The following is an excerpt from Shane Dale’s book, “Rich Rod vs. Graham: Six Years of America’s Most Intense Rivalry.” These chapters cover the lead-up to Arizona’s 2014 victory over ASU, a win that put the Wildcats in the Pac-12 Championship game. The book can be purchased at mascotbooks.com/richrodvsgraham
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In 1986, No. 14 Arizona upset No. 4 Arizona State 34–17 in Tucson, handing the Sun Devils their first and only loss of the season en route to ASU’s only Rose Bowl victory in program history.
ASU and UA fans would have to wait another 28 years until both teams were ranked in the top 25 when facing each other again.
In 2014, the Wildcats were No. 11 and the Sun Devils were No. 13 in the College Football Playoff rankings — the first year such rankings existed — ahead of the Duel in the Desert.
Both schools were 9–2 overall and 6–2 in the Pac-12. And incredibly, both teams had won games on last-second Hail Mary passes. On September 20, Arizona defeated visiting Cal on a 47-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Anu Solomon to senior wide receiver Austin Hill as time expired. Two weeks later, ASU won at USC on a 46-yard bomb to Jaelen Strong from junior quarterback Mike Bercovici, who was starting for an injured Taylor Kelly.
Heading into their matinee matchup at Arizona Stadium — the first Territorial Cup day game since 2009 — both teams’ fans were prepared to do some scoreboard watching. One hour before the Duel in the Desert was set to kick off, UCLA would begin its game against visiting Stanford. If the Bruins lost, the Territorial Cup game winner would win the Pac-12 South and face Oregon in the conference championship game the following week.
“It became the most important game not only on our schedule, but it became the most important in the Pac-12 South that year, so there was added importance to that,” said Rodriguez, whose Wildcats were coming off a 42–10 win at No. 20 Utah before facing ASU.
Arizona Wildcats head coach Rich Rodriguez makes his way through the Wildcat Walk before Arizona takes on Arizona State on Nov. 28, 2014, in that year’s Territorial Cup game at Arizona Stadium.
While ASU’s success wasn’t a surprise following its stellar 2013 campaign, UA’s prosperity was.
The Wildcats were picked to finish fourth in the six-team Pac-12 South in the 2014 preseason media poll.
Solomon, a dual-threat QB who led Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas to four state championships, wasn’t surprised at the Wildcats’ success — especially on offense, with a team that featured star freshman running back Nick Wilson and talented wide receivers such as Hill and sophomores Cayleb Jones and Samajie Grant.
“We knew what we were dealing with,” he said. “We had many talented players on the scout team tearing our first-team defense apart. Going into that year we were like, ‘All right, this year is going to be special.’”
The Wildcats grinded out a number of close victories that season. Less than two weeks after their Hail Mary win, they went to Eugene and pulled off a 31–24 upset over No. 2 Oregon on a nationally televised Thursday night matchup. They came into the Territorial Cup game winners of four straight, including a one-point home win over Washington on a last-second field goal.
The ability of the team to show toughness and resiliency throughout the season, living up to Rich Rod’s “Hard Edge” motto, led the team to adopt another slogan: “60 Minutes of Arizona.”
“That was our motto, and everyone believed it, from our coaching staff to the players. And once the fans started to believe it, I think we took Arizona to the next level,” Solomon said. “I didn’t think anyone was planning on us to win more than five games or six games. We just took it with a grain of salt and just proved everyone wrong.”
Beating ‘the school up north’In addition to having an 0–2 record in the Duel in the Desert, Rich Rodriguez had lost six straight rivalry games as head coach dating back to 2007.
Going into the final regular-season game of 2007, Rich Rod’s West Virginia Mountaineers were 10–1 and the nation’s No. 2 team, and seemingly on their way to playing for a national championship heading into their home matchup with a 4–7 Pitt team. But the Panthers, who were 28-point underdogs, upset the Mountaineers 13–9 in what was the 100th Backyard Brawl. It was also Rodriguez’s last game at WVU before he accepted the head coaching job at Michigan.
Rich Rod didn’t fare well in the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, either. His Wolverines lost all three matchups with the Buckeyes, by a combined score of 100–24.
Arizona State coach Todd Graham shouts instructions to his players during the first half of an NCAA college football game against New Mexico on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014, in Albuquerque, N.M. Arizona State defeated New Mexico 58-23. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
It might be inaccurate to say Rodriguez ever took the Territorial Cup rivalry, or any of those previous rivalry games, lightly. But if he didn’t completely grasp the importance of the Duel in the Desert at first, he got it after losing to ASU two years in a row.
“I just know those first couple years — it’s not like he tried to downplay it, but he didn’t want it to become bigger than the game itself,” Brian Jeffries said. “And then after a couple years, I could sense that the intensity had grown, at least in his mind—that he had understood what it meant to the fans and to the schools. Of course, losing will do that to you, I think. So, that kind of got him fired up a little more.”
Arizona enjoyed success against ASU in the 1980s thanks in part to the emphasis that Larry Smith and Dick Tomey, UA’s head coaches during that era, placed on the game. Tomey became famous for contending that the ASU game was a season within itself.
Jeffries said Rich Rod had come to embrace the rivalry the same way those coaches had.
“I just remember — and this is not a knock on Rich Rod at all — but Larry Smith and Dick Tomey had totally different approaches to that game,” he said. “That was the game of the season, and they made no doubt about it. They talked about it from the first day of camp. It was just totally different the way they approached it. To me, that always led to the success against ASU, was the coaches took it in a totally different light.
“If you go back to the Larry Smith and Dick Tomey era, they needed to make it more of a big deal, they needed to make that more of a one-game season, just because of where the program was at. By the time Rich got there, (the UA football program) had success that it didn’t have to be an end-all, be-all type of game. But then after Rich got beat a couple times, you saw the change.”
Rodriguez confirmed that losing his first pair of Territorial Cup contests had been weighing on his mind.
“I think when you lose, it bothers you. The intensity of the rivalry is increased because it’s bothering you so much that you lost,” he said.
Whether it was his 0–2 record vs. the Sun Devils or the add-ed importance of the 2014 game, Rodriguez made extra sure to emphasize the importance of beating the Sun Devils, both to his players and UA fans.
For starters, he began speaking the fans’ lingo.
The thing that he kind of coined — not that it was anything original — but he would never refer to ASU as ASU. It was always ‘the School Up North,’” Jeffries said. “And I think after a year or so, (fans) said, ‘Wait a minute now, he never mentions them by name.’ And I think the fans embraced that. I think that was his way of adding to the rivalry.”
Already known for being a taskmaster who expected nothing less than 100% at all times, Rodriguez came to expect even more from his players during rivalry week.
“Coach Rod would always say, ‘It’s ASU week. You’ve got to put a little more time in. Put a little bit more time in practice,’” said Jacob Alsadek, who was set to compete in his first Territorial Cup game after redshirting in 2013. “Everything was just taken a lot more serious. Little mistakes that you made in practice, now it’s kind of like a bigger deal.”
To his players, Rodriguez also instilled the idea that state pride was on the line.
“His big thing was, we want to be the (top) Arizona school. We want to own Arizona,” Scooby Wright said. “That was his big thing: Just own the state, and you do that every year you win (the Territorial Cup). That was kind of his philosophy.”