Sullivan Knows His Way Home

Happy Saturday, everyone.

Hope you’re all up and enjoying…uh…Purdue/Illinois? Minnesota/Ohio State?

I’m going back to bed.

Earlier this week, Jeff Metcalfe took note of the fact that this will be Danny Sullivan’s first and only opportunity to start a college football game at Stanford, just 30 minutes from Los Gatos, CA, close to where your humble blogger grew up and where Sullivan played in high school.

The last time Sullivan played in Palo Alto was a pretty good one, says Elliott Almond of the San Jose Mercury News.

Sullivan, then a senior at Los Gatos high, slung 303 yards and 4 touchdowns against Palo Alto in a 63-28 win to clinch a division title. That was in 2005. It was the last time he’s started a football game in the Bay Area.

Today, four years later, tonight’s ASU/Stanford game (7:20 PM, FS Arizona) might not be for a championship, but it’s no less pivotal to the Sun Devils’ fleeting bowl hopes in 2009.

Sullivan will be playing in front of childhood friends and family who will make the trek north to The Farm to see him play and it will be by far the biggest game he’s played in thus far at Arizona State.

He’s got to come up big tonight. This Stanford defense, regardless of how good their offense led by Toby Gerhart and Andrew Luck have been, has been a sieve over the last few weeks. Granted, the Devils don’t have the kind of offensive firepower that Oregon State had (38-28 loss) or the hot-shot quarterback that Arizona had (43-38 loss) that the Cardinal have faced over the past two weeks.

However, coming off a tremendous, confidence-building performance that was the Washington win, a suspect Stanford secondary and a chance to push his Sun Devils one step closer to what two weeks ago seemed like the impossible task of bowl eligibility.

We’ll be keeping track of a big day in the Pac-10 here on PFN all day. Stick around. There might even be a special PFN Live edition later during the game if I’m feeling up for it.

Actually…why don’t you let me know? If you’re interested in participating in a special edition PFN Live tonight during ASU/Stanford, leave a comment or send us an e-mail. Judging by your response, we’ll see whether or not we do one.

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