Great read.
The Pac 12 South is going to be an absolute war this year. Several teams have a lot to look forward to. Everyone has people back. UCLA and ASU’s depth charts are basically in tact, and ASU at times seemed like they might be the best team in the conference but choke-inclined. USC is USC. You guys have a loaded team. Colorado did a few nice things in a really bad situation and I’d wager Arizona won’t lay down quite as easily going forward.
But we return basically everyone. The losses are a center who was going to be replaced, and a WR who functionally played 1 game. We had an All Conf. HM safety get demoted and leave too I guess, but he was 2nd string… And that is it from depth chart loss. A 6th round WR that barely played, a UDFA Safety who lost his job, a Center who ran his course and had a better player moving in. Out of 44. And the 3rd stringers. ASU’s defense might be the most experienced unit to play P5 football in a generation or two. By my count, there are 3 players on the DL that were at least part time starters in 2018. Two LB’s were full time starters in 2018. 3 DBs were starters in 2017, and another broke into the starting lineup in 2019 after being a significant depth guy (and arguably the best DB the last 2 years). The other two spots, DE and LB, have guys who started last year and were key depth previously. Add in Daniels and 9/10 guys from what was in limited time the Pac 12’s best offense, it screams breakout ASU season.
But EVERYONE is loaded. It’s going to be a brawl. Who knows? But I’ll tell you, if ASU isn’t a 10+ win team, we’ll be sorely disappointed. This will easily be the best ASU team on paper since the Utes joined the conference.