ASU Football: Assessing the PAC-12 South
By Mike Slifer
After two games, many PAC-12 fans are talking about their team’s chances of winning the conference title. Well…..most fans. Although, technically still in contention, Washington State and Colorado are not off to good starts for the 2014 campaign. Washington fans are probably nervous. And while we’re at it, UCLA fans are not walking very tall and even Arizona fans might be a little wary after the trip to San Antonio.
While we’re at it, it could be argued that even with big victories, ASU hasn’t looked like a champion caliber team, either. The slows start against Weber State and the troubling 2nd quarter against New Mexico has some Sun Devil fans nervous about PAC-12 play.
So far, USC appears to be the one team in the South that looks really tough. The Trojans are not only 2-0 (along with ASU, UA, UCLA, Utah), they have beaten what most would call quality opponents. USC beat Fresno State in game one with authority. With all the distractions and depth issues, the Trojans throttled the Bulldogs to open the season. (To be fair, Utah did the same a week later, however Devils in Detail believes that the Trojan’s big win over Fresno State in game one is more significant than Utah’s big win in game two.)
The Trojans then followed that victory by going up to Stanford and beating the Cardinal in a defensive slugfest. Stanford is a legitimate opponent with national stature and to go there and get a hard-fought win speaks volumes.
On the other side of town, even though the UCLA Bruins are also 2-0, their performances have not been as convincing. They beat a pedestrian Virginia team with the help of three defensive touchdowns. The offense was largely ineffective and had problems protecting QB Brett Hundley. The Bruins didn’t fare much better in their home opener against Memphis, eking out a 42-35 victory, possibly exposing their defense a bit.
The Arizona Wildcats basically survived a scare in San Antonio by escaping with a 7 point victory against the UTSA Roadrunners. And of course, on the road in Albuquerque, the Sun Devils allowed New Mexico to make things interesting for a while by letting the Lobos back into the game for about 15 minutes.
At the end of the day, the scores and opponents don’t much matter. At least they shouldn’t. Every team is different. Every week is different. Every opponent is different. Hope and optimism can rule the day until PAC-12 play opens up this coming weekend. But after two games, it appears that the USC Trojans are on top of the heap with everybody else hoping to keep up.