Week 9: California at Arizona State

California with two losses or Arizona State with none?

Entering the eighth week of their schedules, which of the two seems more implausible – the Golden Bears’ midseason slide or the Sun Devils’ perfect ways?

Judging by the reporters’ questions posed to ASU players over and over this week, the latter appears to be true. Is Dennis Erickson’s latest team for real, or has it feasted on a lightweight schedule? Skeptics abound, though apparently few are among the home faithful anticipating this nighttime match-up. At mid-week, Sun Devils Stadium was 5,000 tickets shy of a 71,706-seat sellout.

Sensing a general lack of outside respect for his squad – the first Arizona State team to go 7-0 since 1996 – Erickson turned calculated defender rather than rely on his usual self-deprecating coach-speak.

“I like where we're at,” the first-year coach said. “Anytime you play seven games and win them, it's a pretty good position to be in. Obviously, as we all knew going into the season, we'd have a chance to get to 7-0.”

In serious question is a seemingly ultra soft Sun Devils’ schedule, one that so far counts a sweep of the last-place Washington teams and victories over rebuilding San Jose State, San Diego State and Stanford. Only Oregon State and Colorado rate as quality victories.

“We knew how the schedule was,” Erickson bantered back. “We talked about having five games at home in our first seven, and it was a pretty darn good deal. Now I’m not sure. We’re going to get tested. Our team knows that. We're very realistic about where we're at and the direction that we're trying to go in.”

If his Sun Devils can survive their next three games before closing with struggling Arizona, formidable entanglements with the Golden Bears, UCLA and USC, they deserve all the accolades that can be heaped on them.

“Everyone is kind of beating each other,” ASU junior quarterback Rudy Carpenter pointed out, making a case for strength of league. “So people can say what they want.”

There’s plenty of talent on the Sun Devils roster, no question. Erickson has both lines playing loose and aggressive. Carpenter has completed 132 of 199 passes for 1,730 yards and 16 touchdowns. Senior linebacker Robert James, averaging 9.4 tackles per game, is having an All-Pac-10 season. Junior safety Troy Nolan leads the league in interceptions with five, returning two for touchdowns. Redshirt freshman kicker Thomas Weber leads the league in scoring, with 14 field goals among his 70 points.

Yet Cal will be a good barometer for Erickson’s bunch. No one questions the Golden Bears’ prowess; only their luck. They lost to Oregon State 31-28 when a redshirt freshman quarterback moved his team close but made a redshirt freshman mistake, running into trouble and letting the clock run out instead of stopping it for an overtime-forcing field goal. They lost to UCLA 30-21 when a gimpy Nate Longshore moved his team close enough for a go-ahead field goal but threw an interception turned into an instant 76-yard touchdown runback.

The Golden Bears coach is trying to keep everything together and avoid his first three-game losing streak in six years at Cal.

“I think it’s important that we bounce back, we regroup and that we still have confidence in who we are and what we’re all about,” Jeff Tedford said. “We’re a couple of plays away from being undefeated. It’s disappointing, no doubt about it. We’re still a good football team.”

Longshore, a junior bouncing back from a bad ankle, has completed 126 of 197 passes for 1,369 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has served up just five interceptions, none more unforgiving than that last one to UCLA’s Alterraun Verner.

Cal’s senior tailback Justin Forsett shares a league-leading 10 touchdowns with Oregon State’s Yvenson Bernard, and has collected 811 yards rushing on 161 carries.

Junior linebacker Anthony Felder leads the league in tackles, with 10.3 per game, and fellow junior linebacker Worrell Williams is an equally disruptive presence, ranking seventh in the league in tackles with 9 per outing.

“We’re playing one of the best teams in the country,” Erickson said, resorting back to his standard compliment-the-opponent approach.

The good people of the Phoenix area seem to believe there are two of those meeting Saturday night in the desert air, as confirmed by the run on tickets. The series couldn’t be closer, with each team winning 13 times. The ASU fans actually believe that Erickson can continue to work his magic in the latter stages of this debut season with the Sun Devils. His confidence and self-assurance have been passed along to his players. Now all they have to do is go out and prove it’s no charade.

“We’ve improved,” Erickson lobbied one last time. “I guess you say it every week, but this is obviously the toughest game that we’ve had by far. It will be interesting to see where we’re at.”

Finishing ahead on the scoreboard is a strong possibility for ASU in a highly competitive game, drawing in more Sun Devils believers.

Arizona State by 7