The Pulse: ASU’s season would have been ‘fine’ with win over Arizona
Dec 5, 2014, 2:12 AM | Updated: 2:12 am
Every day, ArizonaSports.com asks readers a question. It’s the Sanderson Ford Poll Question of the Day, and it can be found midway down the right side of our home page.
On Wednesday, Dec. 3, we asked readers how they felt about Arizona State football’s 2014 season, which is all but over, save for a bowl game.
ASU won its first three games before being beaten badly at home by UCLA. Todd Graham’s group seemed to recover from that setback, winning five straight games before being upset on the road by Oregon State.
The Sun Devils turned around and took care of business at home against Washington State, but they were not able to steal one in Tucson last Friday against the University of Arizona.
Considering how the Devils’ season played out, a good portion of readers chose the option “Would feel fine if they had beaten Arizona” in our poll. Thirty-four percent (275 overall) of the 807 voters clicked this response.
A win at Arizona Stadium would have given ASU a 10-2 record and, as we later found out, a trip to the Pac-12 Championship game.
The second-most popular answer in the poll with 28 percent of the vote was “OK, finished about where they should have.” To those voters, perhaps a 9-3 record is better than a poke in the eye, especially considering the youth on the program’s defense.
Twenty percent of respondents said the season was bad and that ASU should have won more games. In last place by a slight margin was “Great, team exceeded expectations,” which was chosen by 18 percent of all voters.
One thing’s for sure: Not only would a victory over the Wildcats have given ASU fans some bragging rights over their in-state rivals, but it would have made the season brighter as a whole.
Instead, the Sun Devils enter their bowl game, wherever that may be, having lost two of their last three games. Nonetheless, they still have a chance to claim a 10th victory for the second season in a row.
