Erickson may have to shuffle line

Arizona State football coach Dennis Erickson hinted at a possible offensive line shuffle Monday at his weekly press conference.

On Saturday against Washington, an injury to center Thomas Altieri forced redshirt freshman Garth Gerhart to play in only his third game of the season. Left guard Zach Schlink was also injured, forcing tackle Shawn Lauvao to take his place, with Tom Njunge stepping in at right tackle.

“Is that the best for us? I’m not sure,” Erickson said. “We’ve got to sit down and discuss whether we want to move him (Lauvao) from right tackle back inside.”

Schlink was scheduled for an X-ray and an MRI on Monday to determine whether he has torn cartilage around his ankle. He is on crutches.

“My experience is that he’ll probably not play,” Erickson said.

ON THE RUN GAME

Despite injuries, Erickson was pleased with the performance of the offensive line.

“Finally, we were able to run the football. (This) in turn opened up what was going on in our passing game. Rudy was able to take advantage of that,” he said.

Carpenter was equally pleased.

“Obviously, it helps,” he said. “I think where it helps the most is in the protection. Those defensive linemen and those linebackers can’t just pin their ears back and say ‘We’re gonna go after the passer.’ ”

ASU running back Keegan Herring had his best game of the season Saturday, rushing for 144 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries.

Carpenter complete almost 71 percent of his passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns.

LOOKING BACK

The Sun Devils’ six-game losing streak — their longest since 1929 — is behind them, but the first of those losses, which came against UNLV on Sept. 13, still gnaws at the players.

Carpenter wouldn’t go so far as to say the game left psychological scars, but said, “I think it makes a big difference in our record, though, if we win that UNLV game.

“Maybe it makes a difference in a couple of those other games — it’s hard to tell. I know I would have felt better about myself being 3-1,” he said.

“There are some yesses and nos to that,” Erickson added. “After that, we played Georgia. Had we played somebody else and won that game, maybe not.

“It had an effect, but I don’t know if it had has much an effect as you might think.”

WEBER HONORED

Kicker Thomas Weber was named the Pac-10 special-teams player of the week after making all three field-goal attempts (34, 37 and 29 yards) and all four extra-point attempts and pinning Washington inside its own 20-yard line on punts twice Saturday in Seattle.