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ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit picks Arizona State to go to College Football Playoff

By Brenton Lillie

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In his annual preseason “Herbie Awards”, ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit made his prediction for college football’s playoffs, and there was a somewhat shocking Pac-12 team in the mix: Arizona State.

Kirk Herbstreit is a well-known college football analyst, and his opinion has a bit of respect from the college football world. So when he came out with his preseason Herbie Awards, naturally many football fans flocked to see what he was predicting for the upcoming season.

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There is plenty of good stuff in the article, which you can see on ESPN.com, and while his prediction for the national champion is unsurprising in Ohio State, that he chose the Arizona State Sun Devil’s to represent the Pac-12 conference in the College Football Playoff is very surprising. He also has the LSU Tigers and Oklahoma Sooners making the Playoff.

The Associated Press poll has Arizona State ranked 15th, and the University of Southern California was chosen as the team expected to win the Pac-12 South division. So while the Sun Devils have had success in winning ten games each of the last two years, Herbstreit did go out on a limb in picking the program from Tempe, Arizona. The ESPN Analyst has them beating the Stanford Cardinal in the conference championship game before losing to the Buckeyes in the first round of the playoffs.

It is certainly possible for the Sun Devils to win their division, but hard to think of them as the favorite given how they have been blown out by the top competition in the conference. Blowout losses to UCLA, Oregon, and Stanford over the last three years make it very difficult to think this team is ready to get over the hump.

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Especially given that the program will face three top-15 teams in their first eight games, including No. 8 USC, No. 7 Oregon, and No. 13 UCLA. Two of the three will be at home, but they will have to travel to Los Angeles to face the Bruins.

Not to be a complete naysayer, as Herbstreit clearly knows something about college football, and with senior quarterback Mike Bercovici, who also made Herbstreit’s list of nominees for the “Welcome To The Party” Herbie which ultimately went to Jeremy Johnson of Auburn, leading the team, anything is possible.

Head coach Todd Graham has shown he is a capable coach, and the team has plenty of talent. Running back turned wide receiver D.J. Foster was also mentioned in the Herbie Awards as a nominee for the Ultimate Herbie Award and for Most Exciting Player. Herbstreit clearly loves this team, but only time will tell if his intuition is right.

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Other than Arizona State, there were other Pac-12 mentions in his awards. Su’a Cravens of USC was nominated as The Enforcer, an award won by Darron Lee of Ohio State. Cravens is a spectacular player and was named to Saturday Blitz’s All-Pac-12 Defensive team.

Best Pass Rusher was won by Joey Bosa, also of Ohio State, but Arizona’s Scooby Wright, another Saturday Blitz All-Pac-12 player, was nominated. Wright was also in the list of nominees for Throwback Player, though Joey Bosa won this Herbie as well.

Stanford Running Back Christian McCaffrey was on the list for the Best Kept Secret Award, and JuJu Smith-Schuster of USC was nominated for Most Exciting Player along with Foster. Finally, Myles Jack of UCLA was considered for the Looks The Part Award that went to Baylor’s Shawn Oakman.

Overall there was plenty of love given to the Pac-12 conference and its talented players. It is clear that Herbstreit and other college football analysts see the west coast as a place not just for beaches and fine weather, but also as a place where real football is played.

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