The Arizona State Sun Devils Over 7.5 wins -120
Line available at the Las Vegas Westgate SuperBook as of August 10, 2015
Todd Graham has done a great job with the Sun Devils going 8-5, 10-4 and 10-3 in his first three seasons at the helm. Arizona State hasn’t really made any waves in conference or nationally but off of two straight Bowl wins, this could be their breakout year. Graham will be working with a lot of quality with 16 very experienced starters returning. Nine are on defense which has been the Devils weakest link during the Graham tenure.
On offense, Mike Bercovici replaces Taylor Kelly. Bercovic got a good look last year filling in for the oft-injured Taylor, throwing for 1400+ yards and completing 61% of his passes with a 12-4 TD/Int ratio. Last years top two rushers (D.J. Foster 1100+) return with last years two through eight leading receivers.
The defense is talented, experienced and has no excuses. The entire defensive line and LBer corp is back and figure to be among the better units in the Pac 12. ASU does have to replace an all-conference corner and the “Devil” back (a monster back or whatever jargon you prefer) but the corner played 13 games last year making 25 tackles so the stop unit shouldn’t miss a beat.
Arizona State’s season and very likely this future ticket will be decided right from the git in September. The Sun Devils open with a neutral site game against Texas A&M in Houston. This is a game that they should win but will be tested. Cal Poly and New Mexico are tune ups before ASU hosts USC on September 26 in what could be the defacto Pac 12 championship game. It doesn’t get easier the following week a trip to UCLA. At Utah and at California could be upset alert spots. Arizona State hosts Oregon, Washington and Arizona, games that they have to win if this program has taken the next step to elite status.
The Sun Devils control their own destiny. Looking at the schedule, the land mines are USC, UCLA and Oregon and ASU has two of those games at home. 0-3 through the gauntlet still translates to nine wins and a speed bump along the way has Arizona State 8-4 and us at the cashier. The key game is the opener vs. A&M. A loss to the Aggies could have the ASU hang dog headed into conference play which just can’t happen in the ultra-competitive Pac 12. We have the Sun Devils winning the opener and winning no less than 10 games overall making the Over 7.5 a no-brainer.