Blogging with the Devils

Joey Parigi pitched at Texas in 2006.

Seven Arizona State baseball players faced with the prospect of very-limited playing time in 2008 are off the roster as they explore options elsewhere.

Coach Pat Murphy said that his program is helping facilitate moves (such as to a junior college) for the players, adding that some could eventually return to the Sun Devils.

The group includes two higher-profile pitching signees: Joey Parigi, a left-handed transfer from Texas who began the 2007 season as the Sun Devils’ No. 3 starter, and right-hander Joe Hatasaki, a national top-100 prospect out of high school.

Parigi, who had a 3-1 record, 6.57 ERA and two saves as a sophomore, struggled early, went to the bullpen and worked in less-meaningful situations as the year progressed. He made six combined appearances in April and May and did not pitch in any of ASU’s eight postseason contests.

Hatasaki, who underwent elbow ligament-replacement (Tommy John) surgery as a high-school junior, was limited to four appearances as a freshman in 2007, allowing 11 hits and seven runs in six innings.

Also in the group is Jeff Urlaub, a left-handed pitcher who was enjoying a solid true-freshman campaign in 2006 until struck with mononucleosis. He injured his elbow last year and was expected to miss this season after having Tommy John surgery in June.

The other players currently off the roster are pitchers Adam Bailey and Jason Mitchell, infielder Joe Van Meter and outfielder Mike Petello. Thirty-four players are listed on the Sun Devils’ updated roster, which can be found here.

The most recent federal graduation rate figures were released on Tuesday, and ASU’s rate for scholarship athletes that entered school in 2000 and graduated within six years is 44 percent, compared to 56 percent for all students.

Federal rates are more stringent than the NCAA Graduation Success Rate, which allows institutions to count athletes that transfer in and exclude those that leave school, as long as they were academically eligible had they stayed.

ASU’s overall GSR, also released on Tuesday, is 68 percent.

Allow me to share my Sunday:

Woke up at 7 a.m.; I had five hours of sleep after covering the California-Arizona State game on Saturday night. Went to church with my family; during the sermon, jotted down ideas for the Tribune’s coverage leading to this week’s big ASU-Oregon contest. (Not to worry, Pastor; I still got the gist of what you said.)

Came home and did follow-up research on Saturday’s game. Watched some of the South Carolina-Tennessee replay on ESPNU. Took my sons to a nearby mall to ride a carousel. Participated with 23 other reporters on ASU coach Dennis Erickson’s teleconference. Wrote the story and follow-up notes that appeared in Monday’s Tribune.

Watched the Boston Red Sox finish off the Colorado Rockies in the World Series. Continued planning out my upcoming work week. Went to bed.

Anything missing from that ledger — specifically, three letters — that is a near-obligatory part of fall Sundays for an American male?

After years of never missing an NFL Sunday, many of them spent at the now-closed McDuffy’s sports bar in Tempe, I cannot remember the last time I watched a game from beginning to end. And that includes the Super Bowl.

The NFL does not hold my interest. Almost all of my football watching is on Saturdays.

There are several reasons, and one of the biggest is that it is my job to watch and have a deep knowledge of college football. But there are other factors that have led to my enjoyment of the NFL diminishing.

A dominance of West Coast-like playbooks has resulted in more offensive efficiency, at the expense of excitement. With few exceptions, NFL stadiums are cookie-cutter facilites where the gameday atmosphere is the same from park to park. Most NFL television personalities — especially those involved in the networks’ race to create the most moronic and information-free pregame show — annoy me.

Lastly, the endless hype has dulled my senses. It is a football game, not Armageddon.

From that standpoint, let’s look at two games this weekend, Saturday’s ASU-Oregon tilt and Sunday’s New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts contest. Granted, the NFL game is a matchup of unbeatens, but which game will have the more electric venue? Which game is a make-or-break for the championship hopes of both teams?

And which game will be the subject of incessant, nonstop chatter, from now until kickoff? Dear Reader, you and I both know the answer to that question. Coverage of Rudy Carpenter vs. Dennis Dixon will pale in comparison to that of Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. And that is a shame.

This blog entry — OK, rant — is simply about one man’s disillusionment with the NFL. It is not an indictment of the millions who enjoy the league and follow it passionately.

But they can have the RCA Dome. I will take Autzen Stadium.

