Flags nag at ASU’s Erickson
PULLMAN – Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
Arizona State head football coach Dennis Erickson is mad as heck and he’s not going to take it anymore.
His Sun Devils team rallied from an early deficit Saturday to blow out Colorado 33-13, but ASU committed 12 penalties for 136 yards in the process – including eight personal foul calls on eight different players.
Erickson is fed up.
“I’m just really disappointed in the penalties,” he said after the game.”There’s no excuse for that.It’s not going to happen ever again, because they aren’t going to play. We had some, particularly in the first half, we had some 15-yard penalties that are uncalled for.”
“I know guys like to play,” ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter told the Arizona Republic. “Coach Erickson straight up told everyone, ‘I don’t care who you are, I don’t care how good you are, what your name is, nothing.’
“He goes, ‘If you make another one of those penalties, you’ll be standing next to me the rest of the game.’ He did that on Saturday in the game. Guys will think twice before they make a penalty like the ones we had if they want to play.”
Maybe.
Erickson’s teams have always played aggressively on defense, and they’ve usually been cited for an inordinate number of penalties. Who can forget Oregon State’s 41-9 Fiesta Bowl romp over Notre Dame in 2001, a game in which the 11-1 Beavers had 18 penalties for 174 yards?
If past history means anything, expect the Sun Devils to continue to pile up the penalties, and continue to pile up wins.
Dixon catches on quickly
There were some eyebrows raised in Eugene over the summer when quarterback Dennis Dixon decided to play professional baseball instead of staying at Oregon to learn the Ducks’ new offense.
Maybe Dixon knew what he was doing.
The senior quarterback was named the Pac-10’s offensive player of the week after leading the Ducks into Ann Arbor and handing Michigan its second consecutive crushing defeat.
How good was Dixon on Saturday? He hit 16 of 25 passes for 292 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for 76 yards, many of those in key spots.
“I think he’s understanding where the flags and the sticks are,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti told the Oregonian. “He’s doing some things to one, protect the football, and two, keep the chains moving.”
“If nothing’s deep, check it down, or run,” Dixon told the paper, “and that’s my motto right now.”
Dixon’s performance led the Ducks to a 39-7 victory.
Around the conference
In Oregon State’s 34-3 loss to Cincinnati last Thursday, the Beavers committed seven turnovers, which led to 24 Bearcats points. That doesn’t count the seven Cincinnati scored on a blocked punt. The last two times the Beavers have traveled to the Eastern time zone, they’ve lost by a combined 97-30. … If you don’t play you lose. That’s the message sent this week to idle No. 1 USC. The Trojans’ bye week cost them 19 first-place votes in the Associated Press Top 25. … UCLA jumped out to a 20-0 lead against BYU on Saturday, then let the Cougars back in the game. But Bruins head coach Karl Dorrell didn’t seem to mind. “When (BYU) scored two touchdowns in the second half, it was interesting to see how our players responded,” he told the LA Times. “BYU was driving for the go-ahead score and our guys stepped up. Then the end (touchdown) drive we had, those are great steps for a team to make. We haven’t had many steps like that in the past.” … Stanford has a chance to gain its first win under new coach Jim Harbaugh when it hosts 0-2 San Jose State. The Spartans, who lost at Arizona State and Kansas State, are beat up, although starting quarterback Adam Tafralis is expected to play despite a shoulder injury. … Arizona starting quarterback Willie Tuitama showed he could at least make the All-Big Sky Conference first team. The junior had the best game of his career in UA’s 45-24 win Saturday over Northern Arizona, throwing five touchdown passes in a 23-of-44 performance. Arizona head coach Mike Stoops said Tuitama is “just scratching the surface of what he can do.”