(Photo: Allyson Cummings/WCSN)
Listen, this game was easy for the Sun Devils. Of course it was. It was supposed to be. Weber State plays in the same conference as NAU, the soon-to-be-even-more-irrelevant Big Sky Conference, and the Wildcats are far from the class of even that lowly denomination. The Sun Devils won, they did so by a lot, and they did so with extreme ease.
This was basically a preseason game for the Devils, and that’s fine. Everybody does it and as much as I agree with Coach Todd Graham when he said earlier this week that “these are not my favorite games,” I get that it’s just something these big schools do.
But that’s the thing, they all do it, and they do it every year, and in previous years I feel like when the Sun Devils have done it, they’ve done it… I don’t know… better? Obviously everyone watching on Friday night saw that Arizona State was the dominant team; that was a foregone conclusion. But did anyone feel that they really DOMINATED?
From where I was standing, and I was on the field for most of the game, I didn’t feel like the Devils were actively imposing their towering will upon this lesser opponent the same way I did when I watched them romp NAU and Sacramento State in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Yes, of course they were absolutely crushing the Wildcats. But I didn’t feel get that feeling of pop, of fire – of angst, even – that I felt watching the last two years’ dominations.
Maybe it’s because in those years it was new and unexpected. Against the Lumberjacks we saw a brand new quarterback: fresh-faced and surprising sophomore Taylor Kelly, who had shocked Sun Devil Nation and stolen a previously certain starting job from wunderkind freshman Michael “Baby Cam Newton” Eubank, and now appeared this incredible dynamo, sprung, like a mythological figure, from places unknown (sometimes called “Idaho,” but let’s be real). Sure, we knew it was Northern Arizona, but we also had no idea what to expect from this team with its brand new coach and brand new system and an awful lot of brand new players. Marion Grice! D.J. Foster! Chris Coyle (not new, but newly discovered)! Brandon Magee (not new, but coming off a season lost to an achilles)! Not Vontaze Burfict!
We didn’t know what to expect and what was we got was kind of awesome. You couldn’t help but be excited, no matter how many times you told yourself and all your friends, over and over, “It’s just NAU; it’s basically a preseason game…it REALLY doesn’t mean anything.”
In 2013, against Sac State, there were still a lot of unanswered questions about this team. It was Taylor Kelly’s now for real, and we all had this excited hopefulness about Coach Graham, but we’d been burned before and repeat performances are tough. And really, the first performance wasn’t THAT great, anyway, now that you mention it… they did lose four games in a row and had to settle for feeling bad about embarrassing Navy in the pretty lame Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl that year, after all.
So there was still a lot of trepidation. And when the Devils blanked Sacramento State it was a HOO-BABY moment for ASU fans. And DANG was that a destruction. Just a wallop, really. Yeah, that’s the ticket. It was a wallop. It felt like explosions. Well, like seeing explosions. Like in a Michael Bay movie or something, not on the news. It felt exciting, is what I’m trying to say.
So Friday night… I don’t know. Did it feel like that for you? The Sun Devils took care of business, of course, but could they really help it? Is it even possible for them to have not beaten Weber State by at least 25? Some of those catches Jaelen Strong made were so easy on such poorly advised throws it almost felt LESS impressive, like getting sixteen consecutive straight pieces in Tetris. Good gracious, if you can do that, what are you even doing on the same field with these guys? What are you even doing playing the same SPORT as these guys? Just ridiculous.
But I didn’t get that feeling this time that I got in 2012 and 2013. And yes, maybe it’s because there’s so much more expected and understood about the quality of this team (at least offensively), but I feel like it’s more than that. I feel like this was a kind of going out to work one Thursday, sitting down at your desk and doing your job sort of domination. The domination was inevitable and, like most things that are inevitable, it came to pass. But it wasn’t active. It wasn’t forceful. It wasn’t EXPLOSIONS.
Sure, the second half was the (really kind of disappointing-looking, actually) second-string offense, but that’s pretty standard. Just think back on the first half, though, when the Devils were pouring it on. Yeah, Kelly-to-Strong was unstoppable, but mostly because the guy covering Strong looked like Luke next to Chewbacca out there… just a liiiiiiiittle short to be a stormtrooper, if you know what I mean. And yeah, D.J. Foster put up win-you-your-week-in-fantasy-all-by-himself-type numbers, but again… not so hard when you’ve got a Death Star and they’ve got Alderaan.
Listen, if this was just taking care of business and the fire comes later, then OK. But if the Devils have gotten as comfortable with themselves as we’ve become as fans and lose that eager desperation that made them so dangerous the last two seasons, I’m worried. Because this team has holes, and if it doesn’t compensate with EXPLOSIONS, I’m afraid this might turn out to be a disappointing season, and they’ll have to wait a whole ‘nother year to get a whiff of their goal of a National Championship.
What do you think? Tell us if you agree or disagree with Cuyler Meade, either to his virtual face @CuylerMeade on Twitter, or behind his virtual back to his bosses @CronkiteSports. You can get a little more private about things by reaching Cuyler via email at cuylerm@gmail.com, but that’s not nearly as fun.
