Saturday Football (and some hoops)

i-c2f6e0ee235e17bd917bd5141537bdbf-sparky-espn_thumb[1].gifLet's start with some good news. ASU's ranked (#13) women's basketball team took their season-opener 87-60 against Nebraska. The men open their season (under new coach, Herb Sendek) on Monday against Northern Arizona.

Back to football. The Sun Devils (5-4, 2-4 Pac-10) play Washington State (6-4, 4-3) later this evening. Half time at the game ASU will honor the 1986 & 96 Rose Bowl teams. 2006 hasn't quite worked out the same way. ASU needs to win two of the remaining three games (Washington State, UCLA, Arizona) to get to a mediocre bowl. Much as last year when we defeated Rutgers in the Insight Bowl. Rutgers seem to have recovered this season though ...

Update: Arizona have beaten #8 Cal, 24 to 20, and have thus beaten a ranked team for the second time in two weeks. And Stanford beat Washington, 20-3. It is officially the end of the world.

Update: End of the first quarter and ASU have jumped ahead 17-7 against the favored Cougars. Carpenter has thrown for 130 yards and one touchdown.

Update: Halftime and it looks like the ASU team that everyone was expecting to show up at the beginning of the season has finally arrived. They lead 30-7, penalties have been minimized and both defense (holding the Cougars to 81 yards) and offense (with 298 yards of their own) seem to be awake. Carpenter is 11 of 17 (229 yards) and 2 touchdowns. Importantly, Zach Miller is 5 catches for 64 yards - we could have used some of that earlier in the season.

Update: ASU wins 47-14 after racking up 563 yards of offense and holding the Cougars to 191. Rudy Carpenter was 15 for 24 (339 yards), 3 TDs (to Jones, Smith and McGaha) and one interception - overall more like what we expected all season. Danny Sullivan got some time as QB in the fourth and went 1 of 5 for 27 ... very much a work in progress.

In all fairness, both teams were decimated with injuries, but the win makes ASU 6-4, 3-4 in the PAC-10 with two games left.

And in other news, UCLA beat Oregon State 25-7. Couple that with the Arizona win over Cal, and the next two games for ASU aren't going to be pushovers, methinks.

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