWitty (Hamstring) and center Altieri (concussion). All of the injuries are minor and only kept the players out of a scrimmage on Tuesday.

USC QB Mark Sanchez is recovering nicely from his dislocated kneecap. The Trojan QB is on schedule to return prior to the team's season opener at Virginia.


Some News from up North:

With a full week of practices under their belt, the Lumberjacks' coaching staff is pleased with the progress and play. Head Coach Souers is especially pleased with the play of the offensive line and the linebacker unit. Safety Adam Wright and Corner Josh Luck have also stood out during practices. There have been no reported injuries from the 'Jacks camp that would keep anyone out from the opener against ASU.

NAU has one former Sun Devil on their roster, DB Brian Hunter.

The Lumberjacks are organizing a bus for fans to travel down to the Valley for the August 30th game against ASU. Hopefully they plan on some other form of entertainment, unless they are coming for the fireworks show!


Some News from the Deep South:

Georgia's practice notes are starting to read like a M*A*S*H Prison Report, with a boatload of Bulldog players either injured or suspended. The latest Georgia player to go out was their best offensive lineman, All-Conference LT Trinton Sturdivant, he suffered an injury to his left knee which will recquire reconstructive surgery and will keep him out for the season. Over in the Law & Order Department and the Bulldogs legal troubles, they have had eight players arrested during the offseason, six of which have been suspended or dismissed from the team.