Hansen: Blood of Cats, Devils has hardly ever mixed

A: From 1947-50, Ed Doherty coached the Sun Devils, who had been dominated in the Territorial Cup for 50 years. But after going 9-2 in 1950 and routing Arizona 47-13, the Sun Devils at last caught, and surpassed the Wildcats.

Five days after winning in Tucson, Doherty shockingly quit. He said ASU didn’t appreciate what he had done and didn’t offer enough job security. So he moved to Rhode Island, coached URI for a year, spent four years coaching high school football in Massachusetts and eventually became an assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles.

In January of 1957, he sent an application to UA athletic director Pop McKale. He wanted to coach the Wildcats.

No way, right? Not over my dead body.

McKale admired Doherty; he sometimes referred to him as “the Brain” for his advanced offensive schemes. Together, they rehearsed what Doherty would say at a press conference announcing an ex-Sun Devil as Arizona’s head football coach.

How did it work out? Doherty went 1-8-1 and 3-7. He lost to the Sun Devils 47-7 and 47-0, so at least he was consistent.

Abe Chanin’s 1970s book “They Fought Like Wildcats,” detailed the dysfunction of a Sun Devil in Wildcat clothing. When new UA athletic director Dick Clausen prompted Doherty to drive to Phoenix to recruit several top prospects, Doherty said, “‘I don’t want to go to Phoenix to talk some snot-nosed kid into playing football for us.”’

Doherty resigned the next day.

Dear Mr. Football: How does the UA ever get a top recruit to leave Phoenix?

A: In the winter of 1963-64, UA head coach Jim LaRue made the drive to Phoenix that Doherty would not. He located the Lueck family dairy farm in rural Avondale and began the process of persuading mega-prospect Bill Lueck NOT to play for the most influential man in Phoenix, Sun Devil coach Frank Kush.

LaRue once told me that turning Lueck from the Sun Devils to the Wildcats was his finest piece of recruiting work ever.

Bill Lueck’s older brother, Bob Lueck, played for Kush during ASU’s emergence to national football significance. But at Agua Fria High School, Bill Lueck established his own identity as a top lineman, basketball player and discus thrower.

He agreed to become a Wildcat. What was the secret?

His girlfriend (later his wife) had already enrolled at Arizona.

Lueck became the first-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers in 1968 and played eight NFL seasons. He then returned to the farming business in Litchfield Park.

Dear Mr. Football: Does Arizona have a celebrity assistant coach?

A: Arizona’s highest-paid offensive coach is Calvin Magee, who is paid $400,000. Rich Rodriguez called him “the best running backs coach in the nation.”

On Monday, Magee got in a six-seat golf cart outside of the Lowell-Stevens football complex and drove to Circle K for a snack. I watched him walk in and out. Nobody recognized him. Magee gets absolutely no TV time during Arizona games. He sits in the press box. He is not a go-to interview guy.

At ASU, 34-year-old whiz kid offensive coordinator Mike Norvell is paid $900,000 this season. Yes, 900 G’s. Among the nation’s offensive coordinators, only LSU’s Cam Cameron and Georgia’s Brian Schottenheimer are better paid.

When ASU won the Pac-12 South in 2013, Norvell was probably on the “must hire someday” list at virtually every Top 25 school in the country. Now, at 5-5, ranked No. 9 in Pac-12 scoring, Norvell, who is photogenic and widely quoted, hears fans cry that he shouldn’t be paid more than ASU president Michael Crow, who gets $874,600.

Dear Mr. Football: What was the first of Todd Graham’s many in-state recruiting victories over RichRod?

A: In the summer of 2012, when RichRod was going through his first Tucson summer, ASU got a commitment from Lakeside Blue Ridge linebacker Chans Cox, who went against the grain to be a Sun Devil.

Arizona had gotten so much mileage out of standout White Mountain linebackers Jimmy Sprotte, Scooter Sprotte and Marcus Bell, including a composite 8-4 record in the Territorial Cup, that Cox seemed destined for Tucson.

But the state’s No. 3 overall recruit in 2012 became a Sun Devil. Now a third-string redshirt junior, Cox has made one career tackle at ASU.

You never know in recruiting. Seven of today’s projected UA starters are from Phoenix. Moreover, Arizona successfully recruited 10 first-team All-Pac-12 players from Phoenix: Armon Williams, Bobby Wade, Spencer Larsen, Josh Miller, Dana Wells, Brad Anderson, Trung Canidate, David Wood, Byron Evans and Rob Waldrop.

Dear Mr. Football: How many balls has Arizona center Cayman Bundage snapped over the quarterback’s head this year?

A: There have only been four in Pac-12 games, although it seems like 40. And none factored into UA losses.

Bundage snapped the ball into no man’s land in a 7-7 tie against UCLA, but the Bruins won that game with ease 56-30. And Bundage did so when Arizona led Utah 20-10, which was a 19-yard loss and resulted in a field goal instead of a touchdown. Ultimately, no harm.

Less is known about Bundage than any other three-year UA starter I can remember. He has not agreed to be interviewed this season and is a soft-spoken, well-liked and respected senior who is forced to play out of position because of injuries. Bundage started at guard in 2013-14 and has been productive enough to start 37 games.

Dear Mr. Football: How long has there been a loathing between UA and ASU?

A: When Arizona beat the Sun Devils (then called the Bulldogs) 100 years ago, on October 9, 1915, the Star wrote “the last quarter started with the bleachers fairly seething with eagerness.”

Arizona won that game 7-0, and the seething has endured.

The strange part of Territorial Cup, 2015, is that the game is being played before Thanksgiving. This is the earliest finish for a UA regular season since a 1924 game against UC-Davis. Only in 1952 and 1958, when Arizona finished the season on Nov. 22, did it come close to such an early wrap.

This is one of the least anticipated Territorial Cups of the last 50 years. Sun Devil Stadium, which has averaged just 50,683 fans (78 percent of capacity) isn’t expected to be sold out.

It has the same blah feel of some of those Mike Stoops and Dirk Koetter years when there were so many empty seats that you’d think Frank Kush’s statue and the Button Salmon bust would be covered with a sheet and hidden from view.

The one juicy hook to the game looked to be the return of UA linebacker Scooby Wright, who as late as Sunday planned to suit up and play 25 to 30 snaps. But Wright’s injured foot didn’t respond properly, and now he’ll watch from the sideline in civvies.

By sundown, I suspect his teammates will feel similarly separated.

Sun Devils 41, Wildcats 20.