More than bragging rights will be on the line for No. 20 Arizona State and coach Kenny Dillingham when the Sun Devils face No. 25 Arizona, an archrival, on Friday night in a Big 12 Conference game at Tempe.
Arizona State (8-3, 6-2) remains in the chase for a spot in the Big 12 championship game heading into the last weekend of the regular season, but the Sun Devils would have to beat Arizona (8-3, 5-3) and get help from other teams.
During his weekly press conference on Monday, Dillingham reflected more on what Friday’s game means as a rivalry between two winning teams this season rather than the Sun Devils’ remote hopes to play in the title game.
“This is a game that matters,” Dillingham said. “You know that your neighbor could have gone to either school. That’s what makes this rivalry fun is that people are friends with people on both sides of this rivalry, and that’s what makes it so big is the relationships that are within the rivalry, right?
“It’s awesome to have this game played with two really good football teams. I think that’s what you want. You want this game to matter. It’s awesome that it matters.”
Arizona State enters the game with three straight wins, with backup quarterback Jeff Sims leading the way following the season-ending foot injury suffered by Sam Leavitt. The Sun Devils are coming off a 42-17 victory over Colorado last week.
Arizona is on a four-game winning streak after losing two games in a row: in double overtime to BYU and by a field goal to Houston. The Wildcats’ latest win came Saturday against Baylor, 41-17.
“I think it’s one of the best rivalries in college football,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said of Territorial Cup matchup with Arizona State. “It’s such a unique thing just being in the state of Arizona; there’s so many kind of families divided by these two schools.
“I think it’s just a really, really special thing, and we’re excited to play. Rivalry games just have so much to them, that make them so fun and exciting. Then when you have two teams come together, they’re both playing good football, I think just have a little extra juice to them.”
Dillingham mentioned that Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita is “playing as well as any quarterback in the country.”
During the Wildcats’ winning streak, Fifita has played efficiently, throwing eight touchdown passes and only one interception. He is 64-for-106 (60.4%) for 848 yards in the last four games.
Overall this season, Fifita is 219-for-341 (64.2%) for 2,677 yards and 25 touchdowns, with five interceptions. Last season, when Arizona went 4-8, Fifita threw 18 TD passes and 12 picks.
For Arizona State, Sims — formerly of Georgia Tech and Nebraska — has proved to be a dual-threat quarterback more dangerous as a runner since permanently replacing Leavitt five weeks ago.
Sims has rushed for 423 yards on 83 carries with two touchdowns and has thrown for 772 yards while completing 67 of 125 attempts (53.6%) with seven touchdowns and two interceptions.
