Senior safety Alden Darby battles with a member of the Oregon State team for the ball in Sun Devil Stadium. If the ASU football team wins against UCLA in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday, it will go on to play in the Pac-12 Championship game. (Photo by Arianna Grainey)Saturday’s tilt between No. 17 ASU football and No. 14 UCLA is the closest you can get to a Pac-12 South Championship game.
The Sun Devils (8-2, 6-1 Pac-12) head into Pasadena, Calif., with a one-game advantage over the Bruins (8-2, 5-2 Pac-12) in the division standings. If ASU wins, it clinches the Pac-12 South and punches a ticket to the Pac-12 Championship game. If UCLA wins, the Bruins own the tiebreaker over the Sun Devils and would have to hold it against No. 23 USC for one more week.
ASU is just one game away from accomplishing its season goal of winning the Pac-12 South with UCLA standing in its way — the same way it has been for the past two seasons.
“If you want to win the South, you have to beat the team that won it,” ASU coach Todd Graham said. “They’ve won it the past two years in a row. Our guys know that. They know you’re going to have to play your very, very best game to go into the Rose Bowl and get a win against the Pac-12 champions.”
In 2011, the Sun Devils fell to the Bruins at the Rose Bowl 29-28 on the heels of redshirt junior kicker Alex Garoutte’s three missed field goals, including a last-second attempt with the game on the line. In 2012, UCLA sophomore kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn hit a last-second 33-yard field goal to give the Bruins a 45-43 win over ASU in Tempe. UCLA won the Pac-12 South in 2011 with a two-game lead over ASU and with a one-game edge in 2012.
As a team, UCLA is third in the Pac-12 in scoring offense behind ASU, averaging 37 points per game. Defensively, the Bruins hold their opponents to 23.7 points per game, which is 0.7 less than what the Sun Devils allow.
Other than in rushing offense and pass efficiency, ASU leads UCLA in just about every major statistical category. The Sun Devils are the least penalized team in the Pac-12 and have committed just 37 penalties, while UCLA has been flagged 88 times, the second-most in the Pac-12.
UCLA redshirt sophomore Brett Hundley leads the way for the Bruins’ spread offense as a dual-threat passer. The Chandler High School product’s 67.8 completion percentage is the highest in the Pac-12 and his 50.2 rushing yards per game average is the second highest of all quarterbacks in the conference.
Graham praised Hundley for his ability to keep the ball and run and said he helps spread UCLA’s offense vertically. Graham said Hundley will be the best quarterback ASU has faced all season.
“The key for us is not give up cheap ones, and we got to not let him get comfortable,” Graham said. “There’s a lot of factors that go into that. Our game plan is always designed around their best players and stopping them, so with their offense, you have to start with him."
The Sun Devils also have to deal with UCLA freshman linebacker Myles Jack, the newest college football sensation who has gained attention for doubling as an effective running back. In the past two games, Jack recorded 179 rushing yards and five touchdowns as well as recording 13 tackles on the other side of the ball.
“I haven’t, in a while, seen a freshman play like he’s played,” Graham said. “Tremendous athleticism on both sides of the football. Very impressive runner as a tailback.”
Meanwhile, the Sun Devils aren’t fazed by the hype surrounding Jack. Senior safety Alden Darby is confident in the defense, which gives up the second-lowest yards per game in the Pac-12.
“We just got to welcome him to Division I football,” Darby said. “He’s a good player. I knew (out of high school that) he’s a good guy with good character, but we got to go out there and do what we do best.”
On offense, the Sun Devils see that the Bruins’ defenders often gamble, so senior tight end Chris Coyle said ASU is planning to take advantage of that.
“They have a lot of athletes,” Coyle said. “We have to attack. They like to play instinctively. Sometimes they’ll make a play, sometimes spin out of a block the wrong way. Blocking downfield, we have to redirect and let the running back see where the holes are opening up and just have to trust it.”
This game means a lot for ASU’s veterans like Darby, who still thinks about giving up a crucial back-shoulder fade on a third down that helped UCLA score its final touchdown in 2011. He said he watched the play again this week to remind himself how badly he wants to win this year.
After two years of falling short, the Sun Devils are ready to erase their bad memories and knock off the team that’s been standing in the way of their goal.
“It’s like a little grudge,” Darby said. “It’s time to get back at them. … I just want to go out my senior year as Pac-12 South champions knowing that we’re going for the Pac-12 Championship. That’s how I want my senior year to go. I know me and my team are going to give all we got and go out there and leave it on the field."
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Josh_Nacion
