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ASU has as good a shot as any in wild Pac-12 South

Redshirt junior quarterback Mike Bercovici passes to an open teammate. ASU beat Standford 26-10 at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday Oct. 8, 2014. (Photo by Mario Mendez)
Redshirt junior quarterback Mike Bercovici passes to an open teammate. ASU beat Standford 26-10 at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday Oct. 8, 2014. (Photo by Mario Mendez)

Redshirt junior quarterback Mike Bercovici passes to an open teammate. ASU beat Standford 26-10 at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday Oct. 8, 2014. (Photo by Mario Mendez) Redshirt junior quarterback Mike Bercovici passes to an open teammate. ASU beat Standford 26-10 at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday Oct. 8, 2014. (Photo by Mario Mendez)

A quick look at the Pac-12 South standings shows a jumbled mess.

There is neither clarity nor a favorite midway through the season. Five of six teams are realistically in hunt to win the division.

Each team has obvious question marks, hence why it’s so wide open.

For ASU, can the team fix the early season mess that was its special teams unit? Has the inexperienced defense grown up? Against Stanford, ASU won the special teams battle handily and limited Stanford to 10 points and just 4.7 yards per play.

UCLA, the division's preseason favorite, has to answer why it hasn't lived up to expectations. Additionally, can its offensive line protect Brett Hundley, who has been sacked more than all but four quarterbacks in all the FBS?

Can Utah survive a remaining schedule that is the fifth most difficult in the country, according to ESPN's FPI?

UA and USC face similar questions: Can their defenses play well enough on a consistent basis to slow down the conference's explosive offenses?

With all these teams facing big question marks, only one remains: Why not ASU? The Sun Devils are, after all, the reigning division champs.

The Sun Devils should be favored to win their next four conference games (at Washington, vs. No. 19 Utah, at Oregon State and vs. Washington State).

They've got some of the best offensive weapons in the conference. Redshirt junior wide receiver Jaelen Strong is projected as a first-rounder in the NFL draft. Junior running back D.J. Foster, although slowed in the last few weeks, still is a home run threat.

On top of the dual-threat of Strong and Foster, ASU has some of the best quarterback depth in the country. Redshirt junior Mike Bercovici showed almost no drop-off in replacing redshirt senior Taylor Kelly, whom ASU expects to start on Saturday.

But more importantly, ASU has proved us wrong yet again in 2014. Todd Graham’s first season was supposed to be a rebuilding year for a team with a new coach and quarterback. The team went 8-5, the most wins since 2007.

The second was expected to result in about the same finish as the first. But ASU made huge strides and went to the Pac-12 championship game.

In 2014, ASU’s season was supposed to be finished without Kelly, but the Sun Devils went 2-1 in a brutal stretch against three ranked teams.

ASU is in a good position to win the division, because it controls its own destiny. But the Sun Devils are lucky to be in that spot. They own the tiebreaker against USC but very well should have lost that game.

USC running back Javorius Allen extended the game by scoring a touchdown with 3:02 remaining. He should have fallen to the ground so the Trojans could have nearly run the clock out or so he could have scored with significantly less time on the clock.

But by that logic, USC was also fortunate to beat Stanford (the Cardinal had eight trips inside the USC 30 and scored 10 points) and Arizona (Wildcats missed field goal as time expired). And Arizona was lucky to beat Cal (Hail Mary).

Lucky breaks even out over time. The Sun Devils got theirs and the team has moved on.

In college football, every team has a short memory. ASU’s 62-27 embarrassing loss to UCLA last month feels like a lost artifact.

The beauty of the Pac-12 South in 2014 is we have no idea who is going to win it. In the north division, Oregon’s the clear frontrunner.

Efforts at picking the south champion seem futile with this much uncertainty. But it’s going to be a fun ride, and ASU should contend in the race all season.

 

Reach the columnist at jmjanss1@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @jjanssen11

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