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| Wednesday, October 25 Lightning strikes twice for ASU, but it's not a good thing By Dan Rosen Special to ESPN.com | ||||||||
Just when the Arizona State football team thought this season couldn't get any stranger, it did.
On their flight home after a thrilling 23-20 overtime win at Washington
State last Saturday, lightning struck their plane, arousing a major scare in
every player, coach, media member and even pilot on board.
"It was really the buzz of our program on Sunday and clear into Monday,"
coach Bruce Snyder said. "It was the talk. But, now I'm certainly fine. I'm
glad we're playing at home for a lot of reasons, but I'm (really) glad we
don't have to get on the plane."
While players were, ironically, watching the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds,"
lightning struck the plane twice about 60 miles north of Phoenix, where they
were to land.
Arizona After a 14-10 loss at Oregon's Autzen Stadium last Saturday, the Cats welcome a reeling UCLA squad into Arizona Stadium this week. The last time the Bruins played in Tucson was in 1998. It was only the sixth week of the season but the game proved to be for the conference championship. UCLA won 52-28, handing Arizona its only Pac-10 loss of the season. ... Despite UCLA's recent struggles, UA coach Dick Tomey is well aware of the history of Bruin teams and understands they have the capability to beat anybody in the nation, as they proved earlier in the year with wins over Michigan and Alabama. "I think UCLA is a team waiting to explode," Tomey said. "I just hope they wait another week." ... Tomey was publicly reprimanded by the Pac-10 for his comments on the officials after the loss at Oregon. The league "prohibits derogatory public comments on officiating by institutional personnel." Tomey was upset with the officials no-call on after he believed they failed to notice a face guard on senior WR Brad Brennan by Oregon DB Ryan Mitchell late in the game. "It was a terrible no call, it was the worse I've ever seen," Tomey told the Arizona Daily Star after the game. Arizona State Coach Bruce Snyder is a 1963 graduate of the University of Oregon, where he played football in 1960 and '62 as a two-way starter at fullback and linebacker. He was a medical redshirt in 1961 due to a knee injury. Snyder then returned to his alma mater and spent 1963-64 as the Ducks running backs and quarterbacks coach. ... With 103 yards on 26 carries, junior Tom Pace became the second Sun Devil to eclipse the century mark in a game this year. Against Colorado State earlier in the season, true freshman Michael Williams ran for 143 yards. ... Senior TE Todd Heap became the school's all-time leader in receptions among tight ends with five catches at Washington State. He captured the career mark for receiving yards among tight ends on Oct. 14 against Washington. He needs just one touchdown to tie Joe Petty (1970-72) for the career record in that category as well. Cal Coach Tom Holmoe said his Golden Bear squad has a growing confidence with each game they play. After stunning UCLA in triple overtime two weeks ago, Cal barely lost to a tough Washington team on the road 36-24. If it wasn't for a six- minute span in the fourth quarter where the Bears gave up 23 points to the Huskies, they would have had their second straight upset of a top 15 team. "In the locker room their wasn't disappointment or despair, they were mad," Holmoe said. "The bottom line is it's a loss, but they felt they gave it away and they were mad." ... Cal has 43 players on its current roster from Southern California, which makes games against the two Los Angeles schools major motivational targets for the Bears. They are 4-1 against USC and UCLA since 1998, a span where they have also been a dismal 3-12 against the rest of the conference. ... Senior punter Nick Harris needs just 63 yards on Saturday to break the NCAA record for most punting yards in a career. He currently has 12,885 yards, good for an average of 45.53. ... Senior HB Marcus Fields will redshirt the rest of this season in order to return in 2001. He suffered a shoulder fracture in the season-opener against Utah after catching three passes for 24 yards and running once for four yards. Oregon By holding the Arizona running game to under 20 yards, it marked the third opponent the "Gang Green" held under that mark. Nevada was held to minus 3 yards on Sept. 2; UCLA to minus 9 on Sept. 23; and Arizona to 17 yards on Saturday. The Oregon defense has also held opponents to just 100 points through the first seven games of the season, the lowest since the 1966 squad gave up just 85 in the first seven contests. As a result, the Ducks rank 13th in the nation in total defense. "I think early on we were concerned about our defense because we lost a bunch of starters that had been playing for four years," coach Mike Bellotti said. "I had questions, but I thought we had answers here, I just didn't know who they were." ... The Ducks debuted in the Bowl Championship Series poll at No. 8, one spot ahead of Washington, who the Ducks beat at home 23-16 on Sept. 30. "That's just another poll in my mind," Bellotti said. "These things are great, but at this point they don't mean that much. It's great for our kids, but it's more of a midterm grade assignment. And our kids are doing very well." Oregon State The Beavers became bowl eligible with a 44-38 win at UCLA last Saturday, their sixth victory of the season. ... Against the Bruins, the Beavers balanced their rushing attack between junior Patrick McCall and heralded back, junior Ken Simonton. McCall carried the ball 23 times for 146 yards, including a 66-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that resulted in the game-winning score. Simonton, however, carried 24 times for 100 yards, the 18th time he topped the century mark in his career. It was the first time two OSU backs have rushed for triple digits in the same game since Tim Alexander (205), Alili King (135) and DeShawn Williams (101) all rushed for over 100 yards against Northern Illinois on Nov. 16, 1996. ... McCall has been a nice addition into the running back rotation to help Simonton, who is suffering from a slight muscle pull. However, coach Dennis Erickson said it was nothing to be alarmed about and that his star back would play against Washington State this Saturday. ... The 604 yards the Beavers compiled against UCLA was the fourth most for a single game in the program's history. ... Junior QB Jonathan Smith's streak of 156 consecutive passes without throwing an interception came to an end in the third quarter against the Bruins. It was only his third pick of the season. ... Two