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Arizona State Sun Devils Football: 2015 Season Preview and Prediction

By Patrick Schmidt

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Todd Graham and the Arizona State Sun Devils look to get back to the Pac-12 Championship Game in 2015 with D.J. Foster and Mike Bercovici leading the way.

The Arizona State Sun Devils were one win away from a return to the Pac-12 Championship Game last year but still finished with a 10-3 record and a No. 12 ranking in the final AP poll.

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With a defense returning seven starters and running back D.J. Foster and quarterback Mike Bercovici under center are the Sun Devils poised to win the Pac-12 south?

Offensive Outlook

Quarterback Taylor Kelly is gone but Mike Bercovici should be in line for a breakout year after playing well when Kelly was injured last year. Bercovici threw for 488 yards vs UCLA and 510 yards and five touchdowns, including the game-winning Hail Mary vs. USC in his first two starts last year. I wouldn’t expect that to be the norm, but clearly he’s shown he has the arm talent and composure to put up big numbers and play in the clutch.

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Former Running back/wide receiver D.J. Foster is one of the more versatile players in the nation after leading the team in rushing with 1,081 yards and nine touchdowns is now a full-time receiver. He was second on the team in receiving with 62 catches for 688 yards and three scores and will attempt to replace the departed Jaelen Strong.

Bercovici will also rely on receivers UCLA transfer Devin Lucien, Gary Chambers, Ellis Jefferson and tight end Kody Kohl to put up the big numbers he had in limited play last year, but will be without Cameron Smith who is out for the year with a knee injury. He was second to Strong with six touchdowns last year.

Carrying a bigger load in the backfield with Foster shifted to receiver will be sophomores Demario Richard and Kalen Ballage. Richard was second on the team in rushing with 478 yards as a freshman.

The offensive line must replace both starting tackles but they’re strong up the middle with center Nick Kelly and guards Vi Teofilo and Christian Westerman.

Defensive Outlook

Last year’s defense was young and inexperienced with nine new starters but there wasn’t much attrition this offseason with Marcus Hardison and first round pick Damarious Randall the biggest departures.

The strength of this defense is in the secondary where Jordan Simone returns at his free safety position and could be an All-Pac-12 performer after finishing second to Randall with 100 tackles last year. Kweishi Brown, Lloyd Carrington and Chad Adams round out the starting group with James Johnson playing his way into the rotation.

Antonio Longino, Salamo Fiso, Laui Moeakiola are the starting linebackers with Christian Sam and D.J. Calhoun providing quality depth at all three positions.

Sophomore Tashon Smallwood is the best defensive lineman and he’ll start at the Tiger position and try to create havoc along the line, but the team lacks a true pass rush after the suspension of Davon Durant. With Durant’s future in question after a domestic abuse arrest the pressure will be on Demetrius Cherry to get to the quarterback from the Devil position as well as Edmond Boateng.

Prediction

Graham has made 10-win seasons commonplace at Arizona State and anything less is now a disappointment. We’ll get a glimpse if this team is championship worthy with a non-conference game against Texas A&M to open the season.

A win here and the Sun Devils will be 3-0 heading into their home game vs. USC. With a road game at UCLA the next week, ASU can put themselves in the driver’s seat to win the south or they could have their title hopes dashed in the first weekend of October.

A road date with Utah and home games vs. Oregon, Washington and Arizona loom large in the second half of the schedule that doesn’t let up.

I think the Sun Devils stub their toe early with back-to-back losses to USC and UCLA but they can rally to finish with wins in six of their last seven games of the regular season but finish in third place in the division.

Regular season record: 9-3

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