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Boscoe’s Boys
Summer School Behind Enemy Lines: Arizona State
This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [MUSIC] It's the moment of the evening, every can stay friend and yours, little down and board a whiskey. Back open the liqueur, please put your hands together and make a little noise for your favorite wild caters, the handsome Bosco boys. [MUSIC] To boom, the boys are back in. If you're listening to this on release day, happy feel good Friday. We are at the end of another week. We're getting closer and closer to full camp or pre-season camp. Opening up in college football season is almost here. I'm really counting, this week is the countdown to the end of the off season. Because once it's August, I'm saying the off season's over. Helping me keep things going, we have a summer school behind enemy lines. Series episode for you guys is Ralph Amston has a lot of stuff going on the bio. It seems like a very busy guy, but I'm shouting out the Sports 360 Arizona to talk Sun Devils, you got a lot of stuff going on. Has this always been the path for you and you're not even in Arizona and you're dabbling around in there? Was this always the path for you, Ralph? >> I mean, I'm not sure it was the goal, but it's a gig economy, am I right? If you got an Uber and DoorDash, sometimes you got to do both. But Sports 360 AZ is an awesome, infinable to be the company in Arizona that I've had the pleasure of working alongside for the last 10 years. They just brought me on board. So it'll be fun to be doing some stuff with them this year. They're really great. On the other end of it, I cover a lot of the high school stuff for the state of Arizona, all the recruiting things. I run the rivals affiliate down there, Arizona varsity. And that's pretty much it, man. I do a lot of writing with George Reister, former Oregon tight end. You won't have to worry about him too much. We do have a show called College Football Apostles, but all his focus is going to be on the Big Ten now that Oregon poked on. >> Well, we'll let them enjoy the Big Ten. I do have to say, because Casey has tried to dip their toes into the Arizona water just when it comes to recruiting. Not necessarily very well, but I'm shocked. And I think probably a lot of folks, traditional big 12 fans or the legacy big eight type of fans, or just Casey fans in general, would be shocked to see how much talent is really coming out of Arizona in the high school ranks. Has it always been like that? Or has it seen a renaissance where, hey, there seems to be around 20 guys going power football most years. Just all the rivals, two, four, seven on three, the list is top 40 Arizona guys. Is this a new revelation, or has it always been a little bit of a hot bed out there? >> Well, I think it popped off probably about 15 years ago. And it's been steadily growing ever since. I played high school football in Arizona. We had one to two guys every single year that was really worth coming and looking at that we're gonna move on to do something big. Terrell Suggs with the high school teammate of mine who I played against Ryan Fitzpatrick. That was pretty much it for the state of Arizona. I'll take that back. We had Richie Incognito, if you remember the bad boy of the O line. >> Yeah, we had him down there too. So I guess maybe three to five a year. And then all of the sudden, the 2010s come along. A lot of retired athletes moving out to the valley, training kids. People with California moving out with resources. Kids having the opportunity to train you around has been really big. And then the quarterbacks really took off. So I think when people think Arizona, they think quarterbacks. But there have been a lot of very, very good football players. And now I think we're up to something like 70 to 100 division one athletes every single year. So I mean, 50 X growth from what I played 25 years ago. >> That's awesome, that's awesome. I'm not going to hold my breath of a K state getting too involved outside of maybe the random recruit here or there. But we're here to talk sun devils. First, I just want to ask, we talked Arizona earlier in this series. Technically, still a non-conference game this season. And this is the other brand new Pac-12 school who's never been in the Big 12 joining on K state schedule this year. So what are Arizona state fans' opinion of moving to the Big 12? I think technically, officially it's not official until August 1st. But the perception at least early on when the news was breaking was it was Utah and Arizona state fans who are dragging their feet the most. Compared to Arizona and Colorado coming back, is that an accurate description? Where was the vibe at a year ago and what's it at right now? I think Arizona state president Michael Crow had a pretty big interest in keeping the Pac-12 afloat. Arizona state fans, especially football and basketball fans, not overly enthusiastic about the direction of leadership of the president. But the president is responsible for a lot more things than just sports. But the sports fans are displeased. He really, really drug his feet and in the process felt like maybe he embarrassed the university a few times. I'm happy to be part of the Big 12. I think most Arizona state fans feel like losing the Pac-12 was bittersweet. But when it was blatantly obvious eight, nine years ago that the train was going to crash, if emotionally you wanted to get off that train, I don't blame you. So for the last two or three years, I think that ever since it was a possibility to go to the Big 12, there have been a lot of Arizona state fans that are very excited about it. The nature of Arizona state fandom is you have a handful of absolute die-ards and then you have probably like, I don't know, a million and a half semi-interested graduates all over the country because it's one of the biggest public universities ever. So they're probably going to find out Arizona state is in the Big 12 when they start paying attention to ASU once the season starts. School in Tucson feels like a fantastic fit to me in the Big 12. As does Utah, even though they went kicking and screaming, love to see Colorado United. And I think Arizona state fans are more just interested because, you know, there's a lot of college pounds and Tempe, I think, used to be that, but now it's just kind of like a major metropolitan area. And I'm looking forward to Arizona state fans getting to be around some real die-ards as well as the UCF fans. I'm very excited about that because everybody says that it's hard to sell the program in Tempe because there's too much to do. But what city in America has more to do than Orlando, Florida and UCF fans seem to be all about their football team. So I'm looking forward to Arizona state fans, maybe learn a little bit from Big 12 fans about what it means to be a fan. But I do think Arizona state has a ton of resource and location advantages when it comes to playing against some of these seeds. Yeah, no, I think so too. Again, we talked about the recruiting base, you have history around Southern California as well. And hell, I remember and some stuff just popped up on my timeline today. You know, I think back to that 2002 holiday bowl, which I believe may be one of the only times Casey in Arizona across paths. That was my 11th birthday. We were out there in San Diego and it was an awesome game. It's on YouTube. If folks want a fun one to go back, you know, Arizona state fans might want to turn it off around the third quarter. But, you know, you have some history there. It's not like, you know, it's been devoid of that. Well, you guys come down for polls quite a bit. The two times I've seen Kansas state play was right there in Arizona in the postseason. Well, and we've played in that bowl game under almost every single name. So a sponsor later, Charlie Hessel, they have a comparable t-shirt from, I believe, is the 94 copper bowl or the 93 copper bowl. Excuse me, where we beat Wyoming. So we've played it as the copper bowl, the insight bowl, the Buffalo Wild Wings bowl. That was my biggest worst game of all time, by the way. Oh, yeah. It's been all over the play. I mean, they've had a million names. I wish they would keep the copper bowl and be like the copper bowl presented by insert, you know, corporate name here. But we love playing bowl games in Arizona. We sometimes win. We sometimes lose. But hey, it's always fun to get out of Kansas in the winter. Kenny Dellingham is the head coach. He's trying to fix the mess that Herm Edwards left, which it's funny to get another connection. Herm Edwards, because he was with the Chiefs. He was on Sports Talk Radio in Kansas City every week while he was at Arizona state, by the way. I know. So we got to hear some Herm to focus on the task at hand. Yeah, it's like he wanted to do everything except for coach college football. He had these grandiose ideas of truly being a CEO and then hiring a bunch of people to try to run the team. But it was a mess that he left, some COVID violations as well. So it was a rough season last year. If there isn't a bounce back, if it is another rough year, is coach Dellingham going to feel any pressure? Is there going to be any trigger happy fans or is it like, all right, hey, we understand this was going to maybe be a multi year rebuild? And there's very little outside of a scandal that could lead him to being whisked away in the Arizona heat. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a fantastic question because I don't if they have a losing season, they just got picked to finish 16. So there's your baseline expectations. People aren't really paying attention to the fact that they're 14 points shy going six and six last year without a quarterback. So, you know, there's a lot of talent out there, but I will say this. I don't think Kenny Dellingham's going to feel any external pressure if the Sun Devils aren't good this year, but you might check himself into a rehabilitation facility. You might sign up for a straight jacket. So he doesn't hurt himself or other people. He's an intense dude. He wants to win and he wants to win now. And which is a wild vibe to get from somebody who is 34 years old. And he's he's a fascinating guy. When I started to cover Arizona State, he was just a GA at the program and he was doing stuff that got NCAA rules changed. He was, believe it or not, he was playing NCAA football with a five star recruit named Keenan Walker and he had nicknamed him the Eagle and the team kept tweeting when he came for an official visit. The Eagle has landed and the NCAA came out and said, all right, no more nick naming recruits. And so the fact that Kenny Dellingham like 10 years ago was getting NCAA rules changed as a, you know, as a guy in his early twenties, you knew he was destined for something and he's been hyper focused on wanting to get the job. Now he has the job. He has to find a way to do it. And I think the biggest question when it comes to Kenny Dellingham is he's hired for being an innovative offensive mind, but he's been very intense on hiring. An offensive coordinator. And last year he hired Bo Baldwin and about three games in took the took play calling duties back from him and now we got Marcus Arroyo and I mean, that's going to be very interesting because this is somebody who, you know, was just at UNLV is a head coach, coach Justin Herbert at Oregon. There's a lot on Marcus Arroyo shoulders, I would think, you know, given Kenny Dellingham's patience with the with the previous offensive coordinator. So, but he's going to feel a ton of self-imposed. Post pressure, but as far as the community, I mean, they just, they just said we were going to back up. We're going to be the caboose on the big 12 conference. So I don't think, I don't think outside expectations are going to do anything to hurt his standing. What was he always going to be the guy when the job did reopen? Was it like, all right, hey, we have that history. He's a young guy who has a history of being a big or a great offensive mind. What are some other candidates and where did you land when that job was open? I love the idea of Kenny Dellingham, host a Sunday will spaces every Wednesday night. And he jumped into it and would listen to it while he was the offensive coordinator at Florida State and then at Oregon. I was going to kick out of that. So the heart was always, always like one of us is now the head like a fan like us, a graduate like us is now the head coach at ASU. And, and so, you know, we, we, we were doing the whole Wolf on Wall Street, one of us thing. And, and, you know, you're real good way for us armchair quarterbacks to find out that maybe we don't know what we're doing if he does fail. But no, I was always 100% behind Kenny Dellingham far before her med words was, was ever let go and or resign. We still don't have a straight answer on what happened there. But, but, but, but, I believe Tom Herman was under serious consideration and probably if it was up to Ray Anderson, who was kind of in a lame duck role as athletic director when that hire was made. I might have been Tom Herman and heirs on the state might have been fine. That would have been a really, really interesting hire. The experience sure would have been there. I loved his use of teams, but yeah, I, he's not. I think it wasn't really up to Ray Anderson and everyone loved the idea of Kenny Dellingham coming in. All right, before we start specifically laying some stuff out for this football season I mentioned them earlier. We are brought to you by our friends at Charlie hustle Charlie hustle specializes in vintage inspired hometown and collegiate gear and produces some of the best case state gear in the game shop Charlie hustles Kansas state collection at Charlie hustle.com or one of their multiple locations here in the Kansas City Metro, Charlie hustle vintage made fresh. If there's any new Arizona state listeners who found this because of you, Charlie hustle did just drop an Arizona state range on their website to welcome you guys to the big 12. They do a lot of fun work with the big 12 the big 12 tournament here in downtown Kansas City. So, you know, if, if, you know, James Harden comes back through that door, come to Kansas City enjoy some great basketball as well. Charlie hustle had a great pop up there as well. So, yes, if you want some fun Arizona state stuff check out Charlie hustle.com. You mentioned they were they were voted 16th is that where the expectation is or do Arizona state fans have a higher expectation a higher, you know, baseline for this season then. Hey, just just keep building. Yeah, I think the baseline expectation is it's five wins for for Arizona state fans they do want to see progress. We did just kind of, you know, some ASU fans are going to hate this but they know it's true. We did just have the model set fire neighbors to the south of the program completely bought bottoming out losing like 17 straight games, and then having jet fish build over a three year period. And I think that would be acceptable to most Arizona state fans to be competitive within three years. However, they didn't bottom out in terms first year. I think those were both like eight and seven wind seasons. And so, you know, I, ASU fans they do want to win. And watching what happened with TCU with Washington. And the quickness with which you can rise and even even University of Arizona. I think that I think that there is some hope that they can do a couple of special things this year to really, really going to come down to have offensive line plays. But as far as just baseline talent everywhere else, I think there's on a state could probably compete very, very well at almost every position group but offensive line with 15 of the team, which is all of the other teams. So, I mean, they got serious serious talent on the offensive side of the ball, just a matter of what they're going to have the time to get the ball or not. So you mentioned some of the positives, if you had to zero in on one side at one spot, both sides of the ball that sun devil fans would be feeling the most confident what where do you think they would say. Oh, I think their Arizona state is deeper at running back than it's been. Probably since they had, Kalen Balaj, Mario Richard, you know, Benjamin, all in the same backfield. That they have a cam scataboo who led the big sky and rushing in 2022 came over in 2023 and was Arizona state MVP by far last year. And on top of that they have to Carlos Brooks who's like a super senior who came over from Cal when healthy he's very dangerous. The five star will be ground transferred over from, from USC, and I think they have somebody who came over from from TCU or Texas or Houston, they have somebody who came over Houston via Colorado. So their top four backs are all guys that could be, you know, four digit backs. I find that very, very fascinating considering that the offensive line is the weakness. So, you know, I mean, it's like having, you know, it's like having the most beautiful carpet in the neighborhood, but you got no roof on your home. How are you going to protect it from the rain. So the receivers are fantastic to the most fascinating storyline at receiver for Arizona state is Jake Smith has not played in three years and this is the former national leader of the year, who had a really good run at Texas in the big 12 years before transferring to USC getting hurt, getting cut by Lincoln Riley and getting ruled out by the NCAA. So he has not played in three years and he's been ready to go for about a year. So, you know, coming in at 23 as one of the top high school players of the country five years ago. There's somebody that might feel like it comes out of nowhere when he pops off but he's got a grand and the rest of the receiving for honestly is is very, I've put it at a B plus had had they not lost Elijah Badger to Florida. It might be one of the top three receiving groups and the entire big 12 but I would say that it's in the upper half which is encouraging tight ends going to be a little bit iffy because they lost Jalen Conyers to to Texas Tech. But I think that they have a lot of weapons is just can you get the ball in their hands in space and they'll make something happen from there. All right, we'll get a little bit pessimistic we heard we heard, you know, already the offensive line that's that's going to be the issue on the offensive ball. We're on defense are they are, you know, the coach who staff going to look to find answers before the season kicks off. The defensive line was already borderline fan when they had Anthony Cooper go down with the season ending injury and spring ball. So there's a lot of transfers and a lot of decent Ed Drushers with good pedigree. But they're going to have to have a young guy step up or they're going to have to have a transfer step up. I think defensive line is is has as most Arizona State fans kind of clutching their pearls hoping that it isn't the way that it might look. It's rough to go into a season saying like we're good everywhere but the trenches but that's the truth there's on the state right now looks good. Pretty much everywhere but the trenches and then quarterback is the ultimate mystery. I'm very bullish on on Trenton Borgay a healthy Trenton Borgay. You know this is somebody who I think has more 300 yard passing games and Jane Daniels did as a as a sun devil. But he's also got some flunkers and some games where he got hurt and fans are quick to move on from somebody who's not consistent. So this is Trent Borgay's fifth year in the program. I love him. I think they should rock with him. But it really feels like the program is 100% all in on starting sample at the transfer from Michigan State. It was kind of a fiery guy and and and Kenny Dillingham was actually his first offer in high school when he was in the state of Oregon but Kenny Dillingham was still over at Florida State believe it or not. Yeah, you got to love how some of those, you know, modern recruiting stories go, you know, coaches going everywhere playing and transferring everywhere. You never know when that first offer may come back to help you before we wrap up one more shout out to our