It sure would be easy to write this editorial about all the bad things that happened Saturday night, like the fact that the Sun Devil football team lost a nationally televised matchup in front of a few million viewers or that the Georgia Bulldogs held the Sun Devils to four yards rushing.
But we here at The State Press are optimists.
Through our rose-colored beer goggles, we were able to find some good.
First, at least ASU wasn’t held to three yards rushing. That would have been embarrassing.
Also, with the Bulldogs in town, we got to see lovable little Uga VII roaming the sidelines. That bulldog is probably the coolest four-legged mascot we’ve ever seen. Our apologies to Uga through Uga VI.
The ESPN crew also did a great job of making Sun Devil Stadium look rather epic, and they had a couple of cool shots that made Tempe Town Lake look natural. That was sweet.
ASU had some moral victories, too. We certainly won in the battle of television commercials. The appearance of those picturesque shots of Old Main and Hayden Lawn on ABC stations nationwide probably pushed next year’s freshman enrollment up to 15,000. You know ASU President Michael Crow was loving that.
By contrast, Georgia’s commercials were rather underwhelming. That one about the two Rhodes scholars didn’t exactly make us want to go to Athens, Ga. for next year’s tilt.
Meanwhile, the student section looked rather overwhelming. Most students will never see what they look like on TV — or from the other side of the stadium for that matter. But believe us, 10,000 gold-clad, drunk people looks awfully intimidating.
Maybe coach Dennis Erickson got something good out of this loss, too. Perhaps he’s mulling over a multimillion-dollar Koetter-esque buyout from athletic director Lisa Love. Erickson’s predecessor, Dirk Koetter, got paid millions to not work, and now he’s got a full-time gig with the NFL. Could be worse, right?
In celebrity sightings, Amar’e — don’t spell it Amare — Stoudemire also made an appearance on the sidelines. Even though he was sporting an ASU hat, he left before halftime. Maybe he knew something the rest of us didn’t.
Or maybe he just saw the 21-3 score and remembered that ASU football sucks.
Why are we so bad? Did you know ASU is 3-24 versus Associated Press Top 25 opponents in this decade?
It seems every season ends with disappointment. ASU usually beats everyone it’s “supposed” to, but rarely — if ever — wins the games it’s not supposed to.
But winning those games is how you build a program. That’s how you earn the respect of your peers.
Beating USC would go a long way in canceling out this defeat, but this game will not be forgotten.
Come on. Four yards? Seriously? What is that? Knowshon Moreno got more than four yards by jumping into the end zone.
Such is life in Sun Devil football land, but who can say they are really surprised?
