With a second consecutive losing season guaranteed, the ASU football team has one last chance to end the season on a positive note.

While the sting will still be there, a victory over rival UA on Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium would surely help dull the pain and frustration.

“We have to get the victory, that’s the bottom line,” ASU senior wide receiver Kyle Williams said. “We just have to salvage what was of our season and to go out on a high note as seniors, because it’s been a roller-coaster ride. There have been a lot of close games that we should’ve pulled out. It’d be bittersweet to end your career, but it’d be a way to end your career on a good note.”

Even with the team’s struggles this year, history is on ASU’s side.

The Sun Devils (4-7, 2-6 Pac-10) have owned the series this past decade, going 7-3 against the Wildcats in their past 10 matchups. Additionally, UA (6-4, 4-3 Pac-10) has not beaten the Sun Devils in Tempe since 2001 and hasn’t beaten ASU in consecutive years since 1997-1998.

ASU coach Dennis Erickson has been involved in a lot of rivalry games over his 21-year coaching career and has high praise for the rivalry.

“It’s as good as any I’ve ever been around,” Erickson said. “In a state where there are two schools like this, you’re either a Sun Devil or a Wildcat pretty much. When you play that game, it’s bragging rights for a year. That’s what it’s all about. People talk about them for 364 days, and then the game comes, and then they talk about it for another 364 days.”

ASU has 22 seniors, many of whom have seen significant action in all four years, that will be playing their last game as a Sun Devil.

Linebackers Travis Goethel and Mike Nixon, wide receivers Williams and Chris McGaha, offensive linemen Shawn Lauvao and Thomas Altieri, running back Dimitri Nance, and defensive end Dexter Davis have all made their mark on Sun Devil football through their accomplishments on the field.

“That’s what this is about this week—it’s about our seniors,” Erickson said. “Obviously, it’s U of A [and] a big game — the biggest game of the year for us every year —but it’s also about the seniors.”

Williams concurred about the game’s importance as a senior.

“A lot of us have spent a lot of time here, bled maroon and gold for this program,” he said. “We want to finish it off the right way, which we haven’t really in a sense because were not going to a bowl game. But there’s still a lot to play for in this game, playing against UA.”

ASU enters the game atop the Pac-10 in total defense (300.5 yards per game) and pass defense (192.7 yards per game) and second in rush defense (107.8 yards per game) and scoring defense (22.6 points per game).

If ASU is to have a chance, the defense must live up to it’s lofty rankings and challenge a UA offense that averages 31.5 points per game, led by sophomore quarterback and one-time ASU commit Nick Foles.

However, it’s not just the UA offense that concerns Erickson.

“Arizona is as good a football team as there is in this league,” Erickson said. “[If] you look at them, at all three phases of the game, they might be the best.”

ASU will also try to turn its fortunes on the offensive side of the ball, as the Sun Devils rank eighth or worse in the Pac-10 in every major offensive category.

“It’s time for us to step up,” Williams said of the offense. It’s never too late to get out there and show what you’re capable of and go out and get a win.”

UA ranks second in total defense behind ASU and has allowed the fewest first downs of any team in the Pac-10.

“They’re going to be good, but we’ve got come out and we’ve got to be on top of our game as it’s been the whole season,” Williams said. “Our defense is going to come and play, and it’s about time our offense did, because it’s been [a] lack of that the whole season.”

Reach the reporter at kyle.glaser@asu.edu.