Arizona has been one of the more consistent teams in the Pac-12 this season. Both of these teams come in with an identical 4-4 conference record but something really stood out to me right away. Arizona States four wins in the conference came against Cal, Utah, Colorado, and Washington State. They lost all four games they had against teams with winning records in the conference and three of the four losses were by double digits with the fourth loss coming at home to UCLA. Arizona State just has not played well against the upper tier of the Pac-12 all season and hasn’t really even been close.
Arizona on the other hand has played the upper teams in the conference well with wins against USC and Washington this season. Two of their four conference losses came by exactly three points to Stanford and Oregon State. While the records and the power records make this look like a pickem there is a clear picture that has been painted here by the way these two teams have played against similar opponents.
This is a huge game for Rich Rodriguez and crew in year one and I expect that they are going to come out and do what they have done all year and that is score points. This offense is made to score and they will score plenty of points today as well and like all the other teams Arizona State has faced with a winning record they will win by double digits.