Doug: I refuse to believe

So they started this morning but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I got 7 fire Dennis Erickson e-mails over night last night.

I was actually happy that it was only 7. I refuse to believe the majority of ASU fans want Dennis Erickson fired. In order to want Dennis Erickson fired, you have to put on a T-shirt that reads, “I don’t know a $%#* thing about college football and ASU but I want that guy fired.”

I’m sure if I cross-referenced the “Fire Dennis Erickson” e-mails, it would be from the same senders as the “Fire Steve Kerr” e-mails.

When the Suns started to put it together, suddenly people realized they were wrong because they had no facts or patience to back up their opinion. The ASU situation is the exact same.

Remember how many of you hated the Goran Dragic pick. Terry Porter almost destroyed the kid. Finally Alvin Gentry came in and said, go in there in screw up.

He told Dragic to quit looking to the sidelines when you mess up, just stop messing up.

Don’t worry about coming out of the game. Worry about creating, scoring, and defense.

Dragic’s failures mounted early and then he exploded into the best back-up point guard in the NBA.

ASU starts one senior. Dirk Koetter left the program with nothing for young recruits. He did have good players who were coming into their senior year that Erickson was able to take advantage of. After that there was nothing. All of the 5th year seniors and non-redshirt seniors are from the Dirk Koetter era.

If you compare the talent of similar aged players throughout the Pac-10, ASU is way behind. Do you blame Erickson for not recruiting better talent while Koetter was head coach?

Let’s look at the juniors. Unless they are junior college players recruited recently as stop-gap players, the juniors are the result of 5 weeks of recruiting.

Dennis Erickson was hired around Christmas of ’06. He had 5 weeks to convince talented players to break verbal commitments they had made months and sometimes years earlier to come to ASU.

Did you really expect Dennis Erickson to beat USC to players in the height of the Pete Carroll reign after recruiting for 5 weeks?

You are seeing Dennis Erickson compete with top ten teams on the field with only freshman and sophomores that are truly his players. Oregon was the number one defense in college football and ASU torched them for 600 yards. Cameron Marshall fumbled at the 2. Steven Threet tried to do way too much in the fourth quarter and it cost the team.

These aren’t excuses for UO’s win. They deserved to win the game. ASU deserved to lose the game.

If you’re blaming the coach though, what was the decision that Dennis Erickson made that cost them the game? He coached a good game. His assistants coached a good game.

ASU lost because young players made dumb mistakes. Get upset as a fan. Get mad that this is happening. Get emotional but do it at the game and realize ASU is building something.

Trust what your eyes are telling you. You can see ASU is fast. You can see ASU is getting close. You can see they are a better team than they were two years ago.

Don’t allow your frustrations with close losses drive you to bail on Dennis Erickson.

The last thing ASU needs is to put in someone else while the team is getting closer.

I asked for your patience with Steve Kerr because he was making good long-term decisions that wouldn’t work in the short-term. I hope I earned your respect enough that I can ask for it again.

The reason why I said ASU would go 6-6 and not go to a bowl game is because I thought they’d lose a lot of close games due to young players doing dumb things while they learn to do the right thing.

Don’t you think Threet will be a better QB every day after that lesson from UO? I do.

Suddenly, when the players start making fewer mistakes, Erickson will look like a better coach.

No one at ASU has the guts to tell you this because it’s terrible for marketing but get your 2011 season tickets now. All season it’s going to be like this. Those who stay firm and resolute will reap the rewards next year.

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