The start of the 2011 ASU football season may be nearly two months away, but the Sun Devils haven’t been quiet over the summer.
Several players have received offseason awards in the last few months, and the hype surrounding this year’s team.
Junior linebacker Vontaze Burfict has received the bulk of the awards, even being named the 2011 defensive player of the year by Blue Ribbon Magazine. Burfict has also received preseason first team All-American accolades from Blue Ribbon, Playboy and Phil Steele.
Burfict, senior center Garth Gerhart and sophomore defensive end Junior Onyeali were named to the preseason first team All-Pac-12 by Lindy’s 2011 College Football Magazine.
Lindy’s also picked the Sun Devils to win the newly formed Pac-12 South, while Blue Ribbon has ASU ranked no. 20 in the country.
It’s official
On the subject of expansion, the Pac-12 became official on Friday, with Utah and Colorado now recognized as part of the conference.
While this affects schedules for multiple sports, for football the expansion means a conference championship game for the first time ever.
The championship is scheduled for Dec. 12 and will feature the winners of the Pac-12 South against winners of the Pac-12 North. The game will be played at the school with the best conference record.
Due to the change in schedule and the division of the conference, the Sun Devils will not play either Washington or Stanford this season. Instead, ASU will play Utah on Oct. 8 and Colorado on Oct. 29, which is also the homecoming game.
The Sun Devils’ home game against UA will also be the second-to-last game of the season. California is scheduled for the final game of the season.
Potential trouble
On Sunday night, 3TV aired an interview with ex-ASU wide receiver Kerry Taylor on ASU coach Dennis Erickson. Originally 3TV said Taylor was going to explain why Erickson was not the man for the head-coaching job.
However, the interview went further than that, with Taylor accusing Erickson of “nepotism,” and saying the coach completely lost the locker room during the last two seasons.
““Don’t make the same mistake I did,” Taylor said when asked what advice he gives to aspiring high school players. “I wasted four years of my college career.”
Taylor also said Erickson tried to yank scholarships from injured players and made several questionable coaching changes.
However, no other players have come forward to back up Taylor’s comments, and current senior wide receiver Gerrell Robinson tweeted his support for Erickson when news of Taylor’s interview broke last week.
As of Monday, ASU football had not responded in any way to the interview.
Taylor was the Sun Devils’ top receiver last season, with 54 catches and 3 touchdowns. However, Taylor missed out on being picked in the 2011 NFL Draft.
Reach the reporter at egrasser@asu.edu
