FanHouse DennisErickson

As FanHouse previews each BCS conference, the college football songbook will cast an unflattering light on each conference in the only way we know how. We're looking at you Pac 10.



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Pac 10 contender, as in USC, right? Sure, but they don't stand completely alone this year. Yes, there is another team lying in the weeds that could give the Trojans a run for the outright conference title. After all, ASU did in fact tie USC last season at 7-2 in the conference, so, it's certainly not out of the question. Arizona State looks like a team that could make a legit run at the USC dynasty.

WHY THEY'LL WIN

You can start with the senior trigger man, Rudy Carpenter. Under the watch of new head coach Dennis Erickson, Carpenter was excellent in the one-back offense, throwing for 3202 yards and 25 TD's while finishing second in the conference in passer rating. However, Carpenter was on the receiving end of the majority of the well-publicized school record of 55 sacks allowed, plus repeated other blows absorbed by the opposing pass rush. ASU's O-line is sure sick of hearing about it, and while that unit will feature three new starters, they should have a real chip on their shoulder this season. But Erickson is no dummy, and realized that Carpenter cannot survive another year absorbing that much punishment. So, aside from getting better O-line play, another way to minimize the pain is to simply get rid of the ball quicker. Faster developing pass patterns, shorter QB drops on pass plays, whatever it takes to keep Carpenter upright and productive this season. Two of the top three running backs return in Keegan Herring and Dimitri Nance. Nance led the team with seven rushing TD's, and is more of a physical guy of the two. Herring is the big-play type, leading the team with 815 rushing yards and a solid 5.3 yards per carry. Three of the top four receivers are back, led by Chris McGaha and a big-time deep threat in Michael Jones. Jones averaged 16.7 yards per catch and was second in the conference with 10 TD catches. ASU should be a difficult match-up for any Pac 10 defense this season. Defensively the pass rush should be fierce. Three starters are back on the line, with Dexter Davis and Luis Vasquez two of the most productive defensive ends in the country. Davis had 10 1/2 sacks last year while Vasquez stood his ground with 43 tackles, tops among ASU linemen. Free safety Troy Nolan is the leader of the secondary and a legit all-conference candidate after winning second-team honors last year.

Sunday College Football Hangover is a (hopefully) regular feature from a groggy FanHouse writer recovering from 16+ hours of watching as much college football as humanly possible.

The Big Story

What else but perhaps the greatest upset in college football (sports?) history. As our own Ryan Ferguson wrote, Appalachian State is a very good lower division football team. They're the defending I-AA national champs, in fact. But Michigan's loss is absolutely inexcuseable and mind-bending in its implications.

As SMQB wrote:

A I-AA team beat Michigan. This shakes the foundation of my comprehension of the world to such a vastly greater extent than any upset, sighting, conspiracy theory, apparition, miracle or act of nature I could possibly cite. This is frogs raining from heaven. This is physically impossible

Indeed. I don't know whether this is a good or a bad thing for the sport. On one hand, we have a celebration of the underdog and further proof of why style and scheme matters so much in college football. The NFL is a robotic operation with 32 teams all doing the same thing over and over again with people paying them hand over fist to see it. College football's got soul, though, and it's expressed in Appalachian State's defensive effort and utilization of overlooked athletes.

On the other hand, this is clearly the story of the season. How does college football come down from this? There is simply nothing that can happen in the next 14 or so weeks that will come close to matching this upset. Nothing. USC could lose nine times and yet the event everyone will first recall from this season is Appalachian State's upset of Michigan.

More after the jump.

With perennial BCS contender USC at the top of the Pac Ten, it is hard to draw the line between "contenders" and "pretenders"... In 2006, the Pac Ten faced the very real possibility of having five teams tied for fourth place in the conference--and 2007 looks like there could be eight bowl-eligible schools fighting for six mediocre bowls.

While these schools aren't quite worthy of being grouped in with Stanford among the conference "dregs" you won't see any of them traveling to Pasadena in January, either.

