Whether it comes on his first year of eligibility or decades after his time in Tempe, the highest honor the university can give a Sun Devil football player is induction into ASU’s Sports Hall of Fame, permanently cementing that athlete’s legacy into the lore of Arizona State athletics.

ASU’s charter Hall of Fame class was inducted in 1975 featuring football players Curley Culp (1965-67), Woody Green (1971-73), Norris Steverson (1928-31), Charley Taylor (1961-63), Danny White (1971-73) and his father, Wilford “Whizzer” White (1947-50).

Since that point and including the inaugural class, Arizona State has inducted a total of 74 former football players into its Sports Hall of Fame. It is generally a foregone conclusion that at least one former football player will be included in each year’s class, though the 1982, 1985 and 1993 induction classes did not feature representatives from the program.

Over the past five years, the date of ASU’s announcement has ranged from as early as July 17 to as late as August 30, with last year’s selections made public on August 7. Therefore, the 2020 crop of inductees could be made known at any time – assuming, of course, that ASU’s Hall of Fame induction plans are not derailed by the current global pandemic.

According to ASU’s athletics website, “Sports Hall of Fame selection is based on one or more of the following criteria: All-America recognition; NCAA champion; world record setter; Olympic medal; NCAA statistical leader; and significant contribution to sports and graduation”.

So then, which Sun Devils of yesteryear might be immortalized in 2020? This edition of Sun Devil Science breaks down who in my opinion are the most deserving candidates, including a couple of players whose names I cannot believe are not already included in the the illustrious list of ASU legends.

An important rule to remember when considering the candidates is that ASU requires a 10-year gap between the end of the player’s career and Hall of Fame induction, so it is still too early for the likes of Will Sutton, Jaelen Strong, D.J. Foster, Zane Gonzalez, N’Keal Harry or Eno Benjamin.

Wild Card: DE Terrell Suggs (2000-02)

ASU waits until professional players retire before their induction, and though he just completed his 17th NFL season and won his second Super Bowl ring after joining the Kansas City Chiefs late in the 2019 season, no official news regarding Suggs’ playing future is known at this point.

A certain future selection to both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, Suggs will be fast-tracked to ASU’s Hall of Fame as soon as he retires from the NFL. That time logically figures to be soon, but it is a crapshoot as to if that will be in 2020.

Honorable Mention: RB Mario Bates (1991-93), LB Greg Battle (1982-85), RB Darryl Clack (1982-85), WR Eric Guliford (1989-92), RB Darryl Harris (1984-87), FB Mike Karney (2000-03), OL Kyle Murphy (1994-97), OL Scott Peters (1998-2001), DL Dan Saleaumua (1983-86), K Thomas Weber (2007-10)

5. RB Terry Battle (1994-96)

All-America recognition is one of a few key factors in ASU’s Hall of Fame selection and Battle is one of only three Sun Devils not in the school’s hall that are as of this moment eligible for induction to have received First-Team All-America honors. A first-teamer according to Sporting News in 1996, Battle joins Jeremy Staat (1997) and Thomas Weber (2007) as the only Hall of Fame eligible First-Team All-Americans not to be inducted into ASU’s Hall of Fame – though Weber is in his first year of eligibility in 2020.

Working against Battle’s odds are that he was a part-time player as a freshman and as a sophomore – 753 total rush yards across his first two seasons in Tempe – and, despite his monster junior season, wasn’t technically the team’s top back until a midseason injury suffered by starter Michael Martin.

Following Martin’s injury, Battle literally and figuratively took the ball and ran with it as he totaled 1,077 rushing yards and 20 total touchdowns for the season on his way to First-Team All-America and First-Team All-Pac-10 recognition.

Battle bypassed his senior season at ASU to enter the 1997 NFL Draft and though he was selected in the seventh round by the Detroit Lions, he never appeared in an NFL game.

