Deep into the night Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said the 23-7 loss to Arizona loss on Friday, “didn’t define a football team” when it came to his.
Surely, it defined who and what Arizona is: tough, resilient and a team full of moxie.
Who would have thought that just two months ago? A month ago?
Now, they are winners of five consecutive games and what seemed like any unfathomable 9-3.
They went from anonymous pit to glorious peak.
Seeing does equate into believing – even for the non-believers.
“We love each other (and) play for each other,” Arizona quarter back Noah Fifita said in a TV interview with Fox Sports. It’s always been about us since January. We built this team from the ground up. Coach Brennan has done a fantastic job with all the new guys. At the end of the day when things went wrong, we relied on each other and leaned on each other.”
So, here they are headed to a bowl game – hell, the Holiday Bowl wants them – in a month or so. The mystical and magical season will continue.
The season could be a case study in chemistry. How else can you describe it? It started 3-0 – over suspect opponents – then lost in a nondescript way to Iowa State.
Then recovered enough to win then play arguably some very good football, however in losses to Brigham Young and Houston. One play here. One play there. One stop here. One stop there – and Arizona wins those two.
Then who knows? But was that the sign Arizona needed to show it was capable of beating good teams? The inspiration?
Or was it they found out they were this/close from being a pretty good team if they put in more intense work. So, they did.
And, well, anything can happen – right? And it did.
Arizona knocked off:
Colorado.
Kansas.
Cincinnati.
Baylor.
And now, Arizona State. Just six weeks ago – if you projected a win or two you were going to find a win or two, but five?
F-I-V-E.
“Special, to say the least. Just thankful for the opportunity just to be here with these special guys,” UA’s Chubba Maae said. “We’ve been saying that all year. This is a special group. Every week, we’ve continued to get better and better.”
It found its identity – finally, although Maae said the team had found its ID early, even though at times it looked “like a little brother sometimes or just bottom tier.”
Then they put in that aforementioned hard work, “getting into each week hungry” and “played as one.”
There were no mirrors or no mirages. Behind Fifita and a running game that worked and a passing game that matured, Arizona moved the ball. And on defense, Danny Gonzales found the right mix of mayhem.
That was the case on Friday night – a game that typified the season.
“I really think I’m fortunate to be surrounded by awesome people,” said head coach Brent Brennan. “I think it starts with like, alignment with our administration, our president, our athletic director, all the people that are helping us build it, but just the coaches are fantastic.”
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