Bordow: Cheer up ASU fans, all is not lost

Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter couldn’t sleep Saturday night.

He tried to close his eyes and forget the Sun Devils’ 23-20 overtime loss to UNLV, but the pain and frustration was too great.

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To pass the time, he walked around the house. He watched some TV. He called his mom. At 5 a.m., he took a dip in the pool of the apartment complex in which he lives.

“People probably thought I was a weirdo,” he said.

A few miles away in Phoenix, Dennis Erickson was doing some pacing of his own.

“I haven’t slept in two days,” Erickson said Monday. ... “I was very angry with myself the way I performed. Probably as angry as some of the fans are.”

Angry may not cover it. Some fans were so irate they called the Sun Devils’ post-game show on KTAR (620 AM) and pined for the days of Dirk Koetter.

Crazy talk? Sure. But when a program suffers its worst defeat since a 35-7 loss to New Mexico State in 1999, sanity sometimes takes a holiday.

Here’s the thing, though. The Sun Devils’ season isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

In fact, given how unbelievably horrid the Pac-10 is, you can make the case that ASU’s Rose Bowl chances are just as good today as they were Friday.

Admittedly, that’s a tough sell. The Sun Devils lost to a Mountain West Conference team. At home. Why should anyone believe they’ll finish second in the Pac-10 and punch their ticket to Pasadena, Calif.?

(This, of course, assumes USC will play in the national championship game).

My response: Have you seen the rest of the Pac-10?

UCLA lost to BYU by 59 points.

Oregon is on its third-string quarterback.

California was pounded by Maryland, which lost to Middle Tennessee State.

And those are the other contenders. Imagine how bad Arizona, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State and Stanford are.

Who’s to say a focused and motivated ASU team won’t finish ahead of those dogs?

“We’re obviously aware of what the rest of the Pac-10 is doing,” Carpenter said. “We’re aware of what we can do, too. I think it’s important that stays in our mind.”

The schedule, as you might have heard, is daunting. After dealing with Georgia, ASU has to travel to California and USC on consecutive Saturdays before coming home to face Oregon.

Two things, though:

1) ASU has a week off after the Georgia game to get ready for the Bears.

2) Every Pac-10 team will lose to USC, so that won’t affect ASU’s place in the conference standings.

“There’s a whole season ahead of us,” Erickson said. “There are still a lot of things left to play for.”

It’s hard to look at the big picture when the eyes are still seeing UNLV running back Frank Summers steamrolling ASU defenders.

But the Devils aren’t beaten. They’ve just been bloodied.

Somehow, they have to forget about UNLV, get some sleep and understand that a second-place finish in the Pac-10 — and a Rose Bowl invitation — is still theirs for the taking.

And that won’t change, by the way, even if they get pounded by Georgia on Saturday.