Just a reminder, the Arizona State men’s basketball team is having an intra-squad scrimmage Saturday at 4 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.  It’s open to the public and not likely to last beyond 5 p.m., so don’t fret about making the 7 p.m. kickoff next door against California.

Admission is free. Parking passes should all be honored, but give yourself time to get there. Plenty of roads (including parts of Rural and University) will be closed much of Saturday because of homecoming activities.

Their first taste of opposition is next Saturday at noon against Grand Canyon. It’s only an exhibition game, but it’s something.

Justin Tryon heard the charge constantly after Arizona State’s game at California last season. Sometimes, he still does.

Dirty player.

It is a tag that, when taking Tryon’s entire body of work with the Sun Devils into consideration, is undeserved. But the senior realizes that — thanks to the preservation of Internet pages, including a video on YouTube — it will stay with him.

“I still hear about it,” Tryon said. “I still hear that I’m a dirty guy.”

With the Golden Bears leading 28-7 in the second quarter, Tryon, one of the gunners on ASU’s punt team, misjudged his approach to DeSean Jackson and planted his helmet into the California returner’s chin. Tryon was whistled for a personal foul, and the play was named one of the “Cheapest Shots of the Year” on a popular college football blog.

Earlier in the game, Tryon was blocked on a Jackson punt return for a touchdown and was eager to make amends. He said that he was simply a little too aggressive — but not malicious.

“That’s not my character,” Tryon said. “I was an inch too early, but it was still a bad play on my part.”

Fewer than 3,000 tickets remain for Saturday’s game between ASU and California at Sun Devil Stadium. The tarp that covers a few rows of seats in the North end zone upper deck has been removed, meaning that attendance will be at or near the facility’s true capacity of 71,706.

Construction is expected to begin on the “bubble” indoor practice facility around December and will last six months. The $6-million structure, to be located on the current band field at Rural Road and Sixth Street, will contain two fields, one 90 yards long, the other 70 yards.

The program will host a group of about 10 recruits this weekend, including Lawrence Guy, a top 10-rated defensive tackle from Western High in Las Vegas. The 6-foot-6, 265-pound Guy’s finalists are ASU, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Sun Devil Stadium was sold out for USC’s visit to Arizona State in 2005.

Arizona State has announced that tickets for two of its three remaining home football games are limited: Fewer than 5,000 are available for Saturday’s contest against California, and about 700 are left for the Southern California tilt on Thanksgiving night.

“Our fans have been great,” first-year ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “We’re starting to fill (the stadium) up. I hope we can sell it out for the Cal game and down the road, because that’s what it’s about.”

A large number of walk-up buyers will likely be necessary for this weekend’s game to sell out. However, if that somehow happens, ASU could achieve something not done in a long while: three straight home capacity crowds for football.

The stadium also figures to be full for the Dec. 1 regular-season finale against archrival Arizona, especially if the Sun Devils keep winning.

ASU’s last season with at least three sellouts was the 1996 Rose Bowl campaign, when all of the tickets were distributed for the Washington, Nebraska, USC and California dates. However, only the USC and Cal games were consecutive.

Information on the last time Sun Devil Stadium was sold out three games in a row was not readily available on Wednesday. One might have to go back before the 1988 expansion that brought the facility to its current capacity of 71,706.

Regardless of the ticket count for the next three ASU home contests, the stadium scene could be more raucous than has been experienced in these parts in some time.

“If we continue to have the atmosphere that we’ve been building, that will really help with the home-field advantage,” Erickson said.

Representatives from the Rose, Sugar and Sun bowls will be in attendance at ASU’s game against California.

The name of the Sun Devil defensive lineman is Dane Guthrie, and I have known that since he stepped foot on campus after transferring from Florida two years ago. I have no clue how the first name “Dale” got off my laptop computer screen and into the ASU football notebook in Wednesday’s Tribune. Unfortunately, screwups like that happen from time to time.

The error has been fixed on our Web site. My apologies to Dane, who will be featured in the Tribune later this week.

Since the spring, it seems, observers have pointed to Arizona State’s 2007 schedule and indicated that a four-game stretch — California, at Oregon, at UCLA and Southern California — would define the Sun Devils’ season. Well, that stretch is upon us.

ASU deserves much credit for doing everything it needed to, record-wise, to prepare. It is 7-0, one of just five unbeatens left in the bowl subdivision, and controls its own bowl-destination destiny.

