A-State true Freshmen Shine against USC

[Seminole Indian]

The A-State Coaches have been singing their praises throughout fall practice, and the fans got to see why Saturday. None looked, or better yet played like freshmen at all, and all more than held their own, and in fact stood out against a very talented opponent.

QB turned LB Tajhea Chambers was probably the most impressive, and was the leading tackler in the game for both teams with 8, and added 2.5 sacks. Was fast, physical, and smart. Just a very impressive performance by an impressive looking athlete.

RB Warren Wand was a close 2nd averaging 5.2 yards per carry on 10 carries. Looked very, very fast even going against very, very fast players, and was very physical. Also effective as a receiver. Very explosive player.

NB Justin Clifton had 4 tackles, and like Chambers was fast, physical, and smart. Very impressive athlete.

DL Donovan Ransom had 1 tackle, and along with the other huge interior players ASU has this year, more than held his own against a big ,and talented USC OL. Physical, and strong player, and quick for 320lb. Also tough.

DE Griffin Riggs did not produce any stats but the coaches said he is their most physical DE, and he looked very good on the field. Very aggressive player.

Their play, along with the play of the DL was the highlight of the game against USC.

[1highhog]

Good to see ASU take on some big name teams, but I know they had this schedule drawn up probably thinking Malzahn was going to be their Coach now and he would have ASU on the map as a School nobody wanted to play.  USC isn't half the School they used to be, but that's because they're not cheating as bad as under Carroll.  ASU is going to go through some growing pains I believe, hopefully they will get back on the right track under their new Coach and maybe he'll stick around and give your program some stability it desperately needs.

[Seminole Indian]

No sure where USC is compared to their past, just know their current roster is absolutely loaded with 4-5 star players, and they are very, very fast, and very, very athletic. Still young, and not as physical as you would expect considering how big they are.

As far as ASU then and now, they were down 50-10 at the half against Oregon under Malzahn, and the game was not as close as the score. Looked like a Chinese fire-drill.

I'm not sure USC is as good as Oregon was. Both are extremely fast.

A-State is much more talented today on the field, but not sure about coaching.

Speaking of coaching here is a little trivia, USC OC Clay Helton was the OC that Hugh Freeze replaced at ASU.

[Seminole Indian]

A poster on AStateNation said the ASU HC said that Tajhea Chambers has a chance to be the best LB ever to play at ASU.

Wow....better than Bill Bergy?

Back to how much USC depended on big plays, and of course ASU turnovers, to get the blowout win. They were only 3-10 on 3rd down conversions, and 0-1 on 4th, something that has really caught the attention of those that bet  money on these games.

They made note of the fact that a number  of their big-plays were a result of a great play, with more than a little luck thrown in, on the part of their qb while under extreme duress, and how often he was under duress during the game.

It has also been noted by these same people, that 14 and maybe 21 of their points were simply a result of one of their player being in the right place at the right time ( or the wrong place but at the right time to take advantage of an ASU miscue), and nothing more.

They seem confident the ASU QB will perform more up to par going forward.

They notice these things, and are basically telling people that also bet money (usually for a fee) that the score was misleading.

Of course those of you that bet money, and I don't, probably already know these things, and a lot more.