Bordow: Tontozona may not be perfect, but it's tradition

CAMP TONTOZONA • You drive up State Highway 260 like you’ve done so often in the past, take the right turn onto Camp Tontozona Road and head down the gravel path.

The sky is a brilliant blue. A few wispy white clouds are losing their battle with the bright sun. The scent of pine trees fills the air and your senses.

You get out of your car and walk about 100 yards down the hill.

The Arizona State football team is in the middle of its morning practice.

Defensive coordinator Craig Bray yells at a lineman. A receiver curses at himself when he drops a pass. Running back Ryan Torain breaks another tackle.

You’ve seen it all dozens of times. But as you grab a roster and try to find a bit of shade along the sideline, you wonder how long it will be before you never see it again.

Camp Tontozona isn’t on the endangered species list, but for the first time there’s a real sense that this idyllic setting may not be long for Sun Devil football.

You won’t hear that from anyone affiliated with ASU. They don’t dare insult the place that Frank Kush built.

But if you pay attention and listen closely, you hear the chords of discontent.

No Sun Devil coach has been as enamored of Tontozona as Kush was, and Dennis Erickson seems ambivalent about the place.

Before ASU made the trek up here, Erickson intimated that he might bring the team back to Tempe if rain disrupted the workout schedule.

Fortunately for the Sun Devils, not a drop has fallen and they’ve gotten their work in.

Still, in talking to Erickson, you get the sense he’s not convinced Tontozona is the place to be.

He thinks it’s a great place for a team to bond — “you get away from the hustle and bustle and spend a lot of time together,” — but he also said ASU needs to install a FieldTurf practice field for when it does rain.

“There are some things we have to look at, no question about it,” Erickson said.

On Monday, after defensive end Luis Vasquez suffered a high ankle sprain that will sideline him three to four weeks, Erickson noted that the Sun Devils have suffered more high ankle sprains the past six days than he’s ever seen before.

He wouldn’t blame the condition of the practice field, but quarterback Rudy Carpenter wasn’t as circumspect.

“There are a lot of holes,” Carpenter said. “Guys are twisting their ankles all the time.”

What ultimately may put an end to Tontozona is the planned indoor practice facility on campus. ASU is still trying to raise funds for the project, but if and when the field house is built, it would make sense both financially and logistically to stay in Tempe.

An example: When defensive end Tranell Morant injured his knee during Saturday’s scrimmage, he had to be transported back to the Valley for an MRI exam. That costs time and money.

“Everybody talks about team bonding, and all that stuff is true but the thing about being in Tempe is the training facilities are better,” Carpenter said. “We have a lot of injuries; you just don’t have the same facilities (at Tontozona) to get guys better. That’s more important than bonding.”

What Carpenter says makes sense, and I understand Erickson’s reservations about Tontozona. But I hope ASU never leaves this place.

Camp Tontozona is one of the few things that is uniquely ASU. It’s like the 12th Man at Texas A&M or the Rock at Clemson. Take it away, and ASU has nothing that distinguishes itself from any other college football program.

Sun Devil fans view Camp Tontozona as the official kickoff of the football season. One of the great traditions is the drive up on a Saturday morning to watch ASU scrimmage. Fans can get out of the heat, check out a little football and have a steak dinner at Fargo’s Restaurant in Payson.

What’s there to do in Tempe, other than wilt?

If you were to make a list of Camp Tontozona’s pluses and minuses and take sentimentality out of the equation, it wouldn’t make the grade.

But what is college football without its traditions and landmarks?

What is Georgia without the hedges or Notre Dame without Touchdown Jesus?

Camp Tontozona is ASU football.

An August without it?

Sacrilege.

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Listen to Scott Bordow every Monday on The Fan AM 1060 with Bob Kemp