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A once-promising season for Arizona State has taken a downward spiral.
The Sun Devils have lost three straight, four of five, the latest and arguably most disheartening of those to struggling rival Arizona at home last weekend.
And look where it's gotten them: In position to win the Pac-12 South.
OK, so maybe not prime position. Arizona State has to beat California Friday night and get some help, but there's still a chance, which is all the Sun Devils can ask for after a month of struggles.
''It's definitely a little surprising,'' Sun Devils quarterback Brock Osweiler said. ''To be honest, I definitely did not see us sitting in the position that we are in right now, but that's just life for you. Sometimes, things don't go the way you had planned them to and life throws you a curveball.''
Arizona State's improbable quest has been made possible by the jumbled Pac-12 South.
No. 10 Southern California has a firm lead in the division at 6-2 headed into the final weekend. Problem for the Trojans is that they're in the second season of NCAA sanctions and ineligible for the Pac-12 championship game on Dec. 2.
UCLA is a game behind at 5-3, but closes out the season against USC, which is coming off a 38-35 win over No. 4 Oregon.
Arizona State and Utah are right behind the Bruins at 4-4 each, leaving an array of possibilities in the South.
UCLA wins over USC, the race is over. The Bruins head to the title game, against Oregon or Stanford.
Arizona State can win the title if it beat Cal, the Bruins lose and Utah beats Colorado, since the Sun Devils would hold the tiebreaker in a three-way tie.
Should Arizona State win, UCLA lose and Colorado beat the Utes, the Bruins would get the crown thanks to their win over the Sun Devils on Nov. 5.
Yeah, it's a longshot, but as Lloyd Christmas said in Dumb and Dumber: ''So you're saying there's a chance...''
''At least if we win, we have a chance,'' Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson said.
It doesn't figure to be easy against Cal.
The Bears, at 6-5 overall, are already bowl eligible and need a win to get a better bowl slot. Cal also decimated Arizona State in their last meeting, rolling to a 50-17 win in Berkeley.
But the Bears, like the Sun Devils, are coming off a disappointing loss to their biggest rival, a soggy 31-28 setback to No. 8 Stanford in the Big Game.
Crush Arizona State's hopes? Cal is more interested in improving its standing.
''It's the last game in our conference and for us to finish strong and improve maybe on where we're going,'' Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. ''The motivation isn't to hold them from something. It's to do the things that we set out to do.''
To do it, both teams will have to shake off disheartening losses to their biggest rivals.
Arizona State allowed Arizona to score the first two touchdowns, answered with three straight of its own, then had its rally come up short when Osweiler's final two passes in the Wildcats' end of the field fell short for a 31-27 loss.
''That was the most difficult loss since I've been here, without question,'' said Erickson, in his sixth season in Tempe.
Cal appeared to have the Cardinal on its heels in the 114th version of the Big Game, with quarterback Zach Maynard outplaying Andrew Luck, Stanford's Heisman Trophy candidate, at times on his way to 280 yards passing with two touchdowns.
The Bears struggled offensively in the second half, though, and a comeback came up short in the loss.
''It was a hard-fought game and obviously it didn't come out the way we wanted it to,'' Cal () Ernest Owusu. ''Any kind of loss hurts but the Big Game hurts a lot more because we really want that axe back. But with any loss, you have to have a short-term memory and brush it off.''
