With hopes of a bowl game flickering out, ASU coach Dennis Erickson has a challenge before him.
The veteran coach has to get his team to put forth the same level of effort during these final two weeks as they have all season long.
Because of the resiliency and immense effort that they have shown after heartbreaking losses, Erickson doesn’t expect to see a decline.
“They’ve responded pretty well every time,” Erickson said. “The only time we haven’t responded is against Cal, in my opinion. We have responded pretty well, we still have two games left. We can win six games and there are still some things that can happen.”
Because the Sun Devils feature a vast allotment of underclassmen, development for the future is another motivating factor in the final weeks.
“We have a lot of young players on our team that have a future ahead of them,” Erickson said. “It’s not like we have 30 seniors on our team that are finishing up. Getting that going is also a plus for us right now.”
Adding to it all is this week’s bye, which gives ASU another week of practice before next Friday’s contest with UCLA.
“I think after the two games we played back-to-back against USC and Stanford, it’s good for us to have some time before we play UCLA to try and get our minds back and try to get ourselves together,” Erickson said. “I think it is good and we can rest up a bit.”
Sun Devils Honored for Classroom Performance
The Pac-10 conference announced its All-Academic Teams Tuesday, with nine Sun Devils making the cut.
Redshirt junior quarterback Steven Threet (3.82 grade point average as general studies major) and senior defensive end Dean DeLeone (3.41 GPA as communications major) were named to the First Team Academic All-Pac-10.
Only two players in the entire conference, UA reserve junior kicker John Bonano and Washington State senior offensive lineman Chris Prummer had higher GPAs than Threet. Both Bonano and Prummer had 3.90 GPA’s.
No Sun Devils were named to the second team, but seven made the list at honorable mention.
Redshirt freshman linebacker Brandon Johnson (3.29 GPA), sophomore long snapper Cameron Kastl (3.34 GPA), junior offensive lineman Mike Marcisz (3.02 GPA), junior linebacker Colin Parker (3.14 GPA), junior wide receiver Aaron Pflugrad (3.43 GPA), redshirt freshman Grandville Taylor (3.11 GPA) and senior kicker Thomas Weber (3.12 GPA) received the honors.
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
