The Official California Football Thread

You guys ready????

Playing Texas Tech earlier was good practice for us. We basically sat backnd Tech scored at will, but all the hits on the QB scrambling around wore him down and he made mistakes. Meanwhile we used the run game to keep Tech off the field.

Overall, I think this ASU team probably has more offensive talent than any other team under Graham. Offensive line is definitely the best its been in the past 5 years, but they are inexperienced. QB Wilkins is also way more talented than Bercovici or Kelly, but he is very inexperienced (he took a nasty hit last game and he thereafter struggled with accuracy). RBs, Richard is thunder and Ballage is lightning, pretty good pair. WR's Tim White is a stud at slot, very quick twitch athlete. N'Keal Harry the true freshman is already as good as Jaelen Strong.

Does that mean we score a ton? I don't know. The key for us is lack of experience at QB and O-Line, you can definitely get us out of rhythm and confuse us. We have yet to see a great D-Line or a lot of pressure, so I don't know how we would deal with that.

Defensively.....well we are better than last year! Our D has been awful early and improves as the game goes. We aren't blitzing nearly a much as we typically do (could be because it wasn't PAC-12 play). Secondary I actually think is a bit better than last year but still probably one of the weakest. Our LBs are our strength and can shut down the run fairly well. We were missing our MLB (Fiso) who is definitely one of our best defenders. But not sure if he plays much, I expect us to be in Nickel where our OLB plays MLB.

Our biggest struggle defensively has been a QB that scrambles well. Should have had 6-7 more sacks against UTSA but the kid was slippery beyond belief.

Special Teams: We muffed 2 punts last game (which lead to 14 pts for UTSA). So hopefully thats fixed....Our Kicker is excellent, can hit from beyond 50

[ Edited by SunDevilNiner79 on Sep 20, 2016 at 4:44 PM ]

Sep 24, 2016 at 8:23 PM

#716