ASU football head coach Todd Graham said his biggest defensive concern going into the 2014 season is finding a Will linebacker. ASU wraps up its 2014 season on Dec. 27 in the Sun Bowl against Duke. (Photo by Fabian Ardaya)When ASU plays Duke in the Sun Bowl on Saturday, both teams have a chance to “salvage” their seasons by winning double-digit games.
At 9-3, both teams squandered late chances to win their respective divisions after advancing to the conference championship last year. Each went 10-4 in 2013 with a loss in their respective conference title games and the bowl game.
For the Sun Devils, a Sun Bowl victory ensures they'll have back-to-back double-digit win seasons, which was last done 1970-73, when the team competed in the WAC.
But make no mistake. A 10th victory would mean a lot more to the Devils in North Carolina, given their historic bowl drought and longtime program futility. For Duke, a win would close out just the second 10-win season in program history, with the first being last season.
More significant: Duke hasn’t won a bowl game since the 1960 season (0-4 in bowls since). Only one other Power Five program doesn’t have a bowl victory this century (Indiana’s last was in 1991).
Additionally, a bowl win completes coach David Cutcliffe’s resurrection of the Duke program. Before 2008 when Cutcliffe took over, the Blue Devils went 22-125 (.150) in its last 13 seasons, going winless four times. During the same period, the school’s men’s basketball program averaged 28.6 wins per season.
For ASU, winning 10 games doesn’t salvage the season. A bowl win, though infrequent at ASU lately, is nothing compared to Duke’s historic drought. It also won’t take away the lasting memory of losing the Territorial Cup and the Pac-12 South championship to rival Arizona.
In that game, ASU benched its longtime starting quarterback, redshirt senior Taylor Kelly. Kelly has been announced as the starter for the Sun Bowl, though redshirt junior Mike Bercovici may play, but I’d be interested to see the starting quarterback decision if the game’s circumstances were different – like if it was the Pac-12 championship.
Entering the season, expectations were low for ASU. The defense lost nine starters. ASU was projected to win 7.5 games by Vegas. But even with the attrition, the Sun Devils exceeded expectations, were 8-1 and in position to represent the South in the Pac-12 championship game. The gaudy record came with a caveat – the team didn’t look great outside of beating Stanford and the first half against Notre Dame.
In the end ASU had a good season, though not a great one. Last year the team went to the Pac-12 championship game and this year they didn’t. Defeating unranked Duke won’t change that.
Even with the conference championship appearance, the end of the 2013 season was a letdown because of the finish. It’s hard to take a step back and look at a team’s accomplishments when there are still goals yet to be achieved.
In the college football playoff era, absent of a national championship, there’s always going to be a higher ceiling. Even for the teams that make the college football playoff, qualifying won’t be good enough. They’ll have to win once they’re in. Just wait until the first coach goes 0-2 in the college football playoff.
Reach the sports editor at jmjanss1@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @jjanssen11
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