If Arizona State wins Saturdays showdown with UCLA here in Pasadena they would win the Pac-12 South and be one step closer to getting the program back into a space of national attention. 1987 was the last big VICTORY in this stadium. 1997 was the last big heartbreak.
Just getting to this point doesn’t do it for me. If over the next 8 days the football team goes from a potential spot in the the Pac-12 Title game to the Sun Bowl, well….Let’s just say that it would go down as one of the biggest letdowns in ASU Football history. Losing to UCLA and UofA in back to back weeks would be a monumental crash and burn.
Thank You Steve Patterson for one last act before moving on to your AD chair at Texas. The announcement of ASU Football going to Houston to play Texas A&M in 2015 was due in large part to Patterson. ASU v the Aggies (Not New Mexico State or Utah State) is what fans want to see. The schedule that ASU has played this year has shown that every year should be filled with meaningful non-conference match ups.
Thursday night when I checked into my hotel here in Pasadena, I ran into a couple who had driven down from San Francisco just to see their beloved Sun Devils try to have their biggest victory on the Rose Bowl since the 1987 win over Michigan. “We will be back here for our New Years Day game”, they both said proudly.
Is Arizona State catching UCLA a year before the Bruins are ready for the big stage? That seems to be the prevailing feeling from some of the longterm observers of the Bruins program. UCLA is scheduled to start three freshman on their offensive front on Saturday. Can ASU take advantage of the youth and inexperience? That seems like the matchup for Sun Devil fans to focus on the most.
UCLA wins 20-17….
