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By Craig Degel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 20, 1996
Just a few tickets remain.All the preparations have been made.
The stage is set.
Get ready folks, No. 4 Arizona State will be here Saturday.
I'd like to take this opportunity to put my prognostication skills on the line and say this:
Arizona will win this game.
For all of you still reading the column, I'd like to back up my prediction with a little bit of history and some facts you may not know about this game.
First of all you need to forget everything you think you know about this game. When these schools get together, you might as well throw the book out the nearest window. Forget the records. Forget the Nebraska game. Forget the fact that Arizona allowed Cal 56 points while ASU only allowed seven. Forget it all.
The two teams might as well be 0-0 and this is the first game of the year.
Here's why Arizona will win.
Exhibit A: This game means too much for the Sun Devils who seem to fall apart when the season is on the line.
In 1986, John Cooper's Sun Devils came to Tucson with a 10-0-1 record.
Arizona won that game 34-17.
Last year, the Sun Devils needed a win to get into a bowl and lost at home 31-28 to the UA.
Exhibit B: For a guy who came from Hawaii, Dick Tomey sure knows how to prepare his teams for this game. He is 7-2-1 against the Sun Devils. He even beat the Sun Devils while he was coach at Hawaii.
I don't know how he does it but he gets the most out of his players when the team needs it the most.
Exhibit C: I'd also like to tell you right now I think ASU quarterback Jake Plummer deserves the Heisman Trophy. But did you know that the one thing he hasn't done in his outstanding career is beat Arizona.
Exhibit D: These guys just don't roll over and die at the end of a season - especially the seniors. They seem to have that something extra when ASU comes calling. Tedy Bruschi had it last year. If Joe Salave'a is half the football player he seems to be, there's not a chance in hell he'll let this team die.
Exhibit E: I've been wrong about every other prediction I've made this year.
I'm due.
Sports editor Craig Degel shares his thoughts on sports and life every Wednesday in the Wildcat.
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