Certainly one of a number of intriguing questions from the Massive 12’s offseason may need the beginnings of a solution.
What if Arizona is that this yr’s Arizona State?
What if the Wildcats are the group with no expectations and (supposedly) no hope that seems from nowhere and wins the convention?
It’s a couple of weeks too early for critical contemplation, in fact. However the Wildcats took a serious step ahead Friday evening after they overcame a collection of gaffes and held off Kansas State 23-17 to stay undefeated.
They might collapse and end the season nearer to the underside of the convention than they prime.
They might meander to a middle-tier place.
Additionally, there’s competitors within the race to provide the best upside shock. Houston has been spectacular so far. TCU is a chance. Similar with UCF.
The Massive 12 is so stocked with parity that anybody — nicely, nearly anybody — can turn out to be the 2025 model of Arizona State.
If that group is Arizona, the twist would include an added flip. In any case, Arizona State was the 2024 model of Arizona.
Recall the autumn of 2023, ultimate yr of the previous Pac-12, when Arizona was picked eighth within the preseason media ballot below third-year coach Jedd Fisch.
The Wildcats stumbled early however obtained sizzling in October, gained 10 video games, beat Oklahoma within the Alamo Bowl and had been one of many largest surprises within the nation. With a No. 14 rating, they’d have been within the dialog for a berth within the Faculty Soccer Playoff had the occasion expanded that season.
Then got here realignment, the creation of the 16-team Massive 12 and ASU’s rise from nowhere.
Expectations for the Solar Devils in 2024, the second season of Kenny Dillingham’s tenure, had been admittedly decrease than they had been for Arizona in ’23. However there was extra upside room obtainable within the Massive 12 given the absence of powerhouse groups on the prime. Picked sixteenth within the preseason ballot, ASU was the final group standing in December and superior to the CFP.
The Massive 12 didn’t publish a preseason ballot this summer time, however the Wildcats would have been picked for the underside half, even perhaps the underside quartile. Coach Brent Brennan’s first season was such a shambles that his job safety acquired extra consideration nationally than important adjustments to the teaching workers, depth chart and chemistry.
However via three video games, it’s clear the Wildcats are a distinct group.
Quarterback Noah Fifita doesn’t look as burdened with expectations.
The working sport is impactful and the protection, below first-year coordinator Danny Gonzales, seems to be stout.
There’s better vitality, extra velocity and higher deployment of personnel.
Arizona would have run Kansas State off the sphere Friday evening however for a collection of blunders. A botched punt that led to a landing. Missed discipline objectives. Dropped passes. Too many holding penalties and false begins to rely.
Add a perplexing abandonment of the working sport throughout a number of stretches, and the general efficiency was hardly polished.
Which is precisely the purpose: The Wildcats are 3-0 with clear room for development.
In the event that they reduce on errors, particularly alongside the offensive line, the Wildcats might be tough to beat in a convention with no apparent favourite. It’s mid-September, and they’re midway to the bowl berth that, presumably, would offer Brennan with added job safety.
Now comes a break (whether or not the Wildcats need it or not), and two weeks to arrange for what could be probably the most tough project of the season: a go to to No. 14 Iowa State, which beat Kansas State by three factors in Eire.
Then Arizona returns house to face floundering Oklahoma State and faces Brigham Younger one week earlier than the Cougars play their rivalry sport (in opposition to Utah).
The season’s second half options journeys to Houston, Colorado and Cincinnati, plus house dates with Baylor and Kansas and, lastly, the Territorial Cup.
The Wildcats might be favored most of the time. And crucially, they don’t play No. 20 Utah or No. 21 Texas Tech.
Put one other manner: There are wins obtainable — greater than sufficient to lock down a bowl berth and maybe sufficient to problem for a spot within the Massive 12 championship.
If the Wildcats reduce on their errors.
Bear in mind, ASU wasn’t the group it will turn out to be at this level final season. In reality, the Solar Devils wanted a fourth quarter discipline purpose to beat Texas State and accumulate their third non-conference victory.
They had been clearly improved.
They clearly had the personnel wanted to trigger havoc within the Massive 12.
However the product was so unfinished on the shut of Week 3 that the endgame couldn’t be sketched.
The identical is true of the Wildcats, an undefeated work-in-progress enjoying with nothing to lose and all roads open.
We now have seen sufficient to contemplate the sudden chance that Arizona, of all groups, will emerge from the Massive 12 chaos as this yr’s Arizona State.
