It just couldn’t end without one more devastating punch to the gut.

The ASU football team, at the tail end of a miserable season, gave fans a flicker of hope.

Despite all the things that had gone wrong in the 2009 campaign — and there is not near enough room here to list them all — it seemed the Maroon and Gold faithful would at least have a chance to celebrate a win over that team from Tucson. It wouldn’t have changed much of the big picture. A win would have meant a second straight 5-7 season, and cries for change would still be heard reverberating across Sun Devil Nation.

But had ASU completed the comeback, had the team upset the vaunted rivals in front of a raucous home crowd, those cries would have been muffled. The winter would have been far less cold than the icy stretch fans are in for now.

So many times this season, the Sun Devils were in games against quality opponents with a chance to turn things around. But each time, they just didn’t have enough.

It was a cruel twist of fate that doomed ASU on Saturday. Senior Kyle Williams did everything he could to bring his team back. It was clear the wide receiver out of nearby Chaparral High School was leaving everything he had left on Frank Kush Field, and he nearly walked off that hallowed ground as an instant hero.

But sadly for Williams, few will remember his nine catches, two of them for touchdowns. Some will forget the acrobatic fourth-down catch he made in the back of the end zone to tie the game. And his 50-plus-yard punt return to set up an ASU score will fade away into the distant recesses of Territorial Cup history.

What will be remembered is the mistake. At the end of the heated affair, Williams, trying to make one more big play, misjudged the flight of a punt as it made its way to the ground. UA recovered.

It will likely take ASU fans a long time to do the same.

It isn’t fair to Williams, who was a team leader in every sense of the word.

Perhaps now, fans can rest on some Gotham City theology.

As Harvey Dent assures in “The Dark Knight,” is the night truly darkest just before the dawn?

There is reason to think the sun will soon rise again for a program the University desperately needs to have succeed. Message boards are fluttering with long-time season ticket holders who say they will not be renewing tickets. This comes after a home schedule in 2009 that featured truckloads of unoccupied seats.

Dennis Erickson knows that nothing less than a high finish in the Pac-10 and an appearance in a meaningful bowl game will be acceptable in 2010.

He will return most of a staunch defense, already one of the nation’s best, and a quarterback with at least some experience will start the season.

But will it be enough for Erickson to move the clouds of disappointment away from the Valley of the Sun? His legacy in Tempe hinges on the answer.