Moos: ‘We lost hunger’

Remember when Arizona State was sitting atop the Pac-12 South,
cruising
along with a 6-2 record? The Sun Devils, fresh off a 48-14 Homecoming
victory over Colorado had been through the supposed tough part of their
schedule, having already played Missouri, Illinois, USC, Utah and Oregon.

Maybe, just maybe all of that preseason hype about the Sun Devils being
a
conference championship contender and a BCS bowl participant was
right
on the money for once.

Nope. Following ASU’s third straight head-scratching loss–this one a
31-
27 defeat at the hands of in-state rival Arizona–defensive
tackle Bo Moos may have diagnosed exactly what has happened in
Tempe
the last three weeks.

“I just think we hit a point in the season where we just kind of thought
we
had arrived, and we lost hunger,” Moos told the media Saturday night.

Certainly thousands of fans dressed in maroon and gold (and black) were
uttering the same sentiments as they trudged out of Sun Devil
Stadium on Saturday. But to hear a starter on the defensive side of the
football say those things is quite telling.

In a follow-up question, Moos did absolve Dennis Erickson and the
coaching staff for any responsibility in ASU’s nosedive.

“The blame is on the players,” Moos said. “Our coaches this week
coached
the same way they did the week against SC, the week of Missouri,” he
said.
“It’s on the players.”

Regardless of where the blame goes, the simple truth is you can’t
fire college football players. You can fire coaches. ASU VP of Athletics
Lisa
Love had her postseason decision on the coach made for her last night.
Erickson will be gone at the end of the season.

Will that make a difference? If you read my article earlier this
week, I have
my doubts that anything will drastically change with the ASU football
program if and when a new coaching staff is brought in.

But the University can no longer sell this current product to their fan
base.
The possibility exists that the Sun Devils will finish with a losing record
and will post a 6-wins-or-less season for ninth time in the last fourteen
years.

You’d never go back to a restaurant that had sub-par service and
mediocre food 64% of the time, would you? Of course you wouldn’t,
unless that restaurant changed things up.

Sparky’s Cafe in Tempe is about to have a sign hung on the door that
says
“under new management”. Again. Only time will tell if the food gets
better.

Follow @Vincemarotta