What’s at stake in the Territorial Cup? Just a bowl berth and the perception of the ’18 season

Oh, what could have been. Had things gone differently last week, Arizona and Arizona State could have been playing for the Pac-12 South championship Saturday. They could have been partying like it’s 2014.

Once Utah beat Colorado, the Wildcats dropped out of the race. The Sun Devils still controlled their fate, but their rally at Oregon fell short. The Utes will play in the league title game. Arizona and ASU will play for pride and bragging rights. For the Wildcats, this can go one of two ways:

• If they win, they’ll be 6-6 and headed for a bowl game. The Territorial Cup will return to Tucson. The ups and downs of a somewhat disappointing season mostly will be forgotten.
• If they lose, they’ll be 5-7 and headed for home. The Territorial Cup will remain in Tempe. A season that began with high expectations will be viewed as a failure.

So yeah, the Pac-12 South isn’t on the line. But for Arizona, at least, a lot is riding on Saturday afternoon’s game.

“Everybody knows what’s going on,” senior left tackle Layth Friekh said. “That’s all we’re talking about. Last week we were going in like, ‘This game will get us a bowl game, ASU will get us a better bowl game.’ Now we’re fighting to get into at least one game. Everybody knows how important this, and everybody’s working towards that.”

The expectations for this UA season have been reset multiple times. Like last year, it’s akin to experiencing several seasons within one. The 2017 Wildcats started 2-2, losing twice at home. Then Khalil Tate happened on the scene, and Arizona won four straight games in October. The Cats came crashing back to reality thereafter, losing four of their last five to finish 7-6.

Still, with Tate entering his junior year, Kevin Sumlin arriving to coach him and most of the youthful defense returning, Arizona became a dark-horse pick to win the South. The Wildcats were viewed as a fringe top-25 team. Then the season started. Arizona dropped its first two games, including a blowout loss at Houston. Tate got hurt. The Wildcats rode the roller coaster to a 3-5 record. The idea of even having a chance in the Pac-12 South seemed far-fetched. Then Arizona upset Oregon and defeated Colorado.

The Wildcats were back to .500. They had possibilities again. Then Arizona no-showed at Washington State, embarrassingly surrendering 69 points for the second time in as many trips to Pullman. And now 2016 is relevant in more ways than one. The 69-7 loss in ’16 was Arizona’s sixth in a row. The skid would reach eight with a desultory 42-17 setback at Oregon State, which was 2-8 at the time. What happened the following week reinforced the power of the Territorial Cup rivalry. It showed how quickly the switch can be flipped.

An Arizona team that had lost eight straight — that barely had been competitive since September — blasted ASU 56-35. The Sun Devils needed a win to earn a bowl berth. The Wildcats throttled them. They’re seeking a repeat after a poor performance in Pullman.

“The only thing to do is to go up from there,” senior safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles said. “There’s really not much worse you can get. Try to learn from your mistakes and focus on this week.

“We kind of let that one go in Pullman. Leave it there. Now we focus on ASU.”

Not that you’d want to copy much of anything the 2016 team did, but this Arizona squad believes it can replicate that one’s season-ending heroics — despite some potential deterrents.

Safety Scottie Young Jr. will miss the first half because of a targeting disqualification. Cornerback Jace Whittaker (elbow) probably won’t be back. The Wildcats didn’t look like they could beat anyone last week. But no one saw the 2016 outcome coming either.

“That’s what we hope to do,” Flannigan-Fowles said. “ASU’s a great team. They’ve got N’Keal Harry, Eno Benjamin, Manny Wilkins — all great players. It’s not going to be an easy game. But the plan is to flip the switch like we did two years ago.”

For players such as Flannigan-Fowles and Friekh, the Territorial Cup means more than just a ticket to a bowl game. They’ve lived the rivalry since they were kids. Flannigan-Fowles, who’s from Tucson, actually grew up a Florida fan. He ended up playing for his hometown team.

“It means a lot. More than a lot,” Flannigan-Fowles said of the rivalry with ASU. “I’m from Tucson. It’s my last year. I’m trying to go out with a bang.”

Friekh grew up in Glendale, the heart of Sun Devils country. He attended Peoria Centennial High School. But his father graduated from Arizona. There was no ambivalence in the Friekh household. Friekh remembered wanting to go to bed early on the eve of Centennial’s state-championship game in November 2012. One problem: Arizona and ASU were playing late.

“My pops was downstairs yelling and screaming the whole time,” Friekh said, “keeping me up.”

Layth Friekh remembers his dad keeping him up at night by screaming at the TV during the Territorial Cup. Friekh was a junior at Centennial, trying to get some sleep before the state championship. He says this rivalry means “everything.” pic.twitter.com/CFG6BK9Efs

— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) November 20, 2018

Another Centennial graduate, senior receiver Shawn Poindexter, said he has plenty of support back home. “But everyone’s like, ‘After you’re done playing at the U of A, I’m not rooting for them anymore,’” Poindexter said. “I hear that a lot.”

Senior receiver Tony Ellison had little concept of the Territorial Cup. He’s from Granite Bay, California, northeast of Sacramento. But as a redshirt in 2014, Ellison stood on the sideline as Arizona and ASU battled for the Pac-12 South title. The Wildcats prevailed in a thriller. Ellison was hooked.

“It was such a good game,” he said. “That’s when I really got a feeling of how important it was and how it important it is to the city.”

Arizona senior Tony Ellison talks about his approach in the Territorial Cup and playing to wear the block ’A’ one more game pic.twitter.com/OCoWefdb5m

— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) November 20, 2018

Like his teammates, Ellison pictured Saturday’s game being something even bigger than it is — a winner-take-all matchup for a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game. It didn’t work out that way. The Wildcats have accepted their fate. They know they have plenty to play for regardless.

“Obviously, it’s not what I envisioned for my senior year,” Ellison said. “But we can’t worry about the past. We’ve just gotta look forward to this week — and hopefully the next week after.”

kickoff: 1:30 p.m. • tv: fox sports 1 • radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM