As Arizona State finish their season with a fitting thwacking at the hands of Boise State in the MAACO Las Vegas bowl, it’s time for Arizona college football fans everywhere to grab some tissue and a strong cocktail or a favorite two by four to smack your head against as we look back upon what was a dismal football season for Tempe and Tucson.
While the Wildcats opened their season losing their first five games (A victory against NAU is similar to winning a trophy in tee ball), Arizona State opened their season winning five of their first six including games against ranked Missouri and USC. Tony Capobianco/Tucson Citizen
The season also bid farewell to both head coaches. Erickson took a ten and three Sun Devil squad to the Holiday Bowl in 2007, his first season, and encored with four straight losing seasons. Arizona State hire the extremely loyal and noble coaching genius, Todd Graham. ASU Coach Football Rumors
David Shaw turned 8 during the summer of his first year in Arizona.
His father Willie took a job as defensive-backs coach on Darryl Rogers’ football staff at Arizona State in 1980. David watched as Willie recruited one talented player after another from Southern California, quickly elevating ASU to nine wins in 1981 and a Fiesta Bowl berth after the 1982 season.
Twenty-nine years later in his first season as a head coach, David Shaw’s No. 4 Stanford team is in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl against No. 3 Oklahoma State.
An NFL assistant for nine years early in his coaching career, Shaw returned to his alma mater Stanford in 2007 as offensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh. Shaw played for Bill Walsh and Dennis Green and coached under Brian Billick, Jon Gruden and Harbaugh. “A lot of those (ASU) guys seemed like family,” David Shaw said.
@Football Ticket Prices | ASU Coach Football Rumors
