Arizona State Football: Upcoming Stretch Eerily Similar to 2014
Back in 2014, the Arizona State football program also faced Stanford at home after their bye week — on the same day.
This coming weekend, the Arizona State football program will be able to rest up rather than take on another Pac-12 opponent. After a tough loss at No. 21 Colorado in Week 6, and an always difficult Stanford team coming to town in Week 8, the bye week couldn’t come at a better time.
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Ironically, the Sun Devils found themselves in an similar situation in 2014 — very similar. Like this year, the program hosted Stanford immediately after their bye week. Even more ironic, the game was played on October 18th…just like their upcoming meeting.
Both off a bye week. Both against Stanford. Both at home. And both on October 18th.
Crazy!
Back then, current stars N’Keal Harry and Eno Benjamin were still in high school, Herm Edwards was preaching football on ESPN, and starting quarterback Manny Wilkins was in his redshirt year. Even so, a repeat performance of that 2014 matchup would be awfully nice at this point.
Going into 2014’s ASU-Stanford battle, both teams were at the top of their games. The Sun Devils, led by stud quarterback Mike Bercovici, were 4-1 and nationally ranked while the Kevin Hogan-led Cardinal were also in the nation’s Top 25. Arizona State, however, gave Stanford the business from the start.
Thanks to touchdowns by D.J Foster and Jaelen Strong, the Sun Devils led 14-0 at halftime. From there, it was the Zane Gonzalez show; Gonzalez blasted four second-half field goals en route to a 26-10 drubbing in front of a sellout crowd at Sun Devils Stadium.
Since then, games following bye weeks haven’t been great for Arizona State (1-2 since), though they did score a huge win against a favored Washington team last year.
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This year’s ASU-Stanford battle can be seen on national television, as ESPN will broadcast the October 18th meeting at 9:00 P.M ET.