Oregon Ducks

Last year: 7-6 overall, 4-5 Pac Ten WHY THEY'LL WIN: The Oregon Ducks have consistently been "contenders" for the Pac Ten crown but have consistently come up short in recent years. They have brought the spread-option to the Pac Ten and will continue with QB Dennis Dixon at the helm in 2007. Rivals' eyes are still adjusting to those wacky uniforms. The Ducks get conference favorites USC at home the week after the Trojans travel to South Bend for what could be a trap game. WHY THEY WON'T: Oregon has consistently challenged for the Pac Ten crown but have consistently failed to pull it out. The Pac Ten has allegedly improved the quality of their referees this year, which won't give the Ducks that little something extra that propelled them ahead of Oklahoma in 2006. PROGNOSIS: Oregon may not even be the best team in their own State, let alone their own conference. They should be able to hang with the Conference contenders, but on paper there are just too many schools that seem better than them.

Last Year: 7-6, Unranked

Fans Are: Unable to get into any schools in California.

Expectations: Win a game in the Golden State

Questions:

1. What happened to those Norm Chow rumors?

After firing head coach Dirk Koetter last year, ASU athletic director Lisa Love flirted with bringing Tennessee Titans' head coach Norm Chow to Tempe. Instead, she chose journeyman coach Dennis Erickson who came to the desert after one year at the University of Idaho.

2. So is this Dennis Erickson's last year as head coach of Arizona State?

You never know. It seems there isn't a team in football that this guy hasn't coached, but before other schools--or the NFL--will start buzzing about him, he'll have to win. So we're betting he's around for awhile at ASU.

3. What changes can Sun Devils fans expect on offense?

Well a tight end named Miller--Brent not Zach this time--is still around and will remain a favorite target for Rudy Carpenter. The biggest change is Rudy Burgess' move to wide receiver from the running back position.

4. When will Arizona State win a game in the State of California?

I'd say either once Dirk Koetter leaves the program, since he has never won on California soil, or the Sun Devils play in Palo Alto. Luckily, the stars are aligning for both to happen in 2007!

Dennis Erickson has not coached a game yet for the Arizona State Sun Devils, but the wayward head coach is already making an imprint on the program.

Erickson has announced he'll be moving running back Rudy Burgess back to wide receiver for his Senior year.

Erickson had recruited Burgess to Oregon State as a wide receiver, but Rudy chose the Sun Devils, who shifted him to running back in 2004, when he racked up 186 yards on 34 carried against Stanford.

Asked by the Arizona Republic if Burgess could play both ways, Erickson responded, "It's not fair for him (Burgess) as far as having a great senior season."

There will be 23 new head coaches this year in college football. With 119 teams in DIA, my shaky math tells me that means nearly one in every five schools has a new head coach. I don't have numbers from previous years but that's an incredible turnover rate and will mark 2007 as a year of transition in college football.

So what goes along with the whole "year of transition" tag? Well, sloppy play perhaps. Obviously not every coach will fall on his face in his first year, but many teams are bound to take an early performance hit as they reshuffle their lineups, learn a new system and compete against more cohesive opponents.

It also effectively eliminates these 23 teams from a legitimate chance to win the national championship. I simply don't see a Larry Coker type situation where a coach inherited a team at Miami's mini-dynasty level who could simply pilot the goodship S.S. Championship for a year and then put his stamp on things later.

However, we do have a few championship type coaches now in the ranks. The splashiest and most controversial hire this offseason was Dolphins (and former LSU) coach Nick Saban to Alabama. Butch Davis, who created the Miami monster that Larry Coker so capably led to a championship has found a home at North Carolina. And then there's Dennis Erickson who led Miami to a pair of titles and has traveled to the desert to revive Arizona State.

For more on these 23 coaches, I recommend taking a look at this article by Olin Buchanan at Rivals.com. It lists all 23 coaches with short bios and a blackjack theme on whether to double down, hit, or stay with the various coaches.

If there is one over-arching theme to the brief tenure of Dennis Erickson at Arizona State, it can be summed up in one word: commitment.

The head ball coach for the Sun Devils came to Tempe after just one season coaching the Idaho Vandals. Now, he has poached one of Southern California's best High School quarterbacks from the USC Trojans.

Camarillo's Samson Szakacsy has de-committed from the Trojans and will instead be a Sun Devil.

Szakacksy had committed last Spring when it looked like the Trojans may need his services immediately--John David Booty was out with back troubles and Mark Sanchez was arrested on unfounded sexual assault charges. But Booty and Sanchez are back and Aaron Corp is waiting in the wings, which sent Szakacsy, like Jimmy Clausen before him, looking for an open starting job elsewhere.