ASU football faces No. 21 Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday. In an evenly matched game on paper, who has the advantage at each position group?
Bowl season officially begins Saturday with Arizona State’s matchup with No. 21 Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl, which many list as one of the best bowl games on paper.
The Sun Devils finished what was an up-and-down regular season that culminated with a thrilling win in Tucson against arch rival Arizona to keep the Territorial Cup in Tempe.
Herm Edwards’ first season as head coach is being seen as a success, even though Edwards doesn’t consider it that until they win championships.
With that said, it’s been a year since he was hired. In Dec. 2017, many mocked the hire and believe Edwards had no chance of succeeding as head coach after spending almost a decade with ESPN.
Yet, here we are. The Sun Devils had a seven-win season and finished second in the Pac-12 South and had the chance to win the division if it wasn’t for five one-score defeats.
Squaring off against the Sun Devils Saturday is Fresno State, who have completed a stunning upward trajectory under head coach Jeff Tedford.
Fresno State was 1-11 in 2016 and two years later, Tedford has posted two double-digit win seasons with this season claiming the Mountain West championship defeating Boise State in the title game in Boise.
It’s truly one of the most remarkable stories in college football to see what Tedford has done with this program.
Now to the game. On paper, it seems to be an evenly matched game and should come down to the wire. But, who has the advantage at each position group?
First, let’s start at quarterback.