Arizona and Arizona State are each 8-3 and both teams are ranked in the College Football Playoffs rankings heading into their Territorial Cup showdown Friday at Tempe.
No. 25 Arizona and No. 20 Arizona State will play at 7 p.m.
Danny Gonzales and Seth Doege talked about what both coordinators are seeing from the Sun Devils, and their sides of the ball growth/commitment to the program. Gonzales also spoke about what it has been like to be on both sides of the rivalry.
Tough Trenches
Arizona’s rivals come into the Black Friday matchup boasting the third-best rushing attack while also having the second-best rushing defense in the Big 12.
“People have struggles running the football on them, because they’re really stout up front,” Doege said on Tuesday afternoon. “That’s going to be a huge challenge for us, to try find to a run game.”
The Wildcats in the same areas are 12th in rushing and eighth in rushing defense.
“I’ve kept it real with our guys all week and have told them, ‘These guys are good,’” Doege said. “A lot of the same pieces that were a part of that team last year.”
“We stink at stopping the run, so what are they going to do? They’re going to run it a thousand times,” Gonzales said about the defensive side. “We have to do a great job of one, tackling, gang tackling, being violent to the football. We have to choose violence up front, and then we got to win our one-on-ones on the outside.
“We’re not going to see a pass if we don’t stop the run, so we just have to come out and stop the run first and then win the 50/50 balls,” Genesis Smith said about Arizona State’s running attack.
Doege and Gonzales building philosophy
A lot has been said about the building and retention of Arizona following a disappointing 4-8 season last year. Now with Arizona 8-3 with a chance to get to double-digit wins for the second time in three seasons, Doege and Gonzales reflected on what it has been like putting the team together and growing.
“In my opinion there’s a lot of guys on this team that are playing above their means, and they’ve developed into a better player than they were when they first got here,” Doege said reflecting on a conversation he had with coach Brent Brennan. “We’ve created a team … and it’s a really special group. I couldn’t tell you the last time I went part of the season when not one skill guy came in my office demanding the ball. Offensively, it’s been straight about the team.”
“When Brent came to me and said, ‘I want to do this on defense’ I told (cornerbacks coach) Chip (Viney) we need to find three corners’, then I told (former Arizona defensive coordinator) Duane (Akina), ‘You just focus on making those three stay here,'” Gonzales said about the building the defense on the offseason.
He added that he told Viney and Akina, “You spend all your time on that, and then I will rebuild the front. I will find the linemen. I’ll find the linebackers. We will rebuild this thing, and we will create a top-15 defense.”
He concluded, “I thought the biggest thing was we have to find three corners and keep those three pieces together.”
Seeing it from both sides
Gonzales is on a long list of coaches that have coached at Arizona and Arizona State. He coached only two years with the Sun Devils before becoming the head coach at New Mexico, his alma mater, before being hired by Arizona.
“I think it’s one of the biggest rivalries in college football, it goes back to 1899,” Gonzales said. “You can make numbers how look however you want in most cases. The only numbers you can’t make look however you want are points and yards per play.”
Arizona State is averaging 5.7 yards on 801 plays this year while giving up only 5.1 on 730 plays on defense.
The Wildcats are averaging 6.0 yards on 742 plays, while the defense is has allowed an average of 4.6 yards on 742 plays.
In his two years at Arizona State, Gonzales went 2-0, beating the Wildcats 41-40 in 2018 and winning 24-14 in 2019.
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