Go Mighty Card

Pac-12 Summer Preview: Arizona State Sun Devils

Even though the season won't kick off until early September, I thought it would be fun to take a look around the conference for a quick preview of the other eleven teams -- in no particular order. We'll get more in depth during the week before the Cardinal plays each team, but for now we've got a quick overview of how the team looks at this point as seen through the eyes of a blogger who knows that team best. Enjoy.

Arizona State Sun Devils (Pac-12 South)
Head Coach: Dennis Erickson (25-24)
2010: (6-6, 4-5, 6th)
Lost to Stanford, 17-13

When you think back to the 2010 season, it's easy to fool yourself into believing that the Cardinal only struggled for those disappointing thirty minutes in the second half in Eugene. They crushed everyone else on the schedule, didn't they?

Not exactly. There was the last second field goal to snatch victory away from USC, but that was kind of understandable. It came as no surprise that Stanford was involved in a high-scoring shootout that came down to the final possession.

What happened in Tempe in mid-November, though, was stunning. At 8-1, the Mighty Card was rolling, and fans were spending much more time thinking about which BCS bowl they'd be attending than worrying about the middle-of-the-pack Sun Devils. In the other twelve games the Cardinal played last season, they never scored fewer than 31 points. Against Arizona State they scored barely half that amount as they struggled for an ugly 17-13 win.

Stanford 17, Arizona State 13

This game probably says as much about the state of Stanford Cardinal Football as any this season.  Consider this: the Cardinal travelled to play a night game in Arizona, a state which hasn't been terribly kind to them in the past, struggled for much of the night, and somehow we come away from the game feeling disappointed.  We expected fireworks, but instead we got the ugliest of wins.  Ah, but a win is still a win.  Here's how it happened.  

At the outset it looked like business as usual for the Mighty Card as the defense threw down a three-and-out on the opening possession and handed the ball to Andrew Luck and Company who marched fifty yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0, exactly as expected.  But the Sun Devils answered the score with a touchdown of their own on their next possession, letting everyone know that this game would not be a Cardinal blowout.