Valley Sports

The Arizona State-Stanford football game on Oct. 24 football at Stanford Stadium will be televised on FS Arizona at 7:15 p.m.

The other known televised game for ASU will be against USC at Sun Devil Stadium. The November 7th matchup will be on either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 at 6 p.m.

After firing Drew Rosenhaus a couple weeks ago, Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin’s new agent is Tom Condon.

Big deal?

Nobody knows until Condon and the Cardinals start talking (Boldin isn’t, he’s missed all the team’s “voluntary” practices, which is no surprise).

Condon is also Matt Leinart’s agent, along with Pro Bowl players Eli Manning, Tom Brady, Matt Ryan and the Colts’ Bob Sanders.

Presumptions are dangerous, but since Boldin isn’t around, it seems foolish to believe a deal is or could be around the corner just because Boldin changed his representation.

At this juncture, odds are equal the change was a move of good faith toward the Cardinals, as it was Boldin trying to position himself for a contract resolution or leverage himself to go elsewhere.

Adrian Wilson and Karlos Dansby remain the team’s top two long-term priorities (plus this year’s rookie draft picks), so while the Cardinals have a better history with Condon than Rosenhaus, it’s impossible to tell what’s coming without hearing from the horses’ mouths, and even that probably wouldn’t reveal much truth.

An interesting, if hardly unexpected twist has come from the Renardo Sidney recruiting wars.

Sidney, a 6-foot-10 forward who was playing for Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, was the No. 2 ranked forward in the country according to Rivals.

He was coveted by the big-time Pac-10 schools, including Arizona State (for awhile).

The All-American Sidney visited ASU early in Pac-10 season, but the Sun Devils backed off Sidney because of red flags involving the family’s financial channels and his father has rumored to be a pain in the backside.

Then UCLA backed off and Sidney signed with USC, but even a school with investigations surrounding O.J. Mayo and its football team withdrew their scholarship offer, and Sidney is headed back home to play at Mississippi State.

This saga is well-documented in L.A.

Maybe this is all rumor and Sidney turns out to be clean (he’s almost assuredly a one-and-done player regardless), but where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

If USC got cold feet, it makes you wonder….

Arizona State won out for the affections and talents of San Antonio-area shooting guard Brandon Thompson, who announced a commitment to the Sun Devils on Monday afternoon.

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Thompson averaged 17.1 points, 5.3 rebounds,  4.1 assists and 3.1 steals per game as a senior at Stevens High School, and was named the San Antonio high school player of the year by the News-Express as he led Stevens to a No. 9 ranking in the state of Texas.

Thompson was only on Texas State’s radar until his breakout senior season. Since March he’s received offers from ASU, Texas Tech and Georgetown.

Thompson is the fifth (and likely final) high school player to commit to the Sun Devils for 2009-2010.

It’d been rumored for months and finally made official by the Pac-10 on Monday:  Arizona State will host Baylor on Dec. 3 at Wells Fargo Arena, as part of the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series.

That means ASU will play at Baylor in December 2010.

It’s an upgrade to the Sun Devils nonconference schedule - which already includes a preseason N.I.T.tournament against BYU and San Diego State.

Baylor beat ASU in the Anaheim Classic early last season. The Bears finished 24-15 and lost to Penn State in the N.I.T. championship game.

Arizona will play at Oklahoma on Sunday, Dec. 6.

It may have been the Cardinals second-to-last pick in a 20-hour draft weekend, but don’t tell LaRod Stephens-Howling it wasn’t worth the wait.

The diminutive running back from Pitt was taken 240th overall, and between being smaller than most (he’s now 5-foot-6, 180 pounds) and losing his starting job when LeSean McCoy arrived on campus, it felt like he was the No. 1 pick.

Emotions ran wild for Stephens-Howling, who couldn’t contain them as he spoke of being drafted in the 7th round and the waiting.

He couldn’t stand the waiting and wondering, so he went outside to play catch with nephew when the Cardinals called. Whisenhunt has something of an affinity for the Pitt program, mostly from watching former Panther Larry Fitzgerald during college when Whisenhunt was with the Steelers.

