2008 Arizona State Sun Devils College Football Predictions Courtesy of Alex Smart, An Expert College Football Handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are betting college football this year, be sure to buy Alex Smart’s college football picks each week and guarantee a winning season!!

Arizona State Sun Devils (10-3, 7-2 in 2007, 2nd place in Pac-10)
Dennis Erickson arrived last year and the Arizona State Sun Devils finally woke up. It was a perfect storm in the desert. Erickson motivated the program and capitalized on the wealth of talent built up at this sleeping giant of an institution. They lost to Texas in the Holiday Bowl and were drilled by USC on national television on Thanksgiving night, but overall, it was a very successful year.

Offensive Outlook: The attack is led by veteran senior QB Rudy Carpenter, a strong armed passer. He threw for 3200 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2007, completing 62% of his passes. The wide receiver corps is talented and there’s speed all over the field. They lost an important player at RB in Ryan Torain, but replace him with veteran utility man Keegan Herring. The major question for the offense is the offensive line, which was embarrassed in the USC game, letting Carpenter take several huge shots, including one that bloodied the quarterback and left him down on the field for over a minute.

Defensive Outlook: Clearly, the offense was the strength of the 2007 Sun Devils, but the defense was no slouch. The defensive line is incredibly deep, but are still a bit young. They do have a freshman at defensive tackle, which could be cause for concern. The linebackers are all extremely quick. The secondary is led by a pair of senior safeties who excel in pass coverage. This defense will have to step up their game to compensate for the offense if they expect to reach last year’s 10 win total. 

2008 Outlook: ASU got lucky last year, facing a rather easy schedule, including road games at Stanford, Washington State, and UCLA. This year they must face Georgia at home and Cal, USC, and Oregon State on the road.

2008 will be a success if: Arizona State maintains their momentum from ’07. Ten wins is probably a bit lofty once again, but if they can post another solid 8-9 win season, they should be able to continue winning recruiting wars and keeping the program afloat for years to come.

Prediction: 8-4, 3rd place in Pac-10

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