Check out more photos from Saturday's game against U of A in this slideshow. OR Were you in the student section for the game? See if The State Press caught you cheering on the Sun Devils in this slideshow.
Typically, teams barely over .500 that are riding three-game losing streaks don’t have much to play for in their regular season finales.Then there’s the yearlong anomaly of ASU football.
The Sun Devils (6-5, 4-4 Pac-12) host California on Friday night still with the chance to right their ship and accomplish what was once thought to be an afterthought – winning the Pac-12 south.
“We have to win, that’s it,” senior wide receiver Gerell Robinson said. “I know we have a good group of brothers and we’ll do what we have to do. Everybody needs to understand it’s all in the past.”
For ASU to clinch the division and play next week for the Pac-12 championship, the Sun Devils need to defeat the Golden Bears (6-5, 3-5 Pac-12), UCLA to lose and Utah to win.
“We almost have nine lives,” redshirt senior linebacker Colin Parker said. “We know we’re very fortunate to have the opportunity and our goals to still be attainable.”
Adding to the magnitude of the game is what it will mean for the ASU athletes playing their final time at home in Sun Devil Stadium.
“We have 22 seniors that have been here for a long period of time,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “They put a lot of blood and sweat and tears and it’s their last time out. To me, that’s really the number one thing.”
Senior night is always emotional, with friends in the stands and family on the field prior to kickoff, but with such a big class, the stakes are even higher.
“It’s difficult to wrap my mind around it,” Parker said. “I don’t want my career here to end but it had to come at some point. We need to get this win to make me happy though.”
To do so would mean avenging a blowout loss to Cal from last season in Berkeley, 50-17.
“As a competitor you never want to lose in the fashion we did; it was embarrassing,” junior quarterback Brock Osweiler said. “We do have a lot of motivation in turning that loss around and making things right.”
The Golden Bears offer a stiff challenge, too. Their defense is ranked first in the conference, only allowing 326 yards per game. The Sun Devils rank ninth in the same category, giving up 413.
“You look at them defensively and they’re extremely physical in their front seven,” Erickson said. “They’ve had great recruiting classes the last two or three years. They can dominate.”
Cal’s offense isn’t as potent as ASU faced in UA, but it’s averaged over 25 points per game the last three weeks. The Sun Devil defense, which allowed more than 1,000 yards in their last two games, now has a chance to find its form again against junior Zach Maynard, who has thrown 11 interceptions this season.
“They’re a team I’m sure that is pretty disappointed with where they’re at also,” Erickson said. “We need to do the things that we need to at the end of games, closing out, to win this football game against Cal, but we’ll be ready to go."
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
