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Wow! What a week! After a huge win over U of A, we had an excellent banquet the next night to honor our seniors and present our annual football awards. From there, it was recruiting time. I personally was in 12 homes the first week and the response has been very positive. We have approximately 22 scholarships to give (this number is subject to change) this year, and as of this writing, have several verbal, non-binding commitments. As you might expect, we need to concentrate on linebackers, defensive backs, and tight ends from an immediate impact standpoint, but, as always, we are looking for excellence across the board to try to continue to improve our talent level and depth. We have an "ideal" number of scholarship players we shoot for at each position, but it is very difficult to work it out that way.

We started bowl practices today (Saturday, December 7) with a 95-minute workout. The tempo was crisp and the players showed a lot of spirit. We are hosting several recruits and their families this weekend; so it was nice for them to see the current players up close. We still don't know which bowl we will be playing in, but we will be excited no matter how it works out. For a team to be picked ninth in the league and finish third is very satisfying. Every coach wants his team to overachieve, and this team did. All of our wins were sweet, but beating the Cats and winning on the road at Oregon were my personal highlights. The biggest disappointments for me were home losses to Cal and North Carolina. Oh what might have been!

Last week, the All-Pac-10 team was announced. We only had two first team guys (Terrell and Shaun) and one second teamer (Tim Parker) but five sophomores were among our seven honorable mentions (Oliver, Stewart, Shivers, Hodgdon, Verdon). Also, we had six players make the Pac-10 All-Frosh team (Hagan, White, J. Williams, N. Johnson, Canidate, Hill). The future is bright!

This week, we will continue to hit the recruiting trail hard, and will resume bowl practice on Friday or Saturday, depending on which bowl we are in. Terrell Suggs starts his awards tour on Monday in Charlotte, Wednesday in Houston, and Thursday in Orlando, along with Shaun McDonald, for the ESPN Awards. Log on to this website to get the latest news on Terrell's journey. That should be interesting. The great John Jefferson gets inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night in New York City.

Finally, thanks for all of the congratulatory notes and the many, many questions that I don't have time to answer right now. I was really feeling good about life until one of our fans reminded me that all we needed to do to go to the Rose Bowl next year is: "Play four quarters of offense, reduce fumbles, reduce interceptions, punt further, (Parker leads Pac-10 at 43 yards) improve special teams, scramble better, cause more fumbles, improve tackling, increase attendance, and upgrade the stadium." I guess I better quit writing and get back to work!

GO DEVILS!

12/8 - Late breaking news! Sun Devils are Holiday Bowl bound. What a great honor for our program and a terrific way for our seniors to end their career at ASU. We will be departing for San Diego on 12/21 and, of course, the game is Friday, December 27. We need to set a precedent by having a strong showing of Sun Devil fans in attendance.

Have you ever wished you had the opportunity to ask head coach Dirk Koetter your most pressing question regarding ASU football? Here's your opportunity! Each week throughout the season, Coach Koetter will provide an insider's look at Arizona State football. As a part of this feature, he will take questions from Sun Devil fans and answer them on TheSunDevils.com! While he won't be able to answer every question submitted, he will do his best to get to as many as he can. Submit your question today with the form below!

Fill out the form below to submit a question to Coach Koetter!