ESPN Analyst: ‘ASU can play with just about anybody’
Sep 28, 2011, 8:14 PM | Updated: 9:15 pm
Arizona State’s victory over USC has one college analyst jumping on the Sun Devil bandwagon.
The win showed ESPN analyst Mark May the Devils are now legit contenders in college football.
“If [OB Brock] Osweiler’s able to protect the ball, if they don’t turn the ball over, if they don’t make the ridiculous turnovers they can play with just about anybody,” May said on Arizona Sports 620’s Burns and Gambo show.
May believes the win showed the Sun Devils could play a complete game.
“They finally finished the game particularly in the second half,” May said. “It was almost a payback game for Arizona State. They targeted this game for a very long time they thought if they could get over the hump against USC they could get that monkey off their back and bigger and brighter things would be down the road and I think that’s happened.”
The key for ASU to avoid a let-down Saturday against Oregon State — or any other team on its schedule — is for the team to be consistent week in and week out.
To make sure of this May thinks all head coach Dennis Erickson has to do is show game tape of previous years.
“All they have to do is look in the past,” May said. “Look at games they could’ve won in the past that they overlooked opponents and lost those games, the key is they have to have that consistency they had in the second half against USC and make sure they keep that and carry it over for the next six weeks.”
May is confident the Sun Devils won’t be taking any team lightly this season.
“I think this team is finally and getting over that hump and I don’t think they are going to look ahead,” May said.
