Both Arizona State and Arizona are expected to struggle in the Pac-12 South this upcoming season.
As per annual tradition, Athlon Sports recently released their college football predictions for the upcoming 2022 season. In the Pac-12 they have both Arizona State and Arizona finishing in the bottom half of the South division.
In a pretty big surprise, the Arizona Wildcats beat out their in-state rival. At No. 4 in the Pac-12 South, the Wildcats are expected to be slightly improved from their recent disastrous forrays in college football. Head coach Jedd Fisch will be going into his second season with the team and should get his squad to a better finish than 1-11 as they had last season.
Arizona went wild recruiting for 2022 and brought in a good transfer class. According to 247Sports.com, the Wildcats have the 25th best recruiting class for 2022 with three 4-star recruits including the highly-touted Tetairoa McMillan, a wide receiver from Servite HS in Anaheim, CA.
In Tempe, Herm Edwards is dealing with a precarious situation due to pending NCAA allegations of recruiting misconduct that forced both coordinators to resign. The Sun Devils will be entering the season with a new offensive coordinator, Glenn Thomas, and a new defensive coordinator, Donnie Henderson.
They did not have the same run of success as Arizona on the recruiting trail. Arizona State has the 56th ranked class, but fared well in the transfer portal with a total of 14 incoming transfers that give the Sun Devils the 17th best transfer class of 2022.
But hasn’t it been 2,069 days since Arizona last beat Arizona State?
2,069 days since Arizona’s last win over Arizona State in football. #ArizonaState
— Arizona State Clock (@ArizonaStClock) July 26, 2022
As this Twitter account reminds us every day, why yes it actually has been 2,069 years since the Wildcats beat the Sun Devils in football. In more stark terms, it has been 5.66 years since an Arizona victory in this long-standing rivalry.
Athlon Sports seems to think this might be the year that string of bad luck ends for Arizona. With transfer quarterback Jayden de Laura (Washington St.) slinging it to Jacob Cowing and Tetairoa McMillan the hope is that the Wildcat offense will be significantly improved over 2021. Added to that, ASU will be traveling to Tuscon this year and that home-field advantage might be enough to turn the tide.
That being said, it would be foolish to count out Arizona State just yet. Yes, the program is facing a whole slew of problems, but there is still a significant amount of talent on both sides of the ball. They have their own trio of offensive transfers that will be heavily leaned on to rack up points. Incoming transfer quarterback Emory Jones (Florida) will have running back Xazavian Valladay (Wyoming) and wide receiver Cam Johnson (Vanderbilt) to work with.
While the transfer portal brought a lot of talent to Tempe, it also took some away. The entire Sun Devils secondary will be fresh faces and the defensive line and linebackers group took some major hits. The new DC, Donnie Henderson, will have his work cut out for him.
Regardless of rivalry, both teams will have to play talented squads across the conference
The big game in Tuscon to determine the winner of the Territorial Cup is no the only matchup for these teams to worry about.
The biggest player in the South is clearly Utah who just won their first Pac-12 Championship this past season. The Utes are expected to be a talented squad once again and the path to winning the division still runs through them.
Although soon to depart the conference, USC and UCLA are still expected to field good teams that will be competitive in the division and the conference. New USC head coach Lincoln Riley is used to success and he might very well elevate a Trojans program that has underperformed in the recent past.
With not much expected out of either Arizona squad this year the pressure will be high for both Edwards and Fisch to outperform expectations and prove their continued relevance in the football world. This is even more important now as a new round of conference realignment is sparking fears in the world of college athletics that soon mega-conferences in the SEC and Big Ten will completely dominate the space.
Both teams need to perform at a high level in 2022 to prove they belong in the upper echelons of college football. Think of it as an audition of sorts. Both for other conferences such as the Big 12 that might be looking to expand and incentive to other teams to join a rebuilding Pac-12.
Let us know your predictions for both Arizona and Arizona State this upcoming season!
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