5 questions with Arizona State expert
To learn more about the Beavers' upcoming opponent, BeaversEdge.com chatted with ASUDevils.com publisher Hod Rabino, who covers the Arizona State Sun Devils. Check out the Q&A below!
1. What has the Herm Edwards hype done for the program? It seems like they're more discussed on a national stage of him.
You hit the nail on the head and the added exposure that the program is getting right now which is at a ridiculous level is because of Edwards. It's really off the charts and perhaps a reason why even at 2-2 ASU is still getting votes this week in both the AP College Coaches’ polls. On the one hand it's kind of ironic because so many college football pundits ripped this hire and predicted that the Sun Devils were not going to win more than 3-4 games, but then a lot of national writers have already visited Tempe writing long-form stories about Edwards and his impact on the program. There has never has been so much publicity surrounding this Sun Devil football team and Herm Edwards is definitely the one to thank for it.
2. What's your assessment of the team through four games? It seems that they could be 4-0 rather than 2-2.
I would definitely agree with that assessment because the two losses were very winnable games where ASU was never in danger of getting blown out. Unfortunately, the Sun Devils were out-coached in both the San Diego State and the Washington contests and could not make the necessary adjustments on either side of the ball to come away with the win. ASU fans know all too well that this is a team that in recent years has really struggled on the road and sure enough that’s where these two losses took place.
One thing to keep in mind is that there a lot of key players on this team who are inexperienced and/or newcomers to the program and in many regards the Sun Devils are just experiencing a lot of growing pains with those guys. Things have stayed pretty much the same on offense in terms of key personnel, and this group was really supposed to carry this team. And for that side of the ball to score 21 or less points in three of the four games has been the most unpleasant surprise of the year.
The defense had a whole revamp of a scheme and even though this unit has actually been a pleasant surprise at times I'm sure that the learning curve is still there and that also is a contributor to the current record.
3. What are the strengths of the offense and who should we keep an eye out for?
When you try and look at the strengths and weakness of the offense perhaps it’s not such a clear-cut answer. Up until last week I would say that this is definitely a team that can throw the ball on anybody with good, if not great, success but really struggles to run the ball. And then here comes the game against Washington, who granted is much better against the pass than the run, but I never expected ASU to have just 104 yards passing against any team in the Pac-12 or being capable of running for 164 yards.
Having said all of that, I still feel that this offense will go as far as the passing game will take them. When you have a senior quarterback in Manny Wilkins and perhaps the best wide receiver in all of college football in N’Keal Harry and your roster has other great aerial targets then you have a group that is very potent in the air. Now if the running game can be as effective as it was last week, then this can be a very dangerous ASU team with a well-balanced offense that can and will give fits to a lot of defenses in the league. Besides the two names that I mention which are the most obvious ones, I would definitely keep an eye also on wide receivers Kyle Williams and Frank Darby and running back Eno Benjamin.
4. Defensively, what is the identity of the group?
Well, the 3-3-5 is a new scheme that new defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales brought over from San Diego State. It's a style of play that was very successful there and is predicated on a lot of pre-snap movements giving unique looks that should be confusing the quarterbacks and opposing offenses. The coverages and blitzes are definitely disguised quite well when this defense is clicking on all cylinders and it's obviously a very aggressive unit too.
As far as being better against the run or against the pass, the defense has showed both strengths and weaknesses in both areas so it's hard for me to determine which part of this group is more dominant than the other. When I talked about the inexperienced players being such a big part of this Arizona State team, I’m referring in large part to the defense which has three true freshmen starting. One of them is outside linebacker Merlin Robertson, who is easily one of the best freshmen in the Pac-12 right now. Nose tackle Renell Wren, Safety Jalen Harvey and cornerback Chase Lucas are some of the other standouts on this ASU defense.
5. What is your score prediction and why?
As I mentioned in my post-game analysis piece after the Washington contest, if you need a pick-me-up game to break a two-game losing streak then Oregon state is exactly what the doctor had ordered. The Beavers have issues up and down the offense and the defense and I'm really expecting Arizona State to dominate in all phases of the game and perhaps the only question is how quick can the reserves come into the contest and really get meaningful snaps and can they still keep the gap on the scoreboard pretty wide.
My prediction is an ASU 48 -17 win.