ESPN Insider: Erickson may not be done yet
Nov 23, 2011, 8:12 PM | Updated: 10:24 pm
After losses to UCLA, Washington State and Arizona, most
fans agree that Dennis Erickson’s time is up at ASU.
What was supposed to be ASU’s long awaited rise out of
mediocrity, actually turned out to be just another
typical, disappointing Sun Devil season.
The team started out strong, beating ranked Missouri and
USC, and a 6-2 start had the Sun Devil faithful seeing
roses.
Then November came.
Though Arizona State’s Rose Bowl dreams have surely taken
a hit, the team can still win the Pac-12 South, believe or
not, and play for a chance at The Grandaddy of Them All.
This is why ESPN college football insider Mark May
believes Erickson may keep his job.
“Their goal was to get to the first Pac-12 Championship
game,” May said Wednesday on Arizona Sports 620’s Burns
and Gambo. “No matter how they back into it if they get
there, this will be the forward spin, ‘our first goal was
to get to the Pac-12 Championship game, we got there no
matter what our record is or how we got there, we got
there; it’s historic,’ that’s how the athletic department
will spin it, it’s not pretty but they got the job done.”
However, winning the South gets a little confusing. First,
the Devils have to win against Cal on Friday. Then the
team must sit and watch on Saturday, hoping UCLA loses to
USC. If that happens, and Utah beats Colorado as expected,
the Sun Devils would be in a three way tie for the
division lead, with ASU heading to the Pac-12 Championship
thanks to the team’s division record against South
opponents and the tie breaker they own over Utah.
Erickson himself was a guest on Burns and Gambo Tuesday,
and he and defended what he’s done at ASU, saying the
program is now better off since when he arrived.
May didn’t have the same stance.
“You’re judged by wins and losses I don’t care about
athleticism and speed and all of this it doesn’t make a
difference,” May said. “If you’re 6-6 you’re 6-6, as Bill
Parcells used to say ‘you are what you’re record says you
are,’ if he didn’t get this team to eight or ten wins then
he didn’t do the job that he was hired for.”
So with Arizona hiring Rich Rodriguez, maybe it’s time for
ASU to look in a new direction as well.