Beavers were named conference players of the week on Monday. Smith, who threw for 351 yards and four touchdowns on 23-of-37 passing and senior PK Ryan Cesca who nailed three field goals of 44, 32 and 31 yards, all in the fourth quarter in the comeback victory. Stanford The Cardinal head into practice this week with a renewed confidence for one reason -- they finally won a game. After three straight losses to Arizona, Notre Dame and Oregon State, where Stanford combined for only 23 points, they put up 32 against USC in the last second victory. "When you win, you feel a lot better," coach Tyrone Willingham said. "Even the water tastes better when you win." ... With senior QB Randy Fasani starting, the Cardinal are 3-1. Fasani returned for the victory against USC, throwing for 196 yards on 18-of-36 passing. Redshirt freshman Chris Lewis replaced Fasani, who was hurt while scrambling with 55 seconds remaining, and threw the game winning 20-yard touchdown pass to senior WR Jamien McCullum on a fourth and 20 play. ... Willingham said that the main priority this week is to stop Washington's senior QB Marques Tuiasosopo, who rushed for 207 yards and passed for 302 in the Huskies 35-30 win last year. "He is the core of their football team," Willingham said. "When you have a guy like that (playing against you), you have to keep him in check. But you can't overcompensate because they have a lot of weapons." UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said preparing for Arizona is unlike a normal week of preparation because of one thing -- Arizona's defense. "It's like preparing for a run and shoot," Toledo said. "There is just not that many plays to run. You have to stay out of long yardage situations because they come after you." ... The injury bug has stung the Bruins again. Like last year, they have had to deal with the loss of key players on both offense and defense for significant periods of time. Senior DE Kenyon Coleman was lost for the season with torn meniscus cartilage in the third game of the season against the Wolverines. Junior RB DeShaun Foster suffered a broken hand against Arizona State three games ago. He missed the loss against Cal and returned to action last week against Oregon State, rushing 18 times for 56 yards and a touchdown. However, Toledo said that is not all. "Defensively we're missing about 10-12 guys. We've got a lot of injuries and a lot of guys banged up and beat up right now," he said. "Defense is an area where we had a lot of depth, but now we don't." ... Sophomore QB Cory Paus, who was also sidelined for the early part of the season with a shoulder injury, has come on as of late, earning praise from Toledo who has been otherwise displeased with the offense. "We are throwing the ball really well," Toledo said. "But we aren't running the ball well. DeShaun has something to do with that. His injury hurt us a little." Paus has 672 yards and four touchdowns on 39-of-72 passing over the past two games, both Bruin losses. USC It's hard to tell what USC team will show up on Saturday. Will it be the one that started the season with convincing wins over Penn State and Colorado, or the team that scored 22 straight points before blowing last week's game at Stanford, losing 32-30? Coach Paul Hackett, who has been riding the hot seat since week three's unconvincing 34-24 victory over San Jose State, doesn't know either. "It would be really nice if I could tell you it's just one thing, but at one time I thought it was our inability to run the ball and these last two weeks have proven that that's not it," he said. "We do have things that we have to focus on. I think our kicking game, I think our punting game, I think our field goals and PATs. You might think that PATs are no big deal, but we missed two PATs last week and lost the game by two points." ... Another problem that Hackett outlined was the inconsistency he is seeing out of sophomore QB Carson Palmer, who was 15-of-30 for 190 yards, but threw two interceptions at Stanford last Saturday. "Since the games we won, he has been very erratic," Hackett said. "We have not thrown the deep ball nearly as well as we could. It's his accuracy that concerns me." ... Hackett did say that part of that problem was the loss of sophomore WR Kareem Kelly to injuries for a couple of weeks. However, Kelly is back healthy now so that can't be an excuse against Cal this Saturday, which is the Trojans Homecoming game. Washington The Huskies, who became bowl eligible with the victory at Cal last Saturday, are going to need to score early to take the confidence away from Stanford this week. But, that's been a problem for UW. The Huskies have been outscored 41-20 in the first quarter this season. "We seem to play a waiting game until they blow the gun for the fourth quarter," coach Rick Neuheisel said. ... As for the Cardinal, the Huskies second-year coach said they remind him of the team that won the Pac-10 crown last year, except they have run into some bad luck. "I don't see any difference from a year ago except they haven't had the big plays, but that has to do with injuries," Neuheisel said. "I'm hoping their (better) luck was squandered on fourth and 20 (last week)." ... Washington debuted at No. 9 in the BCS standings released Monday night. The only loss they have suffered this year was to Oregon (No. 8), who is currently the front runner for the conference title and Rose Bowl bid. ... The game against Stanford will be the Huskies 1,000th in school history. They are 612-337-50 (.638) all-time and are only one of 18 teams with over 600 victories. Washington State Coach Mike Price said he is starting to realize exactly what sophomore QB Jason Gesser is capable of accomplishing. "I'm starting to know what plays to call and what not to call," Price said. "And to mold our offense around what that kid can do." ... The Cougars have lost back-to-back overtime games to Arizona and Arizona State. In fact, each of their last five games have been decided by seven points or less with WSU winning two and losing three. "It's harder (to motivate your players) when you are getting your butts beat regularly and their is no hope," Price said. "Hope is an important thing. When you are getting thrashed, it's tough." ... Senior OL Ryan Raymond's career has come to an end as a result of a congenital condition of his spinal canal. Raymond suffered a stinger against Arizona on Oct. 14. The news comes almost a month after his twin brother Reed was put on the shelf for the rest of the season with a knee injury. | ALSO SEE Big Ten notebook Big 12 notebook Big West notebook Mountain West notebook WAC notebook | |||||||
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