Greg Hansen: 'Mr. Football' on sellout streaks, ASU's star — and Saturday's prediction

Dear Mr. Football: What’s the greatest statistic in the Territorial Cup?

A: For 50 consecutive seasons, 1951-2000, the game was sold out, or close enough not to quibble. And then in 2001 the Sun Devils drew just 55,831 – about 16,000 empty seats in Tempe. For the last 17 years, six games were scarred by large pockets of empty seats.

Nor will Territorial Cup 2018 be a sellout. This week the UA advertised a “Black Friday’’ sale with $10 off per ticket. The Sun Devils announced that many of its allotment of tickets were available online. That was unthinkable for a half-century.

The reality of college football in this state and many others is that college football is no longer a must-see (in person) event

This season, Arizona (44,374 average) and ASU (48,515) have had the smallest combined attendance (46,443 average) since the schools joined the Pac-10 in 1978.

As recently as 2008, ASU and Arizona combined to average 58,117 fans. No wonder ASU cut the capacity of Sun Devil Stadium from 72,000 to 55,000. No wonder Arizona is in the planning stages of a west-side makeover in which capacity of Arizona Stadium is likely to shrink to as little as 48,000.

Dear Mr.Football: Will Rich Rodriguez and Todd 'Sparky' Graham be sitting in the cheap seats?

A: RichRod and Sparky were paid a combined $18 million not to coach at Arizona and ASU this season. How’s it working out? The schools are 11-11. During the six years of RichRod/Sparky, their teams were a total 55-53 in conference. So, not much difference yet.

RichRod was recently seen in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, visiting the Crimson Tide’s football plant. Graham traveled to New England to spend time with coach Bill Belichick early this season.

I’m guessing they flew first class.

Given their nettlesome personalities, it’s more likely RichRod and Graham would re-enter the coaching profession at a modest opening like mid-major Bowling Green than at more coveted positions at Maryland or Colorado.

Dear Mr. Football: Was ASU linebackers coach Antonio Pierce one of the greats in UA history?

A: Pierce started 17 consecutive games in 1999 and 2000, and was part of the 2000 All-Pac-10 team (honorable mention). His name is in the Ring of Honor because he played 10 seasons in the NFL.

Is he a football traitor? Hardly. It reflects on his alma mater that it wasn’t sharp enough to hire Pierce, who is also ASU’s recruiting coordinator, and a personality any team can use to success.

Pierce may someday fit on my list of the five most notable "flippers" in the history of the UA-ASU rivalry, not including former UA head football coach Mike Casteel, who later spent 23 years as CEO of ASU’s sports booster organization:

1. Mike Candrea, Arizona’s Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal softball coach is an ASU alumnus.
2. Paula Noel, perhaps the greatest softball player in ASU history – MVP of the 1972 national championship playoffs and part of ASU’s first-ever sports Hall of Fame class – became Arizona’s softball coach from 1981-85.
3. Bill Lenoir, the most honored tennis player in UA history, a three-time 1960s All-American, became ASU’s head tennis coach in the 1970s.
4. Greg Byrne, who became Arizona’s athletic director from 2010-17, graduated from ASU.
5. Ed Doherty, ASU’s head football coach from 1947-50, became Arizona’s head coach in 1957-58.

Dear Mr. Football: Is Arizona’s Shawn Poindexter as good as ASU receiver N’Keal Harry?

A: Poindexter’s last six receptions have been touchdowns. That’s quite a jump for a guy who initially enrolled at Cal Baptist to play volleyball, dropped out of school, worked as an electrician, then at a Cinnabon bakery and at Valle Luna Mexican restaurant in Phoenix. He returned to football in 2015, enrolling at Glendale Community College.

In the 2015 WSFL season at GCC, Poindexter was fifth in the league in receiving with 47 catches. He agreed to play at small-school Marshall, until Arizona flipped him a day before letters-of-intent were due.

Few could’ve predicted his successful production as an Arizona senior. The three leading WSFL receivers in 2015, Sedarius Young of New Mexico Military Institute, who played at Nebraska-Kearney, Landell Lee of Phoenix College, who went to Tennessee-Martin, and Snow College’s Jonah Trinnaman, who went to BYU, had modest success.

The only WSFL receiver of 2015 to compare to Poindexter is Pima College’s Timmy Hernandez, who has caught 102 passes for 1,172 yards at Oregon State, including two touchdowns against Arizona.

Dear Mr. Football: How good is Harry?

A: On paper, he’s the highest-rated recruit in ASU history, a 5-star signee from Chandler High School who visited Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M two weeks before he agreed to become a Sun Devil receiver.

Harry ranks favorably with ASU’s Hall of Fame defensive back Michael Haynes, who, it could be argued, would’ve been a five-star recruit had such recruiting rankings been created in the 1970s.

Haynes was a 25 ½-foot long jumper who was signed by ASU’s Frank Kush in 1971 out of Marshall High School in Los Angeles. He became a consensus All-American and nine-time NFL Pro Bowler. He got away from USC and UCLA because Marshall High went 0-7-1 when he was a senior. Few recruiters paid much attention to Haynes.

Kush initially planned to play Haynes both ways. “As a receiver, he’s so good that he’d be worth at least two touchdowns a game,’’ Kush said in 1972. That’s an apt description of N’Keal Harry today.

Dear Mr. Football: How would you describe ASU coach Herm Edwards?

A: Watch Patriots coach Bill Belichick or Alabama’s Nick Saban at a press conference.

Edwards is the opposite. He’s a connector. He’s your friend. You know he’d stop and help you change a flat tire if he saw you marooned on the side of the street.

He would tell you his life story while he’s tightening the lug nuts.

A few weeks ago, Edwards’ 88-year-old high school coach and mentor, Dan Albert, a coaching legend of California’s Monterey High School Toreadores, visited Edwards in Tempe. Albert said he watches every ASU game. Edwards last played for him in 1971.

I’m not saying Kevin Sumlin wouldn’t stop to help you change your tire, but you would have to initiate the chatter.

Sumlin did not have a Dan Albert in his life; Sumlin’s high school football coach, Kevin Roth of Indianapolis’ Brebeuf Prep School, was a 27-year-old coach in his first year when Sumlin was a 1980 senior on a 5-5 team.

Edwards comes off as more of a mentor to Sumlin than a coaching adversary. He visited him at Texas A&M, sent him a hand-written congratulatory note when Sumlin was hired at Arizona, and this week said "he’s a good football coach."

The last time an Arizona/ASU football coach said nice things about his rival coach – and truly meant it – was probably when two gentlemen, Dick Tomey and Larry Marmie, were coaching in the Territorial Cup from 1988-91.

In 1991, when ASU ended “The Streak,’’ an 8-0-1 run by Arizona from 1982-90, Tomey said “the best team won tonight.:"

The better team in 2018?

Arizona 34, ASU 31.