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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2002)
Nobody's Baby • Time Warp 365 E. 13th St. • 343-6842 Mon-Sat 11-6 • Sun 12-4 COSTUME Rentals • Sales When Beintj Someone Else Matters! 57ono 'ASIAN Comiiuterizeil Service Records - Courtesj Van Service Bosch Authorized Service ASE Master Certified Sports Watch the Games Here That You Can *t Get at Home! Springfield’s Premier Sports Bar & Grill 12 Big Screen TVs 113 TVs i Wireless Table Speakers i Pool, Darts & Video Games i All Lottery Games i Satellite Sports Full Service Bar GAME MY FOOD SPECIALS Open Daily 11 am ’til 2:30 am 1360 Mohawk Blvd. ■ Springfield 746-0549 ills Emerald Arizona State junior Terrell Suggs (48) is a candidate for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, given to the nation's top defensive player. Suggs sparks Devil ‘D’ with ferocious sacks Terrell Suggs, Arizona Stated unstoppable defensive end, leads the nation and the Rac-10 with 1S sacks this season Adam Jude Senior Sports Reporter Terrell Suggs should change his name. Terrell Thuggs sounds so much better. And it’s much more accurate. “Terrell Thuggs everyone in his way” just sounds more colorful than “Terrell Suggs likes to hit quarterbacks.” Regardless of his name, the Ari zona State defensive end knows how to pack a wallop. Just ask every quarterback he’s faced this season. Suggs has made them all eat dirt. The 6-foot-3-inch, 242-pound Suggs leads the Pacific-10 Confer ence and the nation with 13 sacks in seven games this season. Compara tively, two Pac-10 teams — Arizona, with 11 sacks, and Stanford, with nine — have fewer sacks than Suggs. “Suggs is the single most impressive player I’ve seen on film this year,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “He requires a double team every time. He makes that defense go.” Suggs, a junior, is second on the school’s all-time sacks list with 28. He needs 10 more to surpass ASU’s all-time mark. “As a freshman or last year, (the record) would have been a very big thing to me,” Suggs told the State Press of ASU. “It’d be a great thing to have your name in the record book, but if I do it, I do it. If not, it’s still all right. It was worth a try.” In a loss to North Carolina two weeks ago, Suggs had a career-high four sacks. In two other games, he’s tallied three sacks. “I’m just out there, and my main focus is to win,” Suggs said. “I think of myself as a spark plug. I figure (if) the guys see me going fast, we’ll all go fast. That’s when we play our best defense.” "What's better than college football? What's better than being in college f I'm at the best time of my life right now. I'm enjoying every minute of it, and I just love having fun. I'm going to ride it until the wheels fall off." Terrell Suggs Arizona defensive end But it isn’t just Suggs’ tackles that make him noteworthy. He is con stantly talking, dancing and encour aging his teammates on the field. “I guess that’s just kind of me,” Sug gs said. “What’s better than college football? What’s better than being in college? I’m at the best time of my life right now. I’m enjoying every minute of it, and I just love having fun. I’m go ing to ride it until the wheels fall off.” Suggs anchors a defense that has not allowed a rushing touchdown in 11 quarters and gives up 95.7 yards per game on the ground, third-best in the conference. ASU leads the Pac-10 with 32 sacks. “Terrell has that impact every single day in practice. He never takes a day off,” ASU head coach Dirk Koetter said earlier this sea son. “We go against our defense every day and work on passing stuff, and he dominates the period. We can’t block him, ever.” ASU also leads the conference with 25 forced turnovers. “If you talked to the other coaches we’ve played against, Terrell de serves all the attention he has been getting,” Koetter said. “His motor runs, and his mouth runs all the time. He has turned into a positive force on our football team, and it’s contagious. He’s got the other guys playing hard.” The Chandler, Ariz., native most certainly will cause fits for an Ore gon offensive line that has allowed 12 sacks this year, third-best in the conference. “What Terrell has meant to our defense is a great deal of emotion, a great deal of enthusiasm — and it’s infectious with the rest of our guys,” ASU defensive line coach Ted Monachino said. “He’s got a bright future ahead of him, not only here, but in a lot of other places.” In a 13-9 win over Oregon State last week, ASU sacked Beaver quar terback Derek Anderson seven times, with Suggs recording one sack. “I just try to outplay them and have more effort,” said Suggs, the 2000 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. “It’s all I ever do. I just want to get to the quarterback more than they want to block me.” Contact the senior sports reporter at adamjude@dailyemerald.com. ASU continued from page 2B coaching staff have ties to Oregon. Koetter was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach in 1996 and 1997. Assistant head coach Tom Os borne spent six seasons with the Ducks, working with special teams and tight ends from 1995 through 2000. Quarterbacks coach Mark Hel frich worked as an offensive graduate assistant under Koetter in 1997. One of Koetter’s concerns for Saturday’s game is playing in Autzen Stadium. “I’ve been at 90 different stadi ums for college football games, the two loudest places I’ve ever been to are Autzen Stadium and at Syracuse in the (Carrier) Dome,” Koetter said. “It affects all your communica tion. Their fans do a great job of knowing when to be loud and when not to be loud.” In last year’s game, Walter played the second half in Autzen. “The fact that he has been there and knows how loud it is going to be, I am sure that it can do nothing but help us,” Koetter said. After their game against the Ducks on Saturday, the Sun Devils will play three of their remaining five games on the road. Mindi Rice is a freelance writer for the Emerald.
