By Craig Degel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
For one moment, forget everything you think you know about the Arizona football team. Forget records, forget talks of Lombardi awards, forget play-calling, forget it all.
It was a somber Arizona locker room Saturday, but despite losing a tough one just minutes before to Oregon 17-13, the team knew there was still one more game: Arizona State.
"What are we, 5-5?," Tedy Bruschi asked. "This team could be 0-10 and a win over Arizona State would make it a good season. That's what that game means to me."
While an 0-10 record may not be too damaging to Bruschi, it may have been more so for head coach Dick Tomey.
"I wouldn't want to try it," he said.
When it comes to games against rivals, it would be advantageous to throw conventional wisdom out the nearest window. Consider this: Last year, Arizona was 7-3 going into its game with the 3-7 Sun Devils. But it took a missed Arizona State field goal for the Wildcats to come out on top 28-27.
Yes, when it comes to rivalries, you never know what to expect.
"It's like a season unto itself," Arizona quarterback Dan White said.
The game will also mark the last time Arizona's seniors will take the field. Tomey has preached countless times as to just how special that group is.
They are the most winning seniors in UA history. These seniors were on the field when Arizona football came of age against then-No. 1 Washington in 1992. They were there when Steve McLaughlin barely missed a field goal in the Wildcats' one-point loss to then-No. 1 Miami that same year.
"When I came in this team went 4-6, and we've had a winning season ever since," junior Gary Taylor said.
The seniors have a modest two-game win streak over the Sun Devils and the team would like nothing more than to cap off a season gone sour with a sweet victory over ASU.
"We've been in this situation before," Tomey said. "In 1993, we were struggling and they were hot."
The Wildcats prevailed that year 34-20.