other friends over at Manhattan Brewing Company. The best brewery in the state of Kansas. Folks, if you're looking for something fun to do this, we can get out to Manhattan Brewing Company. They got Jamaican food trucks tonight. They got barbecue food trucks tonight. They got all sorts of fun stuff going on in the alley behind the brewery brewery and some fun beer releases. Make sure you're following them on social media. So you're never missing out on their beer releases and their events. And of course, if you're listening here in the state of Kansas, if your local liquor store doesn't have it. Be nice. I know we don't like to talk to, you know, millennials. We'd rather text. We'd rather send an email, but talk to the craft beer buyer. It's distributed all throughout the state. So if it's not your local establishment, be polite, but be firm and say, Hey, I want Manhattan Brewing Company four packs right here. All right. This is a question I've really enjoyed asking everyone in the conference. When I look at Arizona State schedule, I think there's a lot of fun games on there that you could get excited for. What is the hierarchy of excitement when you're looking at the schedule? What are the two or three games you have circled the most and how far back is the trip to Manhattan in mid November down on that list when you're talking about the hierarchy of excitement. Okay, so believe it or not, there has been a lot of whispers that that Manhattan is going to take the place of Corvallis of Arizona State's cursed November destination. Because the weather in Corvallis can be pretty brutal and I've heard the same about Manhattan, but it'll be cold. It'll definitely be cool. On a personal level, I just drove through Manhattan last week. My wife went to junior high there by my mother in law has, you know, heard a degree from from Kansas State. I've always been a big Kansas state fan. I can't wait to get out there. I think it's November 11th. I'll be, I'll be making my way to Manhattan to check it out for the first time. And I think it's it looks nice. It looks nice from the road. I mean, God must love Manhattan to give you all the trees in Kansas. So, I mean, it's that that is a game that I'm definitely excited about. I think most Arizona State fans are really eyeballing that Texas Tech game because it comes so early in the schedule. I think that's going to be the real first test of what Arizona State can do. And their second best offensive player last year was tied in Jalen Konyers and Texas Tech found a little NIL money for him to finish out his career there. So, I think as you've looking forward to taking on Joe and wire Texas Tech and Jalen Konyers I think that'll be a fantastic test. The Arizona game last year was pretty ugly. I think they got revenge on the mind, even though jet fish isn't there they kept. I think that's the way that I think that's going to be a little bit better. I think that's going to be a little bit better. I think that's going to be a little bit better. I think that's going to be a little bit better. They, that Utah, get ready all Utah's the most annoying team on the planet. I'm not talking about the fans. I know I know everyone's got me fans. I happen to like the fans. They, they earned their reputation. I'll give them that. But the truth of the matter is Utah's a prop. And, and I think everybody in the big 12 should definitely be on notice and Arizona State's developed kind of a nice little rivalry with them. Some fans would disagree. Some fans believe your rival is your rival. You don't have multiple rivalries. I grew up a Mount West fan. You had your rival and you also hated BYU. So, I think you leave room for both. But I think, I think those are the, those are really the three games to look at. You know, the corner schools playing the corner schools is always going to be really important to Arizona State, but that Texas Tech game. That's really, really where I think a lot of us are going to judge what we've become as a team and where we're going to go. All right, something else. And I, this is not something I've asked everyone else. It's something that I want to ask you because I enjoy uniform talk. I enjoy helmet talk. I think Arizona State has some good uniform, some good helmets of the current set of uniforms that Arizona State has. What is your favorite? Oh, man. I do love them all. I do like Sparky more than the pitchfork. The classic is fantastic. But, you know, I know that there's a lot of Arizona State fans that grumble that we're trying to be the Adidas version of Oregon with all our different variations. But they're all very fun to me. They had a military appreciation one that was, that was fantastic. They got the black Arizona flag. I don't even see that it's all black jersey with the Arizona flag sewn into it. They had a copper joint that was, you wouldn't bet, and the recruits loved it more than anything in the world, but the alumni didn't enjoy that weren't winning in it. So they took it away. But I would say that my favorite thing that they roll out there in is