Ray Anderson: ASU exceeded expectations, but ‘have right to be disappointed’

After coming eight points shy of winning the Pac-12 South for the second consecutive season, disappointment surrounds Arizona State football, naturally. Coach Todd Graham’s Sun Devils suffered a 42-35 loss to arch-rival Arizona over the weekend, ceding the division, a spot in the Pac-12 Championship and, perhaps, the potential of competing in the inaugural College Football Playoff come January.

Regardless, many surrounding the program believe 2014 was a success. No. 17 ASU (9-3, 6-3) once climbed as high as No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings, following an impressive showing against Notre Dame.

Count ASU athletic director Ray Anderson among the conflicted. Half-pleased, half-disappointed, Anderson clarified his feelings on the 2014 season while a guest of Bickley and Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Wednesday.

“I heard one person say, ‘You know, you probably took a 7-5 team at best and you end up at 9-3,'” he said. “That’s not a bad year by any stretch. So we shouldn’t be horribly disappointed.”

That part about ASU being a 7-5 team is, of course, up for debate. The Sun Devils, after all, had a spot in most preseason rankings, landing No. 19 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and Sports Illustrated’s preseason forecast. They’ll likely finish with a top 25 ranking no matter the result of their bowl showing.

“You want to be disappointed because our expectations should be higher,” Anderson went on. “But you can’t be unreasonably disappointed.”

Indeed, sprinkled throughout the season were three disappointing losses — a home blowout at the hands of UCLA, a road loss to a 5-7 Oregon State team and the aforementioned Territorial Cup defeat by coach Rich Rodriguez and the Wildcats.

“The fact is that, you know what — we’ve got one more game,” the athletic director reminded listeners. “We’re looking to get that 10th win wherever we end up in the bowl game and that would make it two back-to-back 10-win seasons I guess for the first time around here in a long time.”

Anderson guessed right. Not since the early 1970s has ASU managed back-to-back 10-win seasons.

Projections currently have the Sun Devils facing Iowa, Kansas State, Maryland, Boston College, Minnesota, Nebraska or Oklahoma in a bowl game. Their actual opponent, of course, will be largely dependent on the results of this weekend’s conference championships.