Though he stands well short of 6 feet tall, Dennis Erickson is not one to fly under anyone's radar. The same can be said for the football team he will be coaching this season.
After a year in which Erickson helped the Sun Devils gain national recognition with a 10-3 record and a second place Pac-10 finish, expectations are high for the team as it prepares for kickoff on opening day — Aug. 30.
There will likely be no shortage of fireworks at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturdays this fall as ASU returns most of its weapons from an offense that scored more than 32 points per game last season.
Rudy Carpenter returns for his senior season, following a junior campaign in which he threw for 3,202 yards and 25 touchdowns and earned honorable mention All-Pac-10 honors.
"Offensively our strength is with Rudy at quarterback," Erickson said at Pac-10 Media Day in Los Angeles on July 24.
Carpenter's career at ASU has been marked by staunch competitiveness, necessary for a quarterback who had to pick himself up from the canvas after being sacked 55 times last season.
His experience —arguably one the most important qualities a quarterback can possess — will be second to none in the Pac-10, and he has played in countless big games under center for the Sun Devils in his career.
Accuracy has always been a strong suit for Carpenter, and last season only Oregon's Dennis Dixon had higher passer efficiency in the conference.
Luckily for ASU's senior from California, he has some talented sets of hands coming back to help him out this season.
Chris McGaha led the Devils in receptions with 61 in 2007 and emerged as Carpenter's favorite target, routinely making highlight reel catches along the way.
McGaha, though, will not be alone running routes this season as the Devils return sure-handed talent with two-sport athlete Mike Jones and talented slot receiver Kyle Williams.
Incoming freshman Gerrell Robinson, a playmaker from nearby Chandler Hamilton High School, will add depth to the talented Sun Devil receiving core.
Despite the fact that Keegan Herring has happily shared the backfield his entire career, he still enters his senior season with a chance to crack the top five list of all-time Sun Devil rushers.
With the departure of Ryan Torain, who was drafted by the Denver Broncos, Herring will likely carry a larger load this season, while Dimitri Nance should provide help as a change of pace back.
One major question surrounding the Devils this season is whether they will be able to improve the offensive line.
"We've got to establish our offensive front," Erickson said at ASU Media Day on Sunday. "We're going to be real young — we'll be a little bit more athletic."
That line will be without last year's center Mike Pollack, who was drafted in the second round by the Indianapolis Colts, a void Erickson admitted would be difficult to fill.
Defensively, the Devils return seven starters, including safety Troy Nolan, who is one of the conference's top defensive backs.
Cornerback Omar Bolden also returns to the secondary after a stellar freshman season.
The Devils are also strong at defensive end with Dexter Davis and Luis Vasquez, who combined for 15 sacks in 2007.
The road will not be an easy one for the Devils and it starts with the schedule.
The nation will have their eyes on Tempe on Sept. 20 when ASU hosts the Georgia Bulldogs, a team many college football experts peg as the top team in the country going into the 2008 season.
Carpenter said the team's experience in last year's game against USC with conference title implications on the line gave the team some much-needed experience to face this year's schedule.
"It was a big game atmosphere, we got to play USC on national TV," Carpenter said. "We'll take that experience from last season into this season for other big games."
The Sun Devils will have plenty of those, as they follow the Georgia contest with Pac-10 road games against California on Oct. 4 and against the perennial powerhouse Trojans on Oct. 11 in Pasadena. Then, following a bye week, the Devils host the Oregon Ducks on Oct. 25.
"It's a tough stretch, there's no question about it," Erickson said.
That stretch will likely determine where the Sun Devils will be visiting come bowl season.
Reach the reporter at: nkosmide@asu.edu.
