Here’s what the Sun Devils are saying ahead of the Territorial Cup:
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham on the rivalry: “This is a game that matters to the state. Your neighbor could have gone to either school. I think that's what makes this rivalry fun, is people are friends with people on both sides of this rivalry, and that's what makes it so big, the relationships that are within the rivalry, right? You always want to beat your brother. You will hear about it for a year if he beats you in one-on-one basketball. I play a random person. All right, that sucks for a week, right? But you play your brother, and you're around them 24/7, you hear it all year, and it's horrible.”
Linebackers coach A.J. Cooper on his earliest memories of Arizona State football: “I vividly remember the ‘96 game where they went down there and beat them to go to the Rose Bowl. I remember (wide receiver Keith) Poole scoring a touchdown in that game. I grew up coming to these games. My grandma still has season tickets. I was in the stands for the Nebraska game in ’96. I got more memories than you can count cause I was in those parking lots when my family was tailgating, playing catch. I never really thought about it, but ASU was some of my first football memories.”
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Redshirt senior quarterback Jeff Sims on what he’d learned about the rivalry: “Pure hate. That's literally the biggest thing I know about this rivalry is pure hate. They're a good team, so we're going to have to go out there and put our best foot forward.”
Dillingham on playing the Territorial Cup with two good teams: “It's awesome to have this game be played with two really good football teams. I think there's five teams that have eight wins in our league potentially. I thought I saw something like that. Maybe there's a six, but I thought there was five at this point, and two of them are playing in a rivalry game. And I think that's what you want. You want to play this game to matter, and it's awesome that it matters.”
Dillingham on Arizona: “They're playing as good a football as anybody in our league, like I said. I truly believe it's that core of guys that have stayed there, over the last three years, and saw the ultimate success and saw an outlier in last year, and then they're back to where they were a couple years ago. They wanted to stay there, and that core of people has really brought out the best of that football team. Those are their best players, and it's kind of fun even though it's your rival and stuff like that, it's fun to watch guys stick through something and then come out on the other end and have an unbelievable season.”
Offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo on the Arizona defense: “They just do a really good job. They got a veteran group back there, as you mentioned. They've been together. They played a lot of ball. They've got a new system with a new coordinator who does a good job of putting them in situations that they can be to their strengths. They fly around. They work well together. They're playing right now with a lot of confidence. And so that defense is always tough when this defense gets rolling that way.”
Dillingham on the fan support throughout the entire season: “We sold out the entire season. Our fans have been unbelievable this year. Activating the Valley from that perspective is 100% all-in. It's never been sold out for an entire year, and that's unbelievable. I mean, that's the first step. The buy-in from the community is an essential piece in winning in college football. Not just because the money behind it. You know, people are going to show up to the games, and they're student-athletes are going to say, ‘Oh my gosh, this place is awesome.’ And you're going to sign better players. At the end of the day, it's going to be a really fun place to come watch football games for a long time.”
Dillingham on the environment for Friday: “I'm expecting this place to be rocking. Unfortunately, there's going to be some other colors in there, too, because a lot of their fans live up here as well. But I want this place to be rocking. This should be one of the best environments in college football this weekend. You got two really, really good football teams playing in a rivalry game with a lot of guys who are passionate about their schools on both sides of the ball. This is what you want rivalry games to be.”
Sophomore punter Kanyon Floyd on how interim special teams coordinator Jack Nudo has impacted his game: “He’s been hard on us in a good way. He’s been making sure we do work all throughout practice, just the little things like dropping it, and catching the ball because I dropped one at Iowa State so focusing on the little things that help us do better in the game.”
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Floyd on the process of trick plays: “We work on them a ton in practice. That play we did last week, we’ve been practicing for six, seven weeks, a long time. So it’s just the reps, and I guess I can kind of throw. Honestly, it’s trusting the game plan that the coaches make and just executing it.”
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Sims on redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt being around after his injury: “He's basically here every day, being around the guys, helping the younger guys out. If I see anything on the field, we'll talk about it and stuff, but Sam been here. He ain't really ever not been here. Sam is very passionate dude. So it's just it's been cool to see his support.”
Arroyo on what he’s thankful for: “Oh gosh, that's a long list. You get to my age and this long in this career. You're thankful for a lot of things, man. Number one, just the ability to be in a place where you've got an opportunity to impact people and be with your family, and Scottsdale, Arizona. What's better than this spot? Especially with the staff and the players and the opportunity we've developed as far as a culture and the people and the young faces that we get to uh interact with and have an effect on. This is a giving job. So, it's rewarding in a lot of ways, and you got to be grateful for it.”
Dillihgham on his favorite Thanksgiving foods: “I just do turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I'm very, very boring. Apple or pumpkin. But if you get pumpkin, you got to have really good whipped cream. Can't have pumpkin with a bad whipped cream. It's got to be an elite-level whipped cream. Pumpkin or apple with an elite-level whipped cream.”