“We’ve got seven wins, but at the same time, people aren’t giving us recognition for who we’ve played,” linebacker Robert James said after Sunday’s practice. “If we beat Cal, hopefully, we’ll get some more respect.”

James’ comment is slightly off-base.

After all, the Sun Devils are ranked seventh in both the Associated Press and USA Today (coaches) polls, their highest appearance since the 1996 Rose Bowl season. And ASU is fourth in the Bowl Championship Series standings, which are tabulated with the help of computer ratings based on schedule strength.

Slowly but surely, the Sun Devils’ wins against Colorado, Oregon State and Stanford — each team later beat a No. 2- or No. 3-ranked squad — are gaining worth.

But no victories would be as impressive as those ASU could post in its next four contests. The opponents are a combined 22-6, and each is scary in its own way.

California, which has the talent to contend for a national title, has lost two in a row — a wounded animal that the Sun Devils should beware. Oregon’s Autzen Stadium is one of the toughest places in college football to play, and Dennis Dixon will be the most dynamic quarterback ASU has faced to date.

Nobody knows which UCLA squad will show up, but the fired up, focused Bruins are awfully formidable. And with USC getting healthier, I might need to revisit the Sun Bowl projection I had for the Trojans in my College GameDay column in Saturday’s Tribune.

“This season has been fun, but as we all know, the last part of our schedule is huge,” coach Dennis Erickson said.

In August, I wrote in the Tribune and said during radio interviews that eight regular-season victories was a reasonable and realistic goal for Erickson’s first year in Tempe. The Sun Devils are in position to blow by that total and play in a big-time bowl.

How good is ASU? The next four games will tell.

UCLA running back Kahlil Bell sprints away from California defenders during the Bruins’ victory on Saturday.

I plan on blogging later about the developments at the Rose Bowl on Saturday and what they could mean to Arizona State as it heads down the stretch. Right now, I’m about to throw the chicken and hamburgers on the grill for our family’s Dad-is-home-on-Saturday-night-for-a-change cookout celebration.

However, this bewilderment needs to be expressed:

This team opens the year with impressive wins against Stanford and Brigham Young, then lays an egg against a Utah squad missing its starting quarterback and running back. It next wins two straight games, including a rout of Oregon State at Corvallis, then gives putrid Notre Dame its only victory of the season.

And on Saturday, this team defeats 10th-ranked California — which many observers, myself included, were still projecting for the Rose Bowl — to move into a tie with ASU atop the Pac-10.

You try and figure out UCLA. I can’t.

Ryan Torain

During the summer, Arizona State running back Ryan Torain told me that he had no hesitancy about discussing his football future.

“I don’t see anything wrong with thinking about the future at all,” Torain, who figured to be a first- or second-round NFL draft selection, said then. “I’m so excited about what lies ahead after the season.

“I’m ready to go after it and see what happens.”

That’s what makes, as a daily observer of the Sun Devils, Torain’s college career-ending Lisfranc sprain so hard to swallow. He has likely descended to a late-round pick or undrafted free-agent signee, losing a lot of money in the process.

Lisfranc injuries can be extremely difficult to come back from. Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook is an example of a successful rehabilitation, while others have found the injury to be a career-ender. As ASU coach Dennis Erickson said on Wednesday, what kind of rehab awaits Torain cannot be determined until after his surgery on Friday.

My College GameDay column in Saturday’s Tribune will be devoted to a midseason report, divided into several categories. One of them will be the play of the year to this point, and think California’s DeSean Jackson on a sick punt return against Tennessee.

That would be the best play in a game. The two best plays in practice — maybe the two best plays, period — I have seen this season were by Torain.

The first was at Camp Tontozona, on a quick cut that athletic ASU safety Josh Barrett, the team’s defensive player of the year last season, nearly screwed himself into the ground in a futile effort to adjust to. The second was a long, awe-inspiring touchdown run during a preseason practice in Tempe in which Torain carried cornerback Travis Smith for several yards before the defender fell off, his mouthpiece flying out.

Hopefully, we will be able to marvel at Torain’s talent again soon.

How will the Sun Devils deal with the loss of Torain? It is easy to point to the play of reserves Keegan Herring and Dimitri Nance and suggest that ASU will be fine, but much of their success this season has been in the second-half, against worn-down defenses.

Wearing down an defense is as much about long drives as it is about physicality. The Sun Devils are third in the nation in average time of possession (34:02), which is partly a product of Torain’s ability to sustain marches with first-down runs between the tackles.

