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By Ted Miller
The second of 12 quick updates on offseason Pac-12 goings on.
Arizona State in a sentence
Originally posted by ESPN.com - Pac-10 Blog
Click here to view the article.


- The Sun Devils have a lot of guys back and should be in the mix for the inaugural Pac-12 South Division crown, and that's good because after three sub-par seasons coach Dennis Erickson needs a breakthrough.
- The offseason wasn't good to Arizona State, which saw a handful of starters and/or key contributors either suffer injuries or leave the team for various reasons, so the question is whether or not these roster hits will damage the team's once-lofty prospects.
- Here are the players the Sun Devils thought they would have back in 2011 but won't: QB Steven Threet (retired due to recurrent concussions), QB Samson Szakacsy (left team), DT Lawrence Guy (entered NFL draft), CB Omar Bolden (knee), WR T.J. Simpson (knee), DE James Brooks (left team) and RB Deantre Lewis (gunshot wound).
- The Sun Devils had one staff change: defensive line coach Grady Stretz left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was replaced by Scott Brown, who coached at Colorado State the past three years and was at Duke the previous 12.
- Arizona State heads into its 99th season of football with a new pitchfork logo and new uniforms.
- The Sun Devils led the Pac-10 in run defense the previous two seasons.
- While many young players will play, the "we're young" excuse won't apply this year. The Sun Devils have 28 seniors playing their final season.
- Coordinators Noel Mazzone (offense) and Craig Bray (defense) have a combined 68 yards coaching experience -- 36 for Bray, 32 for Mazzone. That makes them the third most experienced coordinator duo in the nation behind DC Norm Parker (44 years) and OC Ken O'Keefe (36 years) at Iowa and DC Jim Heacock (39) and OC Jim Bollman (33) at Ohio State.
Originally posted by ESPN.com - Pac-10 Blog
Click here to view the article.