Ready For Some Football

In case you missed my last post, this blog will not be up for much longer. I will be moving my posts to the Blaze's new website, which should be up and running in a few weeks. Since I will have an expanded role with the station this year, all of my posts will be related to ASU football or basketball. I'm very excited for the potential opportunities in store for me this year. I will post a link to the new website once it is up.

I got to cover Pac-10 Media Day last Thursday at the Rose Bowl for the Blaze. It was a fun experience. I was the only ASU student there, which was sort of surprising. I went straight from Media Day to San Diego for family vacation, so I didn't get to post any notes. Here are some observations from Media Day.

-For the first time since 2002, the media did not pick USC to win the conference. Instead, they went with the defending Pac-10 Champion Oregon Ducks. Here is the official poll with the total points (first place votes in parenthesis)

1. Oregon (15)...............314
2. USC (12)...................311
3. Oregon State (3).........262
4. Stanford (1)...............233
5. Arizona (2)................222
6. Washington (1)............209
7. California..................175
8. UCLA (1)....................134
9. Arizona State...............81
10. Washington State.........39

-ASU is picked to finish 9th in the conference, which is the lowest spot its had in the preseason poll since 2002, when it was also picked to finish 9th.

-Head Coach Dennis Erickson and kicker Thomas Weber represented the Sun Devils at the Rose Bowl. Erickson said the reason he chose to bring along Weber was because he is "invaluable" to the team.

-Erickson said that the offense will be the biggest factor in how successful ASU is this year. The Sun Devils have struggled mightily on the offensive side of the football in the last two years, ranking at the bottom of the conference in nearly every offenseive category. Things could be a lot better this year, however, under new offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone. Erickson praised the work that Mazzone has done so far, as he made clear that the offensive players have had more fun and have been more motivated under him.

-It sounds like the quarterback battle between Brock Osweiler and Steven Threet is wide open. Erickson did not give an indication as to who he will select, and he said he has no problem waiting until the final days of fall camp to make a decision.

-Finally, the Sun Devils don't seem to care about being picked to finish 9th in the conference. They have had two losing seasons in a row, which is enough to motivate them to play their hearts out this year. The players very well know that Dennis Erickson could be fired if ASU has another losing season, and as Thomas Weber put it, they are out "to shock the world."

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Fall Camp started on Wednesday. The Sun Devils have four weeks to prepare for the start of the regular season.

I will be back at ASU next Saturday, and I will start covering practices on Monday, August 16th. I'll be posting practice news more so on my twitter page, but I will also be writing brief reports on here, until the Blaze website is ready to go.