Arizona State Football: 5 Big Concerns in 2012

Following the disaster that was the 2011-2012 season, the Sun Devils face many obstacles if they intend on being a competitive football team. The Pac-12 will likely be a very good conference once again and ASU lost a lot of talent. 

New coaches and new schemes generally equate to a team struggling early. Here are a few of the obstacles that this team and coaching staff are faced with in the 2012-2013 football season.

Quarterback

The loss of Brock Osweiler will certainly hurt the Sun Devils. His choice to enter the NFL draft left ASU with a three-way quarterback competition.

Mike Bercovici is currently taking snaps with the first team, but a decision has yet to be made. Michael Eubank and Taylor Kelly are following close behind. According to Doug Haller of The Arizona Republic, all three quarterbacks played well in the spring game.

My thought is that Michael Eubank will eventually win the starting job. He is big and athletic; a much better fit for the spread style offense than Kelly or Bercovici.

No matter how the competition shapes out, the starter is likely to have some growing pains. He will be inexperienced and he will be running a new offensive scheme.

Offensive Line

The offensive line is once again an area of concern for this team. There are multiple starting jobs that are up for grabs. The new quarterback is likely to struggle at times and the offensive line will have to do their best to protect him.

The spread-style offense requires more pass-blocking than other offenses. This line is going to have to mesh and play as a unit. Luckily, the spread offense does have a lot of quick intermediate passes in its playbook.

Defense

The Sun Devils' defense was a disaster last season. Prior to spring practice, it was thought that that would be the strength of the team. That turned out to not be the case.

ASU lost some players in the secondary to injury during the spring and Vontaze Burfict became more of a headache than star player.

The defense will be completely rebuilt this season and there will be some new packages brought of the team. The secondary and linebackers will have to play better if the team is going to compete this season.

Coaching

Todd Graham should definitely be considered an area of concern for this team. He went 6-6 at Pitt last season in the Big East and the talent level is much greater in the Pac-12. He is bringing in an entirely new offensive and defensive scheme.

Sun Devil fans are getting restless. It has been quite a while since ASU has had a really good football team. Graham was an unexpected hiring, but if the Sun Devils win games, the Tempe faithful will be happy.

Pac-12 Talent

The talent is still very significant in the Pac-12. Teams like USC and Oregon are still going to win a lot of football games.

They are among the teams that will be very competitive on the field this season. Another challenge those schools present is in recruiting. 

ASU will need to win some big football games if they hope to compete in the recruiting battle with USC and Oregon.

Final Thoughts

ASU's football program is faced with many challenges. They have lacked on-the-field success for many years, but they did have a surprisingly good recruiting class that followed a cloudy offseason.

6-7 is an unacceptable record for a school as prominent as ASU. The school has lots of recruiting advantages which is why it's surprising how poorly they have performed.

Todd Graham has his work cut out for him, but he has an opportunity to turn things around at ASU and build a new legacy.