You didn’t have to drive up Interstate 10 to see an image of the billboard earlier this week.
You know the signage we’re referring to. It’s maroon and gold. It reads: “NO PITY FOR THE KITTY” in all caps. The score of the 2020 Territorial Cup — 70-7 — appears on either side.
Arizona State University did not pay for the billboard, as far as we know. ASU fans did. But that doesn’t matter. It’s a shot across the bow of the Arizona Wildcats, on display for anyone making the commute from Tucson to Tempe.
ASU fans put up a billboard along Interstate 10 reminding fans driving from Tucson of last year's score.
While UA players refused to talk about that debacle of a game whenever asked about it during the offseason, they didn’t have to look far to be reminded of it when they showed up for work this week. The billboard was displayed on the video monitors inside the weight room at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility. Along with a two-word rebuttal: “NEVER AGAIN.”
Bear in mind, the man in charge of the messaging wasn’t here last time. This Territorial Cup will be Jedd Fisch’s first. Last year’s result, the culmination of a three-year slide, resulted in Kevin Sumlin’s firing. Twelve days later, Fisch officially became Arizona’s coach.
Fisch had no prior connection to the football program. But — and you might have heard this before — he takes what happened last year personally.
And that big sign along I-10 near Casa Grande? Call it billboard material.
“I haven’t seen anything like that before,” Fisch said amid preparations for Saturday’s game at Sun Devil Stadium. “But hey, it is what it is. We understand what the game looked like last year. We had a lot of players on our team that were part of that game. They recognize it too. It’s a bitter taste in everybody’s mouth. We understand that we have to do everything we can to get rid of that taste.”
UA planting seeds
Fisch has spent a little over half of his coaching career in the NFL. He knows all about rivalries, though, having attended Florida and having coached at Michigan and UCLA.
Unless you’re playing on Thanksgiving, this weekend is no different than any other for NFL teams. It’s a little past the midpoint of the season. It’s the tail end of the dog days.
In college, it’s the pinnacle — the game that can define a season or an entire coaching tenure.
“This weekend is like a dream come true,” Fisch said. “In the NFL, when you coach Thanksgiving weekend, you’re coaching in Week 11 of a 17-game season. In college football ... you’re coaching in the best and the greatest games you could possibly compete in.”
Last year’s Territorial Cup wasn’t that. For Arizona, it was a complete nightmare.
Many of the participants in that game are still here. According to the official gamebook, 39 current Wildcats participated in the 2020 matchup.
But many significant contributors to this year’s squad didn’t or have new roles.
“We are a different team,” Fisch said.
In his prep work for the game, Pac-12 Networks analyst Yogi Roth asked a handful of Wildcats what would happen if the 2021 Arizona team played the ’20 version.
“They said it’s night and day,” Roth said. “We win by three or four touchdowns.”
This year’s actual results, at least on the surface, do not reflect the progress the Wildcats have made under Fisch. They enter Saturday with a 1-10 record and the worst point differential (minus-148) in the Pac-12.
But Fisch would point to recent results as a sign of change. Aside from the Washington State game — which Arizona almost immediately flushed from its system — the past four contests have been decided by fewer than 10 points. They include a narrow loss to Pac-12 South champion Utah and a win over Cal that ended the UA’s 20-game losing streak.
“We’re planting a lot of seeds,” Fisch said.
The Wildcats have ample room for growth. Have the Sun Devils plateaued?
After having high expectations at the start of the 2021 season, Herm Edwards and Arizona State face an uncertain future.
ASU’s uncertain future
Arizona State is bowl eligible for the third time in as many full seasons under Herm Edwards. Arizona fans would take that, no questions asked.
But it’s hard to make the case that ASU is trending upward as a program — or that things are much different than they were under Edwards’ predecessor, Todd Graham.
Edwards enters Saturday with a .585 winning percentage. Graham’s was .590. He led the Sun Devils to five bowl berths in six seasons.
This season had the makings of a breakthrough. ASU had a roster full of experienced upperclassmen, including a quarterback entering his third year as the starter. The Sun Devils were ranked 25th in the preseason Associated Press poll.
They haven’t been bad. But they haven’t been great either. As Edwards put it: “There’s been some ‘wow.’ And there’s been some ‘really?’”
A midseason slump — a disastrous six-quarter stretch against Utah and Washington State — effectively knocked ASU out of the South race. It wouldn’t be unfair to say the Sun Devils have fallen short of expectations.
“If we can win (Saturday), we get eight wins,” Edwards said. “Compare it to everyone else in the conference, what does it look like? That’s what this Pac-12 is about. I said it when I first was involved in it.”
A win Saturday and another in a bowl game would give the Sun Devils a 9-4 mark, which would be their best under Edwards. One could point to full-season records of 7-6, 8-5 and 9-4 and refute the notion that the program isn’t ascending.
But ... there’s a huge “but.” ASU is under NCAA investigation after allegations that Edwards and his staff hosted recruits during the pandemic last year, among other charges. Three ASU coaches have been placed on administrative leave. Speculation has been persistent that Edwards could step down or be fired.
Although ASU’s program seems to be in a much better place than Arizona’s at the moment, the future is uncertain.
The past can’t be changed. But it can be channeled.
“They wanted to go with a billboard with the way it went last year. I understand it,” Fisch said. “We’re gonna do everything we can to prevent that from happening. Every opportunity that we have to play that team up north, they’ll get our best shot. It’s a one-game season.”
