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Bondurant UofA Captain? ASU Affected By "Laugher Curve"?/Bits4U.

  • Now, here's one Wildcat I will be anxious to see the next three seasons:

    "I told my teammates and coaches that I’m going to try and be a captain,” he said.

    “I just want to make sure everyone’s on the same page and that we as a unit can go out and play. When this team gets back on track I’m going to be one of the leaders.”
    http://tucsoncitizen.com/wildcatreport/2011/11/16/rivalry-debut-ua-freshman-tramayne-bondurant-ready-to-lead-vs-asu/

    .
    Foles piece from San Antonio:
    http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/article/Foles-still-putting-up-big-numbers-for-losing-team-2272635.php

    .
    Item if interest regarding college football head coach compensation:
    http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/story/2011-11-17/cover-college-football-coaches-salaries-rise/51242232/1

    .
    Another shady Paterno item for you:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/sports/ncaafootball/in-july-paterno-transferred-ownership-of-home-to-his-wife-for-1.html

    .
    Just in, Fiesta Bowl protagonist news:
    http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7242879/ex-fiesta-bowl-coo-natalie-wisneski-indicted-federal-grand-jury

    .
    Anyone remember Bob Davie?
    http://www.pjstar.com/free/x1655828977/New-Mexico-hires-former-Irish-coach-Davie

    .
    "The Laugher Curve must also explain why Arizona State keeps getting the same results over and over again. With a chance to take control of the Pac-12 South, the Sun Devils lost at Washington State 37-27 on Saturday. Even Hughes, an Arizona State dropout who left school to become a professional joke writer, couldn't have written this script."
    http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/page/bottom10111116/the-bottom-10-loves-lovable-losers-especially-arizona-state-sun-devils-college-football

    NogalesJerry

  • "Bondurant has 28 tackles, a sack, an interception and two pass break-ups in the past four games."

    1. Were any of you recruiting gurus high on this guy or did he come out of nowhere? He is WAY far and again the best defensive player over any four games since Mackovic left. I just don't recall anyone talking about him.

    2. WTF was he doing on the bench?

    "Arizona has no tradition" - Bill Walsh "We have a tradition of kicking Bill Walsh's ass" - Teddy Bruschi

    wineknow

  • Bondurant was not a top tier recruit, but after he signed several UofA coaches said he was a steal. He was also nowhere near ready to play early in the year. He was lost most of fall camp. You could see the talent, but he struggled with schemes and the speed of the college game. At the time Cortez Johnson was the more game-ready of the two and he had his issues too.

    That is the thing with young players. What you see in Oct and Nov was not there in the late summer and early fall. Ka'Deem showed little of his flash during fall camp. Hankins was not good the first two weeks of camp, but a switch went off in week three.

    With Bondurant, you got the feeling he could be a player but needed more practice time.

    Editor-In-Chief of Wildcat Sport Report and co-host of the Arizona football and basketball pre and postgame shows on 1290 KCUB.

    BradAllis

  • Brad, not to be rude to Hankins, but I have seen the bulb go off with Carey, Bopndurant, and even Cortez, but not so much with Hankins. Do you really expect him to be a servcieable middle linebacker in the future? If so, I could a reasonable LB corp. next year in Fisher on one side, Hankins or Hobson in the middle, and surprise Flowers at the other side.

    This puts Bondurant at SS along with Hall at FS. With Shaq or Cortez at one corner and McNight at the other, that is not a bad back seven. The wildcard to me is Flowers progression and can we move him to a LB spot.

    Wildkatze

  • I think Hankins biggest issue has been size/strength. Early in the year he did a nice job filling the hole or getting to plays but not being strong enough to do anything. The light goes off at different times for different guys.

    I think there are 3-7 who were pressed into duty a year or two early and that included Hankins and Hobson (along with Fanene, Fuiamaono, Cortez and a few guys on offense).

    I think the pieces are in place for a better defense next year, assuming you get some JC pieces to fill in the gaps.

    DE: Gilbert and Ndiaye (two of the best athletes on the team. Hope they are big/strong enough to play next year). Add Pettinato and De Rego for depth, but still want to see a JC or two here.
    DT: Mobley (got to get heathy), Taula (I assume he moves back), Fanene, Merrill, Ward, Tuihalamaka and Washington (got to get healty, back to game weight) makes a nice core. Would like to see a stud JC player add to the overall talent base.
    LB: Hankins, Hobson, Fischer and maybe Flowers is a nice start. Group needs to get stronger, get a JC/athletic linebacker and needs to be coached up.
    CB: McKnight and Cortez is a nice start, add Richardson (getting better?) and Grandon for depth.
    S: Bondurant and Hall is a terrific start. Maybe Flowers stays, if not you have Watley (ugh), Robbins (?) and Jared Tevis (undersized but I really like his potential).

    As we speak I am working on a story along these lines.

    Editor-In-Chief of Wildcat Sport Report and co-host of the Arizona football and basketball pre and postgame shows on 1290 KCUB.

    BradAllis