Brad Cesmat
Arizona and Arizona State football start their media blitz for the coming season three weeks from today at Pac-12 Media Day in Los Angeles. The two schools will meet November 30th in Tempe, between now and then what can you expect?
Arizona State has the much more difficult schedule. The Sun Devils face at least three ranked teams in the first five weeks. Wisconsin starts the death march on September 14th, Stanford might be ranked in the top five when ASU plays at Palo Alto the following week, home to USC on the 28th and of course all eyes are on the October 5th game at Dallas against Notre Dame. By the time the Devils get through that stretch they might be ranked in the top ten in the nation or have 4 losses, it’s a very intriguing set-up.
Arizona has put together a first month for great success. An unimposing schedule the first three weeks(Northern Arizona, At UNLV, UTSA), the Wildcats travel to Washington on September 28th to open Pac-12 conference play. They should be 3-0 coming into that game.
Who has success at QB for the UofA, who catches the ball for ASU? Those are the two offensive questions. On defense can the Cats stop anyone on the ground? They gave up over 200 yards rushing per game in 2012.
In Tempe, I am more concerned about the special teams of the Sun Devils than I am the defense. With All-American Will Sutton returning at tackle, the pass rush should pick up right where it left off last season.
We are taking the show to Pac-12 media day on the 26th of this month. I am sure that every coach is going to strap on the headset and make it sound like they could beat Alabama straight up. I do believe that both in-state schools are going to have very interesting seasons.