“He’s an outstanding special teams player, very physical, very fast,” Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “Something that can make a big contribution on our team, an area we need to improve.”

Stephens-Howling rushed for 312 yards and five touchdowns on 77 carries last season behind McCoy, but has kick return skills the Cardinals are lacking.

“They have been saying it all my life, I have been told so many times that I couldn’t do it because of my size,” Stephens-Howling said. “I’m ready to go train right now.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars kept plucking former Arizona offensive players from the draft tree.

On Saturday it was offensive lineman Eben Britton. On Sunday it was receiver Mike Thomas in the fourth round (107th overall).

Jaguars offensive coordinator and former Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter knows offense, and Arizona.

Plenty of shelter is available beneath the 6-foot-7, 383-pound (listed) physique of Herman Johnson, the Cardinals fifth-round draft choice on Sunday out of LSU.

It’s always been this way. He was 15 pounds, 14 ounces at birth, reportedly the largest baby ever born in a Louisiana hospital.

It’s true.

“It comes up a lot,” he said. “I’m used to it. It doens’t really bother me. I have been hearing it all my life. I’m fine with it.”

He also laughed a few times about his size during a conference call, so give him credit for finding something worth smiling about in what’s likely been a lifelong storyline beaten into submission.

Unlike, say, a medical redshirt for his freshman year at LSU when his big toe became infected from a spider bite.

By age 14, he was 6-foot-4, though not interested in football until later in high school, where he became known as “House.” He and his father would watch former Cardinal Leonard Davis - also a man of considerable size - and he idolized the Arizona guard/tackle.

“Just sitting around and watching (Davis) play and hearing stuff about him as a kid, people would just tell me, ‘You can play like him. You can be like him,’” Johnson said. “That’s how he became one of my favorite players.”

This draft also meant he’ll reunite with current Cardinals and former LSU teammates Ali Highsmith and Early Doucet.

As for the weight, the Cardinals aren’t concerned, mostly because he’s 6-foot-7 and seems to carry it well. Whether he’s groomed at guard or tackle, the team is going to want him to shed some pounds, but if the picture above is any indication of his current physique, he may not need to shed as much as you’d think given the 383 he’s listed at.

“We’ll just wait and see how he moves and where he fits in, but this is a big man with a big frame,” offensive line coach Russ Grimm said. “He’s always going to be a 340-plus guy.”

Grim mentioned Johnson’s need to become tougher against NFL defensive lineman who are quicker and stronger than college. From the footage the Cardinals saw, most college players would run around, not through, Johnson.  But even at his size, NFL lineman or linebackers are capable of both.

Grimm also liked his hands, relatively quick feet, work ethic and demeanor.

“I proved from the Senior Bowl to the combine to my pro day that I can manage my weight and everything,” Johnson said. “Whatever happened, happened. I’m just excited I got drafted.”

Arizona State was in danger of ending its 46-year streak of having at least one NFL draft pick, but the Sun Devils were proverbially saved in this draft’s final minutes.

Guard Paul Fanaika was scooped up by Philadelphia in the seventh round (213th overall). A couple minutes later, safety Troy Nolan was taken 223rd overall by Houston.

The Sun Devils had a draft pick every year since 1963, but this figured to be the biggest challenge in years.

More on this later as well, but Cardinals fifth-round pick Herman Johnson laughed about his size in a quick conference call with reporters.

He’s heard the sayings and jokes all his life, so what else should a 6-foot-7, 382 pound guard from LSU do?

Johnson talked about his size - he was 15 pounds, 14 ounces at birth, the largest baby born in Louisiana. He also talked about reuniting with former LSU teammates Ali Highsmith and Early Doucet in Arizona and his admiration for former Cardinal offensive lineman Leonard Davis, and not just because the two are similarly sized.

Cardinals assistant head coach/offensive line coach Russ Grimm said Johnson would either be a guard or tackle in the NFL and that will be determined as quickly as possible. Johnson may be closer to 400 pounds than 350, but, in time, Grimm said he wants Johnson to lose a little weight and gain strength.

–According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Bears offered their second-round pick for Anquan Boldin on Saturday, but were quickly rebuffed.

Not a shock.