Folks around Tempe, Ariz., are mighty excited that football season is near because they can sense something is in the air. And that is the Arizona State Sun Devils football team is loaded and has a legitimate chance of winning a PAC-10 title and being in the hunt for a BCS nod.
It's been 16 months since head coach Dennis Erickson left Idaho to take over an ASU program that has long been considered a sleeping giant but needed a coach to wake it up.
With only a few weeks to put together his coaching staff and build a recruiting strategy, he scraped up a solid class of players in 2007 and followed it with a 10-victory season. There's a renewed enthusiasm over the Sun Devils this year and oddsmakers have taken notice.
Oddsmakers at online sportsbook BetUS.com have installed Arizona State with 4/1 odds to win the 2008 PAC-10 Championship and a 40/1 odds chance to win the 2008/09 BCS National Championship.
The Sun Devils return 14 starters, seven on offense and seven on defense, from last years 10 win season including star senior quarterback, Rudy Carpenter . Carpenter was recently added to the Maxwell Award watch list for the best player in college football. Joining Carpenter on the Maxwell list is Sr. tailback Keegan Herring .
Carpenter threw for 3,202 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2007, leading the Sun Devils to a 10-3 record and a share of the Pac-10 championship. He was an Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 selection for the second straight season.
Herring led Arizona State with 815 rushing yards in 13 games in 2007. He also ran for five scores. Herring has rushed for 2,234 yards and 17 touchdowns in his career.
Other key offensive starters returning are Sr. OG Paul Famaika, 6-6, 336, Sr. WR Michael Jones, 6-4, 203, Jr. OG Shawn Lauvao 6-3, 305, Jr. WR Chris McGaha, 6-1, 193 and Jr. WR Kyle Williams 5-10, 185.
Leading the charge for the Sun Devils defense are Jr. DE Dexter Davis and Sr. Safety Troy Nolan . Both Davis and Nolan have been added to the watch list for the 2008 Bronco Nagurski Trophy, which is annually awarded to the best defensive player in college football.
One of ASU's most consistent defenders over the last two seasons, Davis has started all 26 games of his Sun Devil career. Last season Davis earned Second-Team All-Pac-10 honors after finishing tied for third in the conference with 10.5 sacks to go along with 33 combined tackles, three forced fumbles and one pass breakup. In his two seasons at ASU, Davis has accumulated 75 combined tackles, including 24 tackles for loss, 16.5 sacks and six forced fumbles.
A former junior college transfer who sat out his first year in Tempe because of injury, Nolan earned Second-Team All-Pac-10 honors in 2007, finishing first on the team and second in the conference with six interceptions, the most by a Sun Devil since 1989. He tied a school record by bringing two of those six interceptions back for touchdowns. Last month Nolan, who finished third on ASU in 2007 in tackles (64) and second in passes broken up (7), was one of 42 players named to the watch list for the Lott Trophy, which is given to the college football defensive IMPACT player of the year.
Other key defensive returnees are Soph. CB Omar Bolden 5-10, 194, Jr. OLB Travis Goethel, 6-3, 233, Sr. DT David Smith, 6-3, 288, Sr. DE Luis Vasquez, 6-3, 260 and Sr. MLB Morris Wooten, 6-1, 245.
So what do the Sun Devils have to do to make it to the BCS Championship game? That answer is easy. Win all their games, a task that could prove difficult thanks to the schedule makers. Circled on the calendar are must-win games against SEC member Georgia Bulldogs and USC Trojans. Win these two games and take care of business with the other guys and ASU could be playing in January.
2008 ASU Schedule
8/30 Northern Arizona
9/6 Stanford
9/13 UNLV
9/20 Georgia
10/4 @California
10/11 @USC
10/25 Oregon
11/1 @ Oregon State
11/8 @Washington
11/15 Washington State
11/28 UCLA
12/6 @Arizona