An inability to do that consistently was a problem for ASU in 2005, when it had Herring and an experienced offensive line. Running outside has been Herring’s forte, but will that work reliably enough against such schools as California, Oregon and Southern California? Nance, 20 pounds heavier, has the build and skills to do the dirty work inside, but can he do it against a fresh defense earlier in a game?

Where does sophomore Jarrell Woods, who has yet to play this year due to an ankle sprain, fit in? Does Erickson remove the redshirt from junior Shaun DeWitty, who is the biggest running back — listed at 6-foot-2 and 217 pounds, he is an inch taller and four pounds heavier than Torain — on the team?

Over the next five contests, the Sun Devils will have to address those questions — against the best and most athletic opposing defenses they will face this season.

Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit work ESPN’s “College GameDay” in Tempe before the Southern California-Arizona State game in 2005.

Arizona State officials on Wednesday said that they have not heard from ESPN regarding “College GameDay” setting up shop outside Sun Devil Stadium on Oct. 27, when the 12th-ranked Sun Devils host No. 10 California.

ESPN does not announce its upcoming “GameDay” until the Sunday before the game — and the network is typically hushed during the decision process — but a process of elimination suggests that Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit will be in Happy Valley, not Tempe.

“GameDay” came to ASU in 2005, when the Sun Devils hosted Southern California, in a game televised by sister network ABC — an important fact to keep in mind. More on that in a moment.

There are four games on Oct. 27 big enough to merit a “GameDay” visit: ASU-California, USC-Oregon, Florida-Georgia and Ohio State-Penn State.

Oregon has already been a “GameDay” site this year, for the game against California on Sept. 29. While the biggest rivalry of the day is “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” in Jacksonville, Fla., an ESPN visit would be the third time in four weeks that it has followed Florida.

The ASU-California game will be televised on Fox Sports Net. While that does not automatically disqualify Tempe from a “GameDay” visit, the show, far more often than not, is on site at — and helps promote — an ESPN/ABC game.

And that’s something that “GameDay” has not done in a while. It was at Florida-Louisiana State (CBS) two weeks ago, Missouri-Oklahoma (FSN) last week and will visit Florida-Kentucky (CBS) on Saturday.

The Ohio State-Penn State contest is ABC’s Saturday prime-time contest, which Herbstreit serves as an analyst for. “GameDay” has not been to Happy Valley this season. Ohio State is the nation’s top-ranked squad. All of the convenience and promotion signs for ESPN point to Penn State.

While “GameDay” will likely not be at ASU, the Sun Devils will still be a part of the Oct. 27 telecast, as running back Keegan Herring will be profiled.

No Midnight Madness around here, but The Sendek Fourteen hit the practice court in full Friday night. They practiced once, then twice on Saturday, including an open-media practice at Wells Fargo Arena before Arizona State’s football team kicked off against Washington.

After three practices in less than 24 hours, “It’s been a good day for us,” Sendek said.

Here’s why: Both freshman James Harden and sophomore transfer Eric Boateng looked good at practice. Boateng had to sit out last season after transferring from Duke, and looked significantly stronger and agile (my questionable vision and non-medical background say he’s gained between 10 and 15 pounds of muscle).

Harden is an athlete-and-a-half. Actually, so is all of this year’s freshman class. How well that translates to successful college basketball — especially in a loaded Pac-10 — well, that’s a long, long way away.

Here comes the “however” part: ASU isn’t picture-perfect in the health department. Jeff Pendergraph was limited because of a hamstring, freshman Ty Abbott (Phoenix Desert Vista) took part in most of practice, but Sendek said he’s still recovering from summer surgery.

Junior foward Chad Goldstein had a boot on his right foot after twisting his ankle. Goldstein (from Scottsdale Desert Mountain) was walking around with one crutch, but he said he planned to be back on the floor in a week or two.

Not that he was likely to see any time, but freshman walk-on Trent Anderson has a torn ACL and is done for the season.

Sendek also joked he’s “retired” using megaphones at ASU football games for now, and mentioned a time students had him looking like Rambo, complete with bandana.

  =   ??????

Perish the thought.

The Sun Devils will have an open scrimmage Oct. 27 at 4 p.m., before the ASU-Cal football game, which, as of Saturday’s kickoff, is shaping up to be a biggie.