Eric Sorenson
They say you’re only as good or bad as your last game.
The Arizona State football team is anxious to wash the bad taste from their mouth from their last two: a lopsided loss to Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game in Tempe followed by another meltdown in the Holiday Bowl against Texas Tech a few weeks later. The two setbacks overshadowed an otherwise excellent year (10-4) in head coach Todd Graham’s second season in Tempe.
With each off-season comes turnover in college football and the Sun Devils are no different having to replace a host of talented players on both sides of the ball including defensive stars Will Sutton, Alden Darby and Carl Bradford. The offense remains more intact but leaders Chris Coyle, Marion Grice and others will be missed.
Despite the departure of those impact players, there’s again optimism as the Devils go from the hunters to the hunted in the Pac-12 South.
“The energy is big here,” ASU legendary quarterback, now Pac-12 Network analyst Jake Plummer told Sports360AZ.com before a recent spring practice. “How could it not be with the year they had and the expectations now that they’re facing themselves.”
Much of those high expectations will rest on the right arm and legs of senior quarterback and fellow Idaho native Taylor Kelly who returns for his third season behind center. The 6’2, 211-pounder was a second-team All-Pac-12 performer who threw for 3,635 yards and 28 touchdowns last fall. He also added 826 yards (sacks excluded) and nine scores on the ground.
Party like it’s 1996? @snakestakes @Taylor_Kelly10 talking ball, Idaho #SunDevilPride pic.twitter.com/CnVz4eVCzX
— Sun Devil Football (@FootballASU) April 17, 2014
ASU will conclude their workouts Saturday at their annual spring game at Sun Devil Stadium/Frank Kush Field. Plummer will part of the broadcast on Pac-12 Network which begins at 11:00AM.
“Watching him around his teammates,” Plummer explained about his fellow Idahoan. “He’s going about his business. Setting the example by working harder than anybody else…I think this spring they’re looking to spread the field a little more, use his arm.”
The Devils open their season Thursday, August 28 hosting Weber State.