4. DL Jeremy Staat (1996-97)

Few junior college transfers have been selected for induction to ASU’s Hall of Fame, much less ones who began as reserves before blossoming into superstars, as was the case with Staat. However, the 2018 induction of All-American Derrick Rodgers, a JUCO transfer who only played one year at ASU, could help open the door for other players who hit a brief – albeit an outstanding – peak at Arizona State.

To date, of the 74 football players to be inducted into ASU’s Sports Hall of Fame, only Rodgers, Jerry Smith and Phillippi Sparks came to Tempe from the JUCO ranks. Could Staat be next?

A rotation defensive lineman on ASU’s conference champion team in 1996, Staat exploded as a senior in 1997 as he won the Morris Trophy as the Pac-10’s top defensive lineman and was a First-Team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America after dominating opposing offensive lines to the tune of 23.0 tackles for loss, including 12.5 sacks.

For reference, his sacks, and tackles for loss totals from 1997 remain the fifth-best single-season efforts in program history – phenomenal achievements for a defensive tackle.

Staat was selected in the second round (41st overall) of the 1998 NFL Draft then later joined the United States Marine Corps – service that should bolster the overall campaign for his induction to ASU’s Hall of Fame.

3. QB Rudy Carpenter (2005-08)

A gritty competitor and one of the most experienced quarterbacks in program history, Carpenter has the full body of work that rightfully inserts his name into the conversation for the most highly qualified Hall of Fame candidates.

Statistically, the Arizona State career records books are littered with Carpenter’s name as he is ASU’s all-time leader in pass completions (799) and ranks second all-time at ASU in career passing yards (10,491), pass attempts (1,309), passing touchdowns (81) and career total offense yards (10,196) and places third in career completion percentage (.610).

When his days were done in Tempe, Carpenter ranked third all-time in Pac-10 Conference history in career touchdown passes (81), at the time placing him only behind former Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart (99) and former teammate Andrew Walter (85). Also, at the time his career ended, he ranked eighth on the conference’s career passing yardage list and at the time was only the eighth player in Pac-10 history to eclipse the 10,000-yard mark for his career.

ASU’s starting quarterback for 43 consecutive games starting in the second half of his redshirt freshman year, Carpenter guided ASU to a 10-win season and a split of the Pac-10 title in 2007, two bowl game appearances and is one of very few quarterbacks in Arizona State history to start in three rivalry wins over Arizona.

However, Carpenter did not earn All-America honors – with the exception of Freshman All-America recognition – and though he was a three-time Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 pick, he did not earn first or second-team all-league honors during his career.

Beyond ASU, though he was not picked in the 2009 NFL Draft, Carpenter is listed as having spent parts of the preseason or regular season of the 2009-12 NFL campaigns with the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is credited with one regular-season game appearance in 2011 for Tampa Bay.

2. WR Keith Poole (1993-96)

For several years I’ve wondered why the final two members of this list have been overlooked for Hall of Fame induction, and hopefully, the 2020 class ends that streak.

Over the last few years, I’ve gone back-and-forth between which of the final two is second and which is first on the list, so in reality, this final pair is more like a duo of “1” and “1a”. If you ask me, Poole and the next name on the list should both be included in this year’s class of inductees.

One of the unforgettable figures of ASU’s legendary 1996 squad, Poole earned Second Team All-America honors that year and for the second consecutive season was a First-Team All-Pac-10 pick.

In 1995, Poole became what at the time was just the second player since ASU joined the Pac-10 in 1978 to post a 1,000-yard receiving season as he caught 55 passes for 1,036 yards with seven touchdowns. He followed that by becoming at the time just the second Sun Devil in the Pac-10 era to surpass the double-digit mark in receiving touchdowns in a single season by catching 11 touchdowns passes as part of his 47 receptions for 867 yards as a senior in 1996.

At the time he completed his career, Poole shared a split of the school’s career touchdown receptions mark (25), which since has only been bested by Derek Hagan (27). His 25 touchdowns at the time tied as the fifth-highest career total in Pac-10 Conference history.

Legitimately one of the best deep ball threats in conference history, his career average of 19.3 yards per catch still ranks fourth all-time in conference history among players with at least 100 career receptions – a career mark that has only been topped once in the league (Jim McElroy, UCLA, 1994-97) since Poole finished his Sun Devil career.

