pac-10 fall camp random notes

- Arizona State gave up 55 sacks last fall, second worst in the country only besting Notre Dame. To apparently make thing worse, the Sun Devils just lost their only experienced tackle as Richard Tuitu'u quit. He didn't see much action last year, but the players behind him are either extremely young, inexperienced, or both.

If you look at my rankings to the right, I have Arizona State at #12. They easily have the most experienced offensive skill player set in the Pac-10, and the defense returns a lot of really good individual players and should be even better as Dennis Erickson is great at plugging in hungry, talented junior college players and it looks like up to 4 or 5 of them could see action.

Maybe I'm getting too hung up on trends, but Erickson took Oregon State to their first winning season in 25+ his first year as head coach there in 1999. The next year the Beavs finished 11-1 for their best football year ever, and they were one of the top teams in the country. Overlooked being in Pac-10 country, that was one of the most dramatic turnarounds in college football history.

Point being, a lot of people are saying Arizona State's 10 win 2007, their first double-digit win campaign since 1996, was largely a product of the schedule. Well, was this their first easy schedule in eleven years? It's not like ASU hasn't had talent recently. Arizona State also still managed to score 32.3 points per game despite giving up 55 sacks on the year. Anyone watch Notre Dame last year? The Irish gave up 58 and only scored 16.4 points per game, basically half of the amount of ASU.

Dennis Erickson is easily one of the best coaches in the country, and I think it's hard for some people to admit that because they don't like him as a person for how he's left some programs. He really did a great job with that team last year and returns Rudy Carpenter, whose 31 career starts at quarterback lead the country. I don't see how the offensive line could get worse as ASU was barely over 3 yards per carry, and they return 13 starters overall in a rebuilding Pac-10.

The schedule is very difficult, but the Devils have a chance to make noise nationally very early if they can knock of the Georgia Bulldogs, who haven't come west in years, in the fourth week of the season.

- EJ Savannah of Washington was arguably the Huskies' best defensive player last year and he's academically ineligible right now, so it's doubtful he'll play this fall. Washington's front seven was pretty miserable last year as they gave up 5 yards per carry and 262 yards per game. They need all the help they can get and if they give up 30 points per game again, Tyrone Willingham is pretty much out the door.

The Huskies are an interesting team this year. Ed Donatell comes over from the NFL to be defensive coordinator and Washington breaks in all new skill players around Jake Locker. I was shocked last year when Willingham refused to use a lot of their young guys at running back and receiver. They had a lot of senior players and Ty probably figured he had to win late to save his job and kept them in. That could hurt this year with lots of inexperience, but even if Ty doesn't stick around as coach, this year will be key in developing ancillary parts for Locker to work with the next 2 years.

They probably have the toughest schedule in the country as out of conference they face BYU, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame. What kind of noise would the Huskies make if they beat Oregon out of the gate in Autzen Stadium? If Willingham wins that game the fan base will rally behind the team and Locker could have a fantastic year. I don't think that's very likely, but anything less than a 7-5 regular season, which would be a feat considering the schedule, and I'd be very surprised if Willingham stays the coach.

Tomorrow I will have some more notes, and will cover other conferences.