ESPN.com: Best win in Todd Graham’s ASU tenure is first over Arizona

Arizona State has won 28 games since Todd Graham took over before the 2012 season.

Among those 28 are a division-clinching road conquest over UCLA, a Jael Mary-led comeback at USC, a mostly-dominant home win over Notre Dame and a couple of Territorial Cup victories over rival Arizona.

If asked to choose, which would you say is the best?

That’s the question ESPN Pac-12 writer Chantel Jennings tried to answer, and in a piece giving the best win for each of the Pac-12 South’s coaches, she chose Graham’s first Territorial Cup victory over the Wildcats, a 41-34 win in Tucson.

It was the first meeting for Graham and Rodriguez in the Territorial Cup, the first opportunity to establish bragging rights for the following year. And guess who walked away with that and their biggest win? Graham. This was one of the harder picks to decide on because there have been a lot of good wins for ASU — Notre Dame last season (though the Fighting Irish were pretty beaten-up by then), the 2014 victory over No. 14 UCLA, the 2014 victories over No. 16 USC or No. 23 Stanford in back-to-back weeks. But winning this game in his first season in the manner in which ASU did put this above the rest. Because when you spend an entire offseason talking about beating Arizona and then put up 24 points in the fourth quarter of that game to come back to win, that’s one heck of a victory. “This is THE game, the most important things for us,” Graham told reporters after the game.

For sure, as far as wild games go, that one ranks pretty high on the list. There was plenty of energy surrounding the matchup, as each team was heading for bowl games under first-year head coaches.

The Wildcats struck first in the first quarter but the Devils carried a 14-9 lead into halftime. Arizona dominated the third quarter, and with just 15 minutes left were up 27-17.

But a couple of turnovers as well as a blocked punt led Arizona State’s charge, and when the dust settled, Graham had struck first in the renewed rivalry.

Now, was it the best win under Graham? That’s of course a matter of perspective, though we’re guessing there aren’t many Sun Devils who would like to give this one back.