Arizona State Football: 10 Presents the Sun Devils Hope to Find Under the Tree

The Arizona State Sun Devils are going to have to hope for a lot of good presents this holiday season because they are going to likely need a whole lot of things to cheer them up following their game this Thursday against the Boise State Broncos.

The Sun Devils will be taking on the Broncos at the MAACO Bowl in Las Vegas. The Broncos are the clear favorites in this battle, but perhaps the Sun Devils will find their way to victory. It certainly will not be an easy task.

The game is before the holiday season, so these are some presents the Sun Devils can hope to receive following this week's game.

10. Matching Uniforms

While the Arizona State Sun Devils did have a lot of cool uniform combinations this season, sometimes they just didn't match that well.

For example, this uniform they wore against the Oregon State Beavers didn't mesh as well as they likely had thought.

The jersey just doesn't go with the pants. Perhaps if the gold parts of the uniform were white, it would look much better than it did.

9. A New Athletic Director

Currently, Lisa Love is the athletic director for the Arizona State Sun Devils. While the athletic department has seen success in women's softball, baseball and wrestling, their two biggest sports have failed to prosper as many had expected.

The football team had just been a mess under former head coach Dennis Erickson, and the recruiting process for the next coach was a joke.

The Sun Devils basically signed June Jones of Southern Methodist to a contract, only to take the offer off the table moments later. The Sun Devils were confusing and were quickly becoming a national joke.

They then hired Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Todd Graham. It remains to be seen how Graham fares in the desert, but there is no doubt that his and the athletic director's careers will be connected.

8. An Easier Schedule Next Season

After a Week 1 game against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, the Arizona State Sun Devils have back-to-back games against the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Missouri Tigers.

The Illinois game will be at home, while the Sun Devils will be visiting the Tigers.

It hasn't been determined yet where games against the USC Trojans and Oregon Ducks will fall next season, but the Sun Devils will need to hope that things will be easier.

They will be facing many new coaches next season, and that means different schemes. Jim L. Mora is now the head coach at UCLA, Rich Rodriguez is now at the University of Arizona and Mike Leach has taken over the program at Washington State.

With a new coach in Tempe, things could be looking very different in terms of playing style next year in the Pac-12.

7. Better Gifts

The Sun Devils were lucky to land the MAACO Bowl. Not really, actually, as the game is perhaps the worst gift package of any of the bowls.

The Sun Devils get...

A hat (pictured—don't mind the cat; it was the only picture I could find).

I think the Sun Devils will be happy to even receive a gift card to McDonald's or 7-11 over getting a hat.

6. Tattoo Repair

This one is for the Arizona State Sun Devils' quarterback, Brock Osweiler. If you notice his tattoo, it says "Leave Your Legacy...Live Life to it's Fullest."

Of course, the typo here is the "it's," which is not possessive. Not a huge deal, as it doesn't take away from the season that Brock had for the Sun Devils.

Still, he would likely be interested in getting that touched up.

5. An Improved Defense

The Arizona State Sun Devils started out the year 5-1, and that was mostly in part to their strong defense. To finish out the season, they went 1-5 and had a terrible collapse that resulted in their head coach being fired.

For the first six games, the Sun Devils allowed on average 19 PPG. That is a respectable number, considering they had played the Missouri Tigers and Illinois Fighting Illini during that time.

During the second half of the season, they allowed 33.2 PPG. That is a huge jump, and rather pathetic considering their only real difficult task over that time was the Oregon Ducks, who scored 49 points on the Sun Devils.

Things must look better next season; otherwise this defense will continue to drop games.

4. A Few Better Recruits

The Arizona State Sun Devils currently have the second-worst recruiting class for the 2012 season among their Pac-12 foes.

They have only one 4-star recruit and then 14 3-star recruits. Who knows how many of those players they will be losing with offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone leaving for UCLA and head coach Dennis Erickson being fired?

The Sun Devils can only hope that new head coach Todd Graham will be able to bring a few recruits of his own.

Graham had three 4-star recruits heading to Pittsburgh next season.

3. A Consistent Target for Next Season

The Arizona State Sun Devils will be losing senior wide receiver Gerell Robinson after this season, so it will be important for the Sun Devils to find a new primary target for quarterback Brock Osweiler.

This season, Robinson had six touchdowns and 1,156 receiving yards. He was by far the most productive receiver, basically doubling what Aaron Pflugrad did, who had the second-most yards with 620.

With Robinson, Pflugrad and Mike Willie all being seniors, it is going to be up to Jamal Miles, Rashad Ross and Kevin Ozier to make up lost ground. Perhaps someone else will come out from nowhere.

2. Vontaze Burfict Decides to Stay

Hate him or love him, there is no doubt what the Sun Devils middle linebacker Vontaze Burfict brings to each game. He is a scary man, one that has no care in the world for the guy on the other side of the ball.

Unfortunately, that no-mercy approach has resulted in a lot of penalties for the freak of nature this season, which is a reason for his woes. More recently, he has been sitting in Erickson's doghouse, and it is thus far unclear whether he will be participating in the MAACO Bowl.

If Erickson does hold him out, it would be shocking to see Burfict leave for the draft. For one, his stock will likely drop due to teams seeing him as a bit of a problem-causer. Also, it just wouldn't seem to be the best way to go out.

The linebacker has been praised as one of the best defensive players, even drawing comparisons to Baltimore Ravens shoo-in Hall of Famer Ray Lewis.

The Sun Devils will need Burfict back next season if they hope to have success next year on defense.

1. An Early Present

Nothing is better than getting an early present, so a win over the Boise State Broncos would be the perfect gift for the Arizona State Sun Devils.

They desperately need this win to prove that their early-season success wasn't a fluke, and the opportunity to beat the No. 7 Broncos is exactly what they need to do so.

The Broncos will have Kellen Moore under center, which is a recipe for disaster for opposing defenses. He can easily tear up secondaries, and he could do just that considering the way this team has been playing as of late.

If the Sun Devils can somehow pull off a miracle win, they won't care for anything else on this list.