The ASU football team has never been known for consistency.
But perhaps the only group less consistent around these parts are the Sun Devil fans.
Less than two months ago, many of you were picking the team as an outside shot to win the National Championship. True, ASU was returning a strong nucleus of players, but it did lose the school's all-time leading passer in Andrew Walter. And while the Sun Devils are improving, educated fans should have known better than to book travel arrangements for the Rose Bowl.
Now, after a disappointing loss to Oregon a week ago, many of the same fans say the Sun Devils will nose dive, some of the local media are predicting losses to Stanford and UA, and plenty of you have made wisecracks about a Las Vegas Bowl appearance. This, too, is a bit of stretch.
Really, the Sun Devils are somewhere in between, and fans need not be so sporadic.
More than a few of us have closely watched the ASU football team for over the years, and we think the 2005 version is the best since 1997's Sun Bowl Championship squad. The 3-3 record may not show it, but the team has been steadily improving in all facets of the game, has depth at key positions and finally has an element it has been striving for years -- team speed. Though, at the same time, ASU is not ready to defeat the nation's top 10 teams on a regular basis. So for now, eight- and nine-win seasons will have to suffice.
Until the team is able to build more on its recruiting, the key to the Sun Devils' fortunes is to beat all the teams it can beat. Then, if an upset were to occur -- as it very well could have against LSU and USC -- a great season is a certainty.
By that logic, ASU should have defeated Oregon last week. From the opening kickoff against the Ducks, everything just seemed lethargic. Fans sat on their hands, players went through the motions, and the electricity from the previous week's loss to top-ranked USC was not there. Therefore, the loss was unacceptable.
But at the same time, the Ducks were far from a pushover. They were ranked, albeit below ASU, and the game is no reason to write off the season.
We at The State Press are predicting the Sun Devils' offense to explode on Saturday at Stanford and rack up the points a la Temple and Northwestern. Wins versus Washington and at Washington State will follow, before ASU faces another tough game at UCLA that will help define its season. Then, yes, the Sun Devils will easily dispatch of the Wildcats at Sun Devil Stadium, rivalry game taken into account and all. Finally, they'll wrap it all up with another "W" in either the Holiday or Sun Bowl.
The team will not tank, just like it was never going to contend for a national championship. That's being realistic.
