Champions!

I must admit, when Dennis Erickson was hired I was optimistic, but never thought he would deliver a conference championship in his first season in Tempe. On Saturday night, ASU won a share of its third conference title by beating the Rats 20-17. The catch by Chris McGaha may be one of the best 5 in ASU history -- just a pity that he did not fall into the end zone to score his first TD of the year.

This team will not receive the same accolades in future years as the '86 or '96 championship teams, but they deserve a special place in our hearts. Just remember all those games in recent years where a win meant a trip to Hawaii for a meaningless bowl.

Coaching ups and downs

The game at Oregon proved yet again how good this coaching staff is. After giving up 21 points on the Ducks' first three drives, ASU surrendered just 14 points the rest of the game. Meanwhile, I think most fans would agree that the problems on offense were mostly due to execution, not coaching.

However, two incidents cause concern. First, the clock (mis)management at the end of the first half. We should have been able to take two shots to the end zone before attempting a field goal. Second, why didn't we go for two after getting to within 13 points (35-22)? This is one of those "no brainer" decisions -- a two-point conversion would have given us the chance to tie with a field goal and TD, while failing to convert wouldn't have made any difference (12 and 13 points both require two TDs).

I don't want to make a big deal out of this -- I'm still thankful that DE is our coach -- but I hope both issues are addressed in this week's press conferences.

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.

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.

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.

While we were gone...

Random events in Sun Devil land. The Sun Devil Marching Band unveiled new uniforms (the band even has its own message board!); TBone is looking for Sun Devils in Texas (not 100% sure what he plans to do with them); I found a site that everyone else has probably known about for a long time, which allows me to track news stories about Dennis Erickson; Gaddabout wrote a brief ASU recruiting history; Uni Watch discussed why one member of the baseball team has been wearing a green undershirt for each game.

Best quote you'll read all year

Today's Republic includes a well-written article by Jeff Metcalfe regarding Dennis Erickson's early success in recruiting, despite the lack of big name commitments to this year's class.

The article includes this quote from Allen Wallace. It's something we should all learn by heart:

One of the most fundamental wrong focuses of a coach's first year is who he brings in. It's the least important thing. Fans want everything, to fix the future and the immediate. The new coach is supposed to do in two-three months what everybody else hasn't done in a year. It's not going to happen that way.

It sounds like DE and his staff are a lot more focused on building the foundation for future classes, versus this year's haul.

Having said that, Metcalfe also reports that ASU received two more commitments yesterday, including one from Jonathan English from Louisiana.

What Dirk meant....

Certain cryptic comments made by Dirk Koetter after being fired have caused a mild stir in Sun Devil Nation. Koetter in his usual guarded self left much room for interpretation when he was quoted saying "The thing is, and I was guilty of this, a lot of people look at ASU on the outside and have this perception of what Arizona State is. And that's not what it is. You have to go on the inside for a while". Some Devil fans were outraged by these comments viewing them as a parting shot by Koetter. While others looked at it as a view to some of the issues that Koetter and now Dennis Erickson face as the head of the football program. A recent article from the San Diego Union Tribune about SDSU recruiting might give some insight into Koetter's remarks. The article and the accompanying chart show ASU as a school that has been reluctant to make exceptions when admitting student athletes who don't meet the normal admission standards of the school. Obviously this practice does not aid ASU in recruiting, but let’s not let Koetter off the hook based on this information. It's hard to make the argument that ASU admission standards are at such a high level that makes them non-competitive. There were much deeper issues that hurt ASU recruiting under Koetter. Too many local and elite recruits reported ASU interest level as mild. ASU was typically a non factor in major Los Angeles and Northern California area prospects. Sure there were some close calls such as with Brigham Harwell, but that was an exception the last 5 years. With many top instate recruits ASU seemed to get in late compared to other big schools. Gerell Robinson a top player for 2008 has already declared to Arizona. Moving forward the question is will Erickson have enough gravitas to affect change in ASU admission policy and in the larger sense will he be as successful in recruiting as he was at Oregon State and Miami.