2009 - A Pigskin Learning Curve

Barely four months ago, we sat here on Pitchfork Nation and Fanster.com and welcomed yet another brand new season of Arizona State football.

13 weeks later, we sit empty-handed; frustrated over an eight-loss season; infuriated with another program record-tying six game losing streak; baffled to how an offense can be as stagnant and predictable as it was; stewing over a stunning yet all-too familiar lack of discipline.

That, members of Sun Devil nation, is 2009 in a nutshell.

It’s 4-8 seasons like we just experienced in Tempe that make you sit back and reflect and try to figure out where exactly it all went down the tubes.

It’s years like this one that teach you some good lessons and harsh truths about a team.

And the harsh truth is that another down season was, unfortunately, expected. That doesn’t make it any less frustrating or the truths revealed about Arizona State any less painful to come to grips with.

Oh, the lessons you learn when you follow a losing team.

What we learned about this ASU offense is that wholesale changes must be made if any progress is to come in 2010. This starts with the ouster of Rich Olson. In the name of improvement and turning this program in the right direction, it starts with Dennis Erickson giving up his playcalling duties and trading in his old buddy Rich for a newer model.

I’m still not willing to say that the “game has passed Erickson by” as so many of you claim but I do believe there’s just too much on his plate to effectively manage this team and try to call the offense at the same time. Meanwhile, any input from Olson on this offense in 2009 was a joke. If I had the time, I would go back and watch every play from this season and calculate what percentage of plays run over the past 12 games were East/West off-tackle runs. I guarantee you the proportion would be outrageous.

The Pacific-10 is a dynamic offensive conference. It’s a league of great diversity, creativity and success in putting up gaudy, crooked numbers in box scores and on scoreboards. Whether it’s the graceful spread option in Oregon, USC’s high-flying attack, Oregon State’s speed and agility or Stanford’s bone-crushing running game, teams in the Pac know how to move the ball. Arizona State did not and it led to a 2-7 disaster.

Speaking of which, we learned this year that it all starts with the quarterback, something the Sun Devils certainly didn’t have. Arizona State struggled mightily on offense and prepared predictable, vanilla game plans because none of this team’s three starting quarterbacks could grasp anything more than that. A more complicated playbook would have only led to a potentially more disastrous outcome.

We all cried and wondered when Erickson and Olson would open up the attack and get creative. By the time the Oregon State game was over and the Devils were 2-2, it was painfully obvious that vanilla was all this year’s offense could deal with thanks to the inexperience and shallow learning curve Danny Sullivan, Brock Osweiler and Samson Szakacsy each carry.

With Danny, it’s a lost cause. His head was clearly never fully wrapped around being the starter for this team and his mindset reflected it as such. He’s gone now, though, his eligibility expired.

It’s different for Brock and Samson; they haven’t been around for nearly as long as Danny and it wouldn’t be fair to judge their struggles comparatively to him. A fresh start for both of these guys, and Steven Threet for that matter, will be the perfect refresher for one of them to become this team’s leader.

However, due to the stubbornness and seemingly blind faith that Erickson had in Sullivan straight into halftime of the 14-9 loss at home to USC stunted any early development Osweiler or Szakacsy could have gained. Brock and Samson, and Danny for fleeting times against Washington and Arizona, had their moments to shine. However, 95% of the time, their play was disastrous. Danny had no accuracy. Brock has the athleticism but lacks the game experience. Samson has the skills to be dynamic but the magnitude of starting against Arizona was clearly too overwhelming for the time being.

The constant problem of a plug-and-play offensive line didn’t help matters much, which leads me to believe that Matt Lubick and the rest of the staff need to find a renewed commitment to finding and recruiting top flight offensive linemen. I know that standouts are hard to find and it’s even harder to extrapolate how they might shape up and perform in college. However, when you look at the extreme dearth of talent and health of this unit, not just this year but over the past several seasons, the lack of progress and quality is stunning.

Never have I seen a team leave so many potential points on the field. While most of that comes right back to the stagnation of this offense as a whole, I will never, ever sell short the mandate that every good team needs a good, healthy and consistent kicker. The Sun Devils caught a horrible break when Thomas Weber went down with injury for a substantial portion of this season.

This year’s Weber was a shadow of his 2007 Lou Groza winning self. Thomas’ longest converted kick was a 35-yard extra point against Arizona. Beyond that, his longest field goal was a 29-yarder. Let that sink in. Thomas Weber, the nation’s best kicker just two seasons ago, did not convert a single field goal from beyond 30 yards.

Within all the crapulence of this year came the fact that this team has a pretty nice little, if not excellent, defense. However, in the Pac-10, we clearly saw that strong defense alone just can’t win you games in this league. How many times did I repeat on this website during the preseason that ASU was going to have to win games 17-14 to get to .500?

The defense definitely did it’s part. However, even a national top-10 unit can’t fully get the job done if dumb, careless and downright foolish penalties rule the day. Discipline has never been a strong suit for Dennis Erickson coached teams; it’s a proven fact, just watch the upcoming ESPN “30 for 30″ film about the Miami Hurricanes of the 1980s. Unlike those “Bad Boys” days in Coral Gables (and subsequently his Oregon State Fiesta Bowl team), discipline in today’s game is directly proportional with winning; the more you are, the more you win.

The solace that comes out of all of this is the theory that it’s always darkest before the dawn.

For Arizona State, 2009 was one of the darkest. We can only now sit and hope for the promise of a better 2010.

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