Buried at the bottom Jeff Metcalfe’s story about Deveron Carr possibly getting a start across Pierre Singfield on Saturday against USC is the the real big news of the week so far for Arizona State.

Two players from the Devils’ vaunted-but-underachieving units will be shelved for the remainder of 2009.

-WR TJ Simpson will have a screw put into his injured ankle and is out for the year.

-DT Corey Adams will have a disc removed from his back (which just sounds…so very painful…) and is also done for the season.

The wide receivers and defensive linemen came into 2009 with talk that they were supposed to be two of the three strongest units on this team, along with the linebackers.

That hasn’t panned out.

Simpson has struggled to get playing time behind Chris McGaha, Kerry Taylor, Gerell Robinson and Kyle Williams. However, with Taylor and Williams already missing time this season and Brandon Smith not having played a game, it has uncovered a startling lack of depth at WR.

It was at a point last week where, as we mentioned prominently, Brian Matsumoto was getting legitimate 1st string reps. With Simpson out for the year and Taylor and Williams still not quite at 100%, it looks as if Danny Sullivan (and Samson Szakacsy, I guess) are in dire straits when it comes to finding reliable targets through the air.

Outside of the incredible 12-sack performance in Pullman a few weeks ago, the defensive line has struggled as well. While Lawrence Guy has really picked up his play over the past two weeks, guys like Dexter Davis and others have been woeful about getting the first level into the offensive backfield. Like Simpson, Adams will be a blow to depth for a unit that is already underachieving.

Beyond all that, to the topic of Carr, Omar Bolden STILL isn’t at full strength. Kevin Riley was able to pick apart the ASU secondary last Saturday by throwing almost exclusively over Singfield and Bolden’s absence in the defensive back seven is really starting to be a hindrance. Beyond that, the kick return team has been completely ineffective without him, even