ASU notebook: No clear favorite yet to replace Pollak

At times last season, the Arizona State offensive line came under heavy scrutiny. It allowed more than four sacks per game for the season and was generally inconsistent.

The one constant was Mike Pollak, who was a senior last season and now is projected to go in the second round of the NFL draft.

Finding his replacement will be one of the main tasks for coach Dennis Erickson and his staff.

Junior Thomas Altieri is currently taking most of the first-team snaps, though he is being challenged by redshirt freshman Garth Gerhart.

“It’s just more incentive for me,” Altieri said. “It makes working hard that much more of a payoff. If I’m going to be competing for a spot, I’m going to try and outwork them in everything I’m doing, every facet. Coming out here I just wanted to show (the coaches) that day in and day out it’s going to be consistent effort.”

Erickson said there is no clear favorite for the starting job at this point.

“It’s pretty even,” Erickson said. “We’ll just kind of wait and see.”

SPRING GAME

The Arizona State spring football game is set for Saturday at 1 p.m., although it could start earlier, depending on how fast the field clears after Pat’s Run.

Erickson said the first half will be broken up into two 12-minute quarters, and he’d like to do the same for the second half, though that will depend on how the game plays out.

He’s interested to see how the players respond to the game atmosphere.

“Now you’re keeping score,” Erickson said. “If you get beat on a deep ball, now it means something. So we want to put them in that situation.”

The first-string offense will face off with the first team defense and so forth.

“If we had more depth, which we will a year from now, I might let the coaches draft them,” Erickson said. “I’ve done that many times. That really makes it fun.”

WORKING HARD

Rudy Carpenter has totally re-done his throwing motion in order to release the ball quicker.

“It’s something I’ve been really working on,” Carpenter said, “just trying to hold the ball higher, get it out of my hand a little faster, maybe a little bit quicker. Obviously sometimes in the heat of things I revert back to my old throwing style, but it’s something I’ve been working really hard on. I think I have changed a lot, and I think it will continually get better between now and August 1.”

Extra point: Wide receiver Chris McGaha is expected to see a foot specialist today for his broken toe. Erickson said a screw will probably be put in, which would keep him out until June.