Brent Brennan: Arizona not focused on playing spoiler to ASU’s Big 12 chase

The script is flipped from the preseason expectations.

The Arizona Wildcats (4-7), picked by a trio of media members to win the Big 12 in its first year as a conference member, have nothing to play for entering the Territorial Cup.

The Arizona State Sun Devils (9-2), chosen as the last-place team in the preseason poll, are now the betting favorites to win the conference.

They clash in Tucson on Saturday with ASU needing a win to give itself near-perfect odds to make the conference championship game.

Are the Wildcats taking the low-hanging motivational fruit of playing spoiler?

“Not really,” Arizona head coach Brent Brennan told reporters Monday. “I think it’s more about the fact that we’re playing ASU and what this game means to everybody here.”

Brennan understands the rivalry nearly as well as his ASU counterpart, Kenny Dillingham. While Dillingham grew up in the Valley and lived it before latching on at ASU for his first college coaching job, Brennan watched his brother play for the Wildcats. He married a Wildcat. Getting started as a coach, he joined the staff in 2000 under Dick Tomey as a graduate assistant. It was Brennan’s third college stop over three seasons.

“The mindset is this is the biggest game of the year, every year, and that doesn’t change,” Brennan said. “For us, whether we’re bowl eligible or not, all that matters is we’re playing the team from up north. … We’re all-in on right now and this week and what we needed to get done to play good football on Saturday, to get it done.”

It’s not too dissimilar to Dillingham’s approach last season, his first year on the job and with his Sun Devils also facing the end of their season with a 3-8 record.

“I told our guys there’s two seasons when you play at ASU: There’s the first 11 games and that’s one season and then there’s the ‘Team Down South’ week, and that’s an entirely another season,” Dillingham said before last year’s meeting, a 59-23 loss for the Sun Devils. “You only play 11 regular season games and then you play one other entire season. It takes seven days to play it.”

Arizona doesn’t have the juice of embarrassment on its side like it did entering the 2023 version of the Territorial Cup, either.

Brennan’s predecessor, Jedd Fisch, could simply flash a picture to get the point across.

“I just showed them the billboard,” Fisch said, referencing a “No Pity for the Kitty” billboard that ran along I-10 and referenced a 70-7 score from the teams’ 2020 meeting.

What Brennan must fight that Fisch didn’t is his team feeling sorry for itself. Entering the season with expectations and at least three NFL-caliber players, the Wildcats have fallen flat at multiple points. They showed life two weeks ago with a 27-3 home win against Houston that ended a five-game skid but are coming off a 49-28 loss to TCU.

Brennan said he’s not had any discussions with any player — including likely first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan — who have considered sitting out to preserve their health. Offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea and cornerback Tacario Davis are considered likely draft picks as well.

In a disappointing season for Arizona, it seems the one game left with no bowl eligibility possible means the Wildcats can enter a rivalry game in black and white terms. Do they want to beat maroon and gold or not?

“When things don’t go their way, like, everybody has to make a choice,” Brennan said. “I think us as coaches … one of our No. 1 priorities is to teach how to handle adversity and learn how to get up when you get knocked down.

“I think that part of it is, yeah, we’re not where we want to be right now, but we have an opportunity in front of us that is incredible and special in every way. So what are you going to do when you have that opportunity in front of you? How are you going to attack the work that’s required to play good football on Saturday?”

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