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The Sun Devils took care of business on Saturday night, beating Portland State handily. The skill positions were in control tonight, with Cameron Marshall, Deantre Lewis, and Aaron Pflugrad all contributing in a big way on offense.
The Sun Devils open up their 2010 campaign against the Portland State Vikings, a team who went 2-9 in the Big Sky last year (that's an FCS conference, for those of you playing along at home).
ASU starts the season at home with two consecutive games against FCS schools (Northern Arizona comes to town next weekend) before heading to Wisconsin to play the Badgers.
Junior transfer Steven Threet gets the start under center for the Sun Devils, who are coming off back-to-back losing seasons under coach Dennis Erickson.
The Sun Devils were forced to schedule the Vikings after San Jose State backed out of our scheduled game for a big pay day at Alabama (the Crimson Tide paid the Spartans $1.4m to make the trip, which far outweighed the $250,000 buyout clause paid to Arizona State).
This game will be helpful for Erickson to dissect and grade his personnel, and also give both Threet and sophomore Brock Osweiler the chance to run the offense and direct traffic.
WR Gerell Robinson is questionable with a hamstring injury, and the offensive line is hampered by injuries (per usual).
There will be a game thread this evening over at House Of Sparky.
Threet, Sun Devils Dismantle Portland State 54-9
(Tempe, AZ – House Of Sparky) Well, ASU got what they wanted.
Steven Threet played well tonight, and was able to confidently lead the offense in his ASU debut. Cameron Marshall only ran the ball four times, but gained 104 yards. He averaged 26 yards a carry – a shocking statistic.
While I don’t expect that trend to necessarily continue, we must submit that the offense played a lot better tonight than we have seen in previous seasons. New Offensive Coordinator Noel Mazzone has instilled a sense of unpredictability into our scheming.
As a fan, I was pleased with what I saw tonight. The Sun Devils walloped a bad team, but they did it effectively.
The penalties, however, must stop immediately if ASU is to be a factor moving forward. Giving up 93 yards to a Pac-10 school will earn you a loss. One can be pleased that this happened tonight, as to believe that the kinks will be worked out.
Our defense played well on the whole. Vontaze Burfict played extremely aggressive football and was all over the field. Eddie Elder made a nice play to intercept a Vikings pass, and the Devils were able to shut down the offensive attack entirely.
The only bright spot for Portland State is kicker Zach Brown, who looks like a legitimate kicking prospect for professional football (whether or not that is CFL is yet to be determined, but regardless: the kid can kick the ball).
The Sun Devils move to 1-0 on the season, and have a week to prepare for Northern Arizona. Hopefully there is a slightly bigger crowd there to support the troops on September 11.
Sep 05 1:29a by Cory Williams - 0 comments