Poole also ranked third on the school’s all-time list in career receiving yards and fourth in career receptions at the time his ASU career came to an end. He remains third all-time in ASU history with four games with at least 150 receiving yards.

After his stellar four-year tenure at ASU, Poole was selected in the fourth round (116th overall) by New Orleans in the 1997 NFL Draft. He played from 1997-2000 with the Saints and in 2001 with the Denver Broncos, totaling 96 career receptions for 1,734 yards with 11 touchdowns. His best season as a pro came in 1999 when he caught 42 passes for 796 yards with six scores for the Saints.

Currently, Poole ranks sixth all-time at ASU in career receiving yards. One player ahead of him (N’Keal Harry) is several years from eligibility to ASU’s Hall of Fame. Three others ahead of him (1. Derek Hagan, 2. John Jefferson, 5. Aaron Cox) are in the hall. The fifth?

Next up on this list…

1. WR Shaun McDonald (2000-02)

One of the most dynamic receivers in program history, McDonald, became one of the most dangerous deep threat pass-catchers in the nation over his Sun Devil career.

A true head-scratcher when it comes to trying to grasp at the straws of justifying why he has yet to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for ASU, McDonald earned numerous high-level accolades and achieved several single-season and career statistical accomplishments that more than warrant his inclusion in ASU’s hall. Added to that, McDonald came to ASU by way of Phoenix’s Shadow Mountain High School, so he would add some valuable hometown flair to the school’s Hall of Fame.

A Third-Team All-American in 2002 and an Honorable Mention All-American in 2001, McDonald also earned First-Team All-Pac-10 recognition for both years. He was also a finalist in 2002 for the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the nation’s best wide receiver – the only player in ASU history to be a finalist for the award that was first given out in 1994.

Statistically, in 2002 McDonald set the school’s single-season record for receptions (87) and receiving yards (1,405), while catching the second-most touchdown passes in a single year (13). That season he also became the first player in Arizona State history to post multiple 1,000-yard receiving seasons as he totaled 1,104 receiving yards in 2001.

He also remains the only player in Arizona State history to record consecutive seasons with double-digit touchdown receptions, as he caught ten as a redshirt sophomore in 2001. McDonald registered seven career games with at least 150 receiving yards, which ranks second all-time at ASU behind school Hall of Famer Derek Hagan. No player in the Pac-10 (or Pac-12) Conference in the 20th century who caught at least 100 career passes has posted a greater career yards per catch average than the 18.4-yard career clip registered by McDonald in three years at ASU.

Added on to all that, he was a threatening return man as he ran a punt back for a touchdown in 2000.

At the end of his career, McDonald ranked third all-time at ASU in career receptions (156), second in career receiving yards (2,867) and had the second-highest total of career touchdown receptions (24). Even better, strictly among Sun Devils to play fewer than all four years – McDonald departed a year early to enter the NFL Draft – at the time he left Arizona State he was the program’s career leader in all three categories. His 24 touchdown receptions at the time tied for 10th most for a career in Pac-10 Conference history, again, despite the fact that McDonald played just three years.

Currently, McDonald still ranks fourth all-time at ASU in receiving yards behind Derek Hagan (in ASU’s Hall of Fame), John Jefferson (of course he’s in, too) and N’Keal Harry (several years away, but he’s a slam dunk when his time comes and deservedly so). In terms of career receiving yards, McDonald is ahead of ASU Hall of Famers Aaron Cox (fifth) and John Mistler (11th). McDonald and Harry are the only two players in program history to surpass 2,300 career receiving yards in under four years.

Following his collegiate career, McDonald was drafted in the fourth round (106th overall) in the 2003 NFL Draft by St. Louis and played seven seasons in the NFL with the Rams, Lions , and Steelers. He totaled 220 receptions for 2,490 yards and 11 touchdowns. His best season came in 2007 with Detroit when he caught 79 passes for 943 yards and six scores.

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