(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
In the culmination of a season that began in uncharted waters for all those involved with the Arizona State football team, the 2018 campaign came to an end in disappointment, as the Sun Devils (7-6, 5-4 Pac-12) fell to the Fresno State Bulldogs (12-2, 7-1 Mountain West) 31-20 in the Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl.
However, this season was a success long before the Devils took the field in Sin City.
With a brand new defensive scheme, a heavy reliance on untested freshmen from the start of the year, and a head coach who hadn’t been on the sideline in over a decade, it would have been easy to write off the Sun Devils in 2018.
Instead, they fought and battled through every game they played in, twice beat the No. 15 team in the country, and came out on the right end of one of the most thrilling comebacks in Territorial Cup history.
“I’m thankful for these guys entrusting me to be their head coach, and following my lead,” Herm Edwards said post-game. “These guys, Manny (Wilkins) and the seniors, I told them I can’t thank them enough for setting the foundation of what we’re trying to do and what we’re trying to accomplish going forward.”
Playing against a two-loss team, shorthanded on both sides of the ball with junior wide receiver N’Keal Harry sitting out to prep for the NFL Draft and freshman All-American linebacker Merlin Robertson attending to a family emergency, the Sun Devils showed the same resiliency they had all year long.
The game was close throughout, with the teams being tied at 17 going into halftime and starting the fourth quarter with the Sun Devils trailing by just four, but the day belonged to Bulldog running back Ronnie Rivers.
Rivers rushed for 212 yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns, outgaining ASU’s entire rushing attack by himself. The dagger came via his second score with 5:19 to play, putting FSU up 31-20.
Against good football teams each and every chance to score has to be taken at a premium, and the Sun Devils did not capitalize on the chances the Bulldogs gave them, coming away with three total points off three Bulldog turnovers.
“We lost to a good football team,” Edwards said. “We knew these guys were a good football team, we had some opportunities and they didn’t allow us to take advantage of those opportunities. There’s a reason these guys have won twelve games.”
In a year where they were expected to finish last in the Pac-12 South by members of the media, Arizona State turned a lot of heads and put the rest of the conference on notice that something special could be brewing in Tempe in the seasons ahead.
“You just see it in guys’ eyes on the field… there’s a want to play for (Edwards),” quarterback Manny Wilkins said post-game. “When you have a group of guys that want to play for their head coach, the sky’s the limit.”
