(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
After pulling off arguably the best win in the Herm Edwards’ era last weekend against then No. 6 Oregon on national television, the Arizona State Sun Devils (6-5, 3-5 Pac-12) are back this Saturday night to conclude the regular season against rival Arizona (4-7, 2-6 Pac-12) in the 93rd Territorial Cup.
Last year’s Territorial Cup was one to remember for the Sun Devils. After being down 40-21 at the end of third quarter, the Devils scored 20 fourth quarter points to take the lead in the final minutes. Arizona’s kicker Josh Pollack could have won the game if he converted a 45-yard field goal as time expired but his kick missed wide right, sealing the win for ASU.
Despite being favored to win by about 12.5 points, ASU head coach Herm Edwards is expecting another close game similar to last year.
“I anticipate it being a close game and a hard-fought game,” Edwards said in his weekly Monday press conference. “It’ll go down to the fourth quarter so we better be prepared to play for four quarters.”
Senior quarterback Khalil Tate and Arizona are enduring a rough season, currently riding a six-game losing streak. Tate’s numbers are down this year and the Wildcats failed to clinch bowl eligibility for the second season in a row. The Devils are making sure to stay focused against an Arizona team that has nothing to lose.
“I just told the team to get ready for anything,” senior cornerback Kobe Williams said. “You never know. They can do anything they want. They’re going to come out play and give it their all. It’s a rivalry game plus their last game of the season for their seniors. We got to come out and match their energy from the jump.”
Tate, who came into this season with high-expectations because of a strong 2018 and his dynamic dual-threat skillset, is now sharing quarterback duties with freshman Grant Gunnell. Gunnell, a 6-foot-6 quarterback from The Woodlands, Texas, has played in seven games and has completed 101 of 155 passes (65.2 percent) for 1,239 yards, nine touchdowns, and one interception. Meanwhile, Tate has thrown for 1,726 yards, 12 touchdowns, but eight picks.
Fortunately for the Sun Devils’ defense, it has been preparing to play against this quarterback pair by practicing against its own pair of talented freshmen backups, Joey Yellen and Ethan Long.
“[Arizona’s quarterbacks] are so dynamically different,” ASU defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said. “They run different plays with the different quarterbacks in there. You’re basically practicing two semigame-plans. With Ethan and Joey, we have an advantage. We have a guy who is similar to what Khalil [Tate] does and a guy who is similar to what [Grant] Gunnell does. Those guys have been able to identify who’s at quarterback and what plays they’re running and what plays they should be expecting. That’s been beneficial.”
Arizona’s defense is ranked dead last in the Pac-12 giving up an average of 36.8 points per game. However, its offense is ranked 7th in the Pac-12, averaging 28.1 points per game, which is better than ASU’s 10th-ranked offense (25.3 points per game).
“They present some problems,” Edwards said. “They really do. They’ve been on the bad sides of some games. It happens. You can see that they play hard and we anticipate that they are going to play hard against us. That’s the type of game it is. It doesn’t matter what your record is.”
Williams knows his teammates and young guys are likely to be chippy on Saturday night in front of national television once again. This isn’t his first Territorial Cup game and he’s been sharing his experience from last year to educate the young players on how to stay cool and composed.
“I’ve been just telling them to keep their poise,” Williams said. “From the warmups, they’re going to be jacked up. These guys love this rivalry down there and it’s real big to them. There’s going to be a lot of things going on and a lot of fans jacking around. It’s just a game we got to play and we got to worry about our responsibilities.”
Kickoff from Sun Devil Stadium is slated for 8:00 p.m MST. The game will be televised on ESPN.
