Sun Devils Chasing Wildcats Through Two Weeks

I was sitting in section seven at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday night with my 10-year-old son and his best friend. The boos were raining down on the ASU football team a few moments into the third quarter, after Cal Poly tied the game at 21. My son and his buddy seemed perplexed hearing grown-ups booing college kids. Expectations are very high, so anything short of pounding the Mustangs wasn’t going to cut it. Sorry to say, but this Friday night’s game (why interfere with high school games?!) against New Mexico isn’t going to go much better if the same sort of sloppy football is on display.
Right now I just can’t find as many positives as negatives. Something isn’t quite right with this team, but it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what that is. It was just three weeks ago that noted ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit  picked Arizona State to be one of the four teams in the College Football Playoff. Right now, they are one of the biggest disappointments of the young season. Let’s see if they can make progress against the Lobos on Friday night.

Arizona on the other hand looks pretty crisp through the first two weeks. Running back Nick Wilson is seventh in the nation in rushing and has shown once again Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez knows how to find and develop running backs.
The Wildcats have unbeaten Northern Arizona University this Saturday night in Tucson. NAU has a terrific group of skill talent and is off to a quick 2-0 start, but this is a game that the ‘Cats should win.
While almost every analyst had the Sun Devils as one of the top teams to beat in the Pac-12 South a month ago, it’s pretty easy to see that Rich Rodriguez’s team is playing much better than ASU.