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Dennis Erickson isn't going to get caught up in job speculation. He's been around too long, won too many games to worry about whether this is his make-or-break season at Arizona State.
Simply put, the Sun Devils, coming off their first consecutive losing seasons since 1947, need to win this year or at least show progress. Erickson understands the implications if they don't.
''It's not my first time; I've been on the hot seat a lot,'' the 63-year-old coach said. ''I don't pay any attention to that. If I'm a fan and I've seen two seasons of what we've had, I wouldn't be very happy with me, either. I'd put something on my seat, for sure. I'm not sure what.''
A two-time national champion at Miami, Erickson had a good start in Tempe. He guided Arizona State to its first 10-win season since 1996, a share of the Pac-10 title and a trip to the 2007 Holiday Bowl.
Since then, it's been a steady decline. The Sun Devils won five games in 2008 and dropped to 4-8 last season, losing their final six games to finish ninth in the Pac-10.
The defense wasn't the problem. The Sun Devils were the Pac-10's best in total defense at 297.6 yards per game, 13th-best in the country.
The offense? Not so good.
Arizona State had trouble protecting the quarterback (27 sacks), had virtually no running game (119.2 yards per game) and had its lowest scoring average in more than 15 years, managing just 18 points per game in conference.
The outlook, at first glance, wouldn't seem to be all that great this season, either, with starting quarterback Danny Sullivan, the three leading receivers, three linemen and top running back Dimitri Nance no longer around. A torn knee ligament that will likely knock left guard Jon Hargis out for the season didn't help.
What does provide at least a glimmer of hope is the change in philosophy.
Arizona State fired offensive coordinator Rich Olson in the offseason, replacing him with Noel Mazzone, a former Erickson assistant at Oregon State who spent the past four seasons with the NFL's New York Jets.
Mazzone has tried to give the offense an infusion of up-tempo, installing a no-huddle, multiple-wideout offense that has a sandlot feel and the Sun Devils hope will keep opponents guessing.
''It's fast,'' junior quarterback Samson Szakacsy said. ''It's not predictable at all. Everything we do, we have five different plays that we can run at any time out of the same formation, so you really don't know. I think everything about the offense is better.''
While the Sun Devils are learning the nuances of the new offense - Erickson and Mazzone have tried not to install too much to prevent overload of the senses - one major question still needs to be answered: who's going to run it?
At the beginning of training camp, the initial depth chart didn't list one first-string quarterback. It had Steven Threet or Brock Osweiler or Szakacsy.
Not much has changed since then.
Threet, a transfer from Michigan, seemed to have the early line on the job in spring, but Osweiler, a 6-foot-8 junior, played well enough to make it a neck-and-neck race. Szakacsy, who started the last two games last season, was limited in spring drills after offseason shoulder surgery, but has been healthy for camp and put his name in the mix with his quickness and athleticism.
Three weeks before the Sept. 4 opener against Portland State, Erickson still didn't know who would start.
''It's a three-man battle more than anything,'' he said. ''We'll just play it through, hopefully in the next couple of weeks make a decision. I'd like to make one in the next couple of weeks so we can at least have two weeks before the first game and have an idea of who the starter's going to be.''
There's a chance it could be more than one. Erickson has played two quarterbacks in the past and mentioned the possibility of occasionally bringing in Szakacsy as a change-of-pace guy - assuming he doesn't get the starting nod.
Whoever it is will likely have a big impact on whether Erickson stays or goes.
The coach is in the top-10 for winning percentage among active coaches (.667), a former national coach of the year and was the orchestrator of Miami's dynastic run in the late 1980s-early 1990s and the massive rebuilding project at Oregon State.
Erickson isn't used to losing this much and neither are the Sun Devils, so something needs to change.
''We know where we're at: We've got to win football games,'' Erickson said. ''Two losing seasons, that is not in my DNA and that's not in our players' DNA.''