some 90s throwback Sparky on the helmet or run jersey gold pants. And, and yeah, it doesn't get better than the traditional stuff for me. I love the color scheme. It might be my favorite color scheme in the big 12, the new big 12. I like that shade of maroon. I like to yell the gold and you get to do some fun variations with that. So I love, I love the color schemes and I'll be looking forward to seeing what uniforms you guys are rolling out there in the middle of November. Before we wrap up, what, what should K State fans, anyone who's listening to this, who's doing their own homework, they're doing their own power rankings, they're going through the big 12 doing their own independent study. What is something that they should spend a little bit of extra time researching and looking in on Arizona State before the season starts. So watch your own defense because that's what you're going to get. We're, we're all part of the North Dakota state tree at this point. And Brian Ward is the Arizona State defensive coordinator. He's going to give you a little bit of what climbing or Scotty Hazles and what else, right? He, you know, it's not going to be the exact same, but I don't think that there's going to be any surprises. It's an answers based defense and so whatever, whatever look that you're given is, is one that we're going to react to so understand that there's definitely going to be some familiarity there. And yeah, just, just enjoy it. I mean, the, the cool thing about having Arizona State fans in your conference is if we have one true North, it's a good time. So we're here to have a good time if you're here to have a good time. Well, just fine. Well, I know, I know the first trip K State makes out there. I'm going to probably try to pretend I'm five to 10 years younger than I actually am. And I'll definitely have a fun time. Well, thank you so much for coming on. We talked about some of the stuff you're involved with at the top of the show, but plug anything away. Tell all the boneheads, which is the name of our fans, where they can find John social media and anything that you're working on. Well, are you Scott, are you part of the 1012 network. Yes, sir, I am. And we might be neighbors here soon. That's all I'll say about that. That is the perfect tease. I absolutely love it. Yes. We are part of the 1012 network, the best podcast network of big 12 fans. It is a great time. So I am hoping I'm hoping to see some fun official news coming out soon. And hopefully this will be a relationship we get to keep as long as we're both in the podcasting game. Okay, so what I need you to do now is I need to just show me your answer. The Kansas State. Okay, so that is very simple. It's the WC. I believe Arizona probably does. Yeah, so that's, I think that's the one thing we're not going to be able to get down is that that right there is probably going to give a PTSD to some. I'll be 100% honest with you. I hate it. And I don't think I've ever used it unironically. I don't do that. So, yeah, I believe it to the band kids WC also kind of stands for water closet. So that's a rough. Then again, this isn't this isn't too great either. And I guess we share this with Houston. So, well, we'll leave the hand. We'll leave the hand signals out of it. Just place a football. Yeah, with Houston and with Wichita State because they are the, or not. Yeah, Wichita State, the shockers here in Kansas. Right. So, yeah, well, I think everyone knows the hand signals. So, yes, I don't ever, I've never shown the WC hand sign. Unironically, so I hate it. So you won't see me doing that. But I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait to have you in the conference. I'm looking forward to it. And yeah, I, you know, knock on wood looking forward to any possible news with the 1012 network as well. So, Ralph, thank you for giving me some of your time this evening. To the boneheads. That's it. Nothing more this week. This was the Friday show next week. The plan is to have five episodes again next week. And then, guess what, the week after we're into Blitz month where we're done talking to all of our friends on the schedule. It is all cake state preview all August long. So for Ralph, the best Arizona state fan in the world for Chauncey who mapped through this entire episode, the best dog in the world. My name is Scott McFarland. We love you guys and go cats. Hail to the white. Wild cat in spirit. Wild cat in fight. Hail Alma Mater. From sea to sea. Onward forever. Hail victory. You can stay wild cats for Alma Mater fights. Glory in the combat for the purple and the white faithful to our colors. We will ever be a fighting, ever fighting for a wild cat. Glory in the combat for the purple and the white faithful to our colors. We will ever be a fighting, ever fighting for a wild cat. Glory in the combat for the purple and the white faithful to our colors. We will ever be a fighting, ever fighting for a wild cat. Go state, one, two, one, two, one, two. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Sports Social Podcast Network.