TEMPE, Ariz. – If you’re experiencing flashbacks this week, don’t worry. It’s not a product of your crazy college years. This temporal loop is real.
Oregon has brought Arizona State back to earth, defensive injuries are threatening to derail the Sun Devils and, gulp, this Saturday’s game against UCLA is being labeled the linchpin of the season.
Is this some kind of time-warped joke?
"This is a must win for us," said ASU coach Todd Graham, who could just as easily have been Dennis Erickson. "Our guys are focused on being champions, and we want to win the South. To do that, we've got to beat a really good UCLA team."
OK, maybe that "really good UCLA" part wasn’t true last November when the Sun Devils met the Bruins at the Rose Bowl. The 6-2 Sun Devils knew a win would all but lock up the Pac-12 South Division and a berth in the inaugural conference title game. UCLA was just hoping to achieve bowl eligibility after a rocky 4-4 start that included blowout losses to Texas and Arizona and a schedule that still promised games at USC and Oregon.
"I thought I might be out of the woods as a coach after that game," recalled former Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel, whose team beat ASU 29-28. "Unfortunately, other plans prevailed."
The same could be said of the Sun Devils. In a game that defined the 2011 season, ASU allowed UCLA to convert a third-and-29 on its game-winning drive, and ASU kicker Alex Garoutte missed all three of his field-goal attempts, including a short and sickly looking 46-yard attempt as time expired.
When that football fell heavily and harmlessly in the end zone, no one could have imagined the ripple effect that kick and that game would have on the season.
"They say the games to remember are played in November," Neuheisel said. "That was a big game for us because it made our guys believe that we were still in the hunt for the South.
"There’s no question that coaches feel momentum in a game as much as players. When all those field goals were missed and when we converted that third-and-29, you could definitely feel something special in the air."
UCLA did win the South, mostly on the strength of its 5-1 record at the Rose Bowl, but Oregon throttled the Bruins in the Pac-12 title game, UCLA became the first team ever to play in a bowl game with a losing record, and when the Bruins finished 6-8, Neuheisel was fired.
From ASU’s standpoint, the loss was the Jenga block that brought down its season, but the effects were more widespread. The Sun Devils lost five in a row, Erickson and his staff were fired, athletic director Lisa Love was fired, quarterback Brock Osweiler and linebacker Vontaze Burfict left a year early for the NFL draft, and the Todd Graham era began, following a momentary June Jones interlude.
"Looking back, you can say that was the beginning of the end for us," said Colin Parker, a senior linebacker for the team who is now on the Cardinals practice squad. "We really didn’t feel that way. Coming into Washington State the next week, we had the best week of practice we’d had all season. We still knew we were in the hunt, and it was up to us what we did with it, but for one reason or another, we just couldn’t get the wins."
The butterfly effects of a second straight loss to the Bruins wouldn’t be nearly as great if ASU should fall Saturday in the first afternoon game at Sun Devil Stadium this season. Graham has only begun to build a foundation, and youth abounds in this ASU lineup.
But when you look at the remaining schedule, with games at No. 7 (BCS) Oregon State, at No. 9 USC and at recharging Arizona, well, you get the picture. If the Devils don’t get this one, there exists the very real danger that they could turn in a third consecutive 6-6 regular season and bring this déjà vu full circle with another trip to the Las Vegas Bowl.
At least we can count on Graham enforcing a curfew this time around.
"I don’t think this game is critical for the same reasons as that UCLA games last year," said ASU radio analyst and former quarterback Jeff Van Raaphorst said. "But this game is still critical. This is a game where they’re fighting to try to stay atop the Pac-12 South, trying to get bowl eligible, trying to convince recruits and all of that."
ASU’s odds got a little longer when defensive tackle Will Sutton (knee) and end Junior Onyeali (shoulder) went down in a 43-21 Oregon win last Thursday. Onyeali isn’t expected to miss the UCLA game but could be limited. Sutton’s status is murkier. The team’s best lineman and perhaps its best player is officially listed as week to week, but it’s hard to envision him playing so soon after he spent most of the Oregon game on crutches.
That could be problematic since UCLA runs the ball so well. Once Sutton left, Van Raaphorst noted that Oregon kept running the ball between the tackles, taking advantage of his absence. The Bruins boast the nation’s ninth-ranked rusher in Johnathan Franklin (125.43 yards per game) and dual-threat quarterback Brett Hundley, a local product from Chandler High who has 240 yards on the ground and a 72-yard TD run this season.
"Both teams have to win this game if they expect to win the South," said Neuheisel, now the lead studio analyst for the Pac-12 Networks.
If it makes you feel any better, ASU has won the past two meetings between the teams at Sun Devil Stadium by 21 and 25 points. And get this, Neuheisel believes the Devils have an advantage in one very important area: The kicking game!
"I know Alex (Garoutte) has had some problems, but he’s been more reliable than (UCLA kicker Ka’imi) Fairbairn," Neuheisel said.
That’s debatable. Fairbairn has made 9 of 14 field goal attempts (64.3 percent) while making just 23 of 26 PATs. Garoutte has made just 6 of 11 field goals (54.5 percent) but has made all 32 PATs. Further muddling the picture, ASU's coaching staff announced Wednesday than walk-on Jon Mora would take over field-goal duties from Garoutte.
Not much to choose from there, so let’s agree on one thing: Both sides are hoping the fate of this game doesn’t rest on somebody’s foot.
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