Sun Devil Football Leaves No Question in 70-7 Rout of Arizona

ASU 70, Arizona 7 Game Book (PDF) | Sun Devil Football Season Stats (12-11) | Sun Devil Football vs. Arizona Series History | Sun Devil Kickoff Returns For a Touchdown | Postgame Notes - Territorial Cup | Four-Game Win Streaks in Territorial Cup Series | Boxscore

TUCSON -- History was made on Friday evening as the Sun Devil Football team rewrote numerous sections of the record book with its 70-7 dismantling of its rival Arizona in the annual Territorial Cup contest in Tucson.

How quickly did it get going in the favor of the Sun Devils? ASU had two touchdowns in the first minute. Since 1996 that has only happened twice: North Texas vs. UTEP (Nov. 2, 2019) and Western Michigan vs. Ball State (Oct. 9, 2010).

The Sun Devils recorded a school record 10 touchdowns for the second-most points in program history and most in the Pac-12 era. It easily surpassed the previous series high point tally of 61 set back in 1951. 

The victory gave ASU four in a row over the Wildcats - the first four-game winning streak for ASU in the Pac-12 era. 

Rachaad White earned the Bob Moran Territorial Cup Most Valuable Player award behind his 133-yard, three-touchdown effort that was highlighted by a 93-yard touchdown run - tied for the fifth-longest touchdown rush in program history.

Jayden Daniels was 9-of-11 for 203 yards with two touchdowns and a gaudy 296.8 QB efficiency rating. He also added a 20-yard touchdown scamper.

Five different Sun Devils found the end zone on the ground, including the first career rushing touchdowns for White, Daniyel Ngata and Jackson He. Ricky Pearsall added the first touchdown catch of his career while senior tight end Curtis Hodges recorded a 74-yard touchdown grab. D.J. Taylor also scored with his 100-yard return of the opening kickoff.

LONGEST RUNS IN SUN DEVIL HISTORY
99- Max Anderson vs. Wyoming (Oct. 28, 1967)
97- Mark Malone vs. Utah State (Oct. 27, 1979)
97- Art Malone vs. (Nov. 9, 1968) 
94- Hascall Henshaw vs. Case Western Reserve/Sun Bowl (Jan. 1, 1940)
93-Rachaad White at Arizona (Dec. 11, 2020)
93- J.R. Redmond vs. New Mexico State (Aug. 30, 1997)
90-Leon Burton vs. Hardin-Simmons (Oct. 29, 1955)

MOST POINTS SCORED IN PAC-12 GAME
USC 74, California 0 (Nov. 8, 1930)
UCLA 72, Stanford 0 (Oct. 16, 1954)
ASU 70, at Arizona 7 (Dec. 11, 2020)
Washington 70, Oregon 21 (Oct. 8, 2016)
Oregon 70, Colorado 14 (Oct. 27, 2012)
USC 70, Washington State 33 (Nov. 8, 1970)
 

"I told our players it would be very important that we get off to a fast start," ASU head coach Herm Edwards said. "Now lo and behold I did not realize it was going to be a 108-yard kickoff return by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought getting on the board early helped us. And then we got on a little bit of a roll. We got some momentum, but with that being said I thought we scored early because of turnovers. We got some turnovers and had a short field and scored. The first half they had 52 plays and we only had 25, but the turnovers were the key for us and that's what got us going and then it was really in the second half telling our football team we needed to finish this game."

ASU finished with an evenly distributed 487 yards of offense (227 passing, 259 rushing) on just 63 plays (7.7 yards per play).

Arizona State's stalwart defense held the Wildcats to the same number of points as turnovers forced, picking Arizona off three times and forcing and recovering four fumbles. ASU now has 32 takeaways in its last 10 games dating back to last season (3.2 per game). The Sun Devils had no turnovers in the game.

ASU's defensive interior was absolutely dominant as Jermayne Lole and D.J. Davidson registered a rare game where a team's two interior linemen led the team in tackles - both finishing with seven. Timarcus Davis had a career-best three pass breakups. All three interceptions in the game came from the Sun Devil linebacker corps with Kyle Soelle, Jordan Banks and Caleb McCullough all registering their first career picks.

ASU needed just 25 plays in the first half to jump to a massive 42-0 lead - its most points in a half since 1973 and the most in a half against Arizona in series history.

ASU forced four turnovers in the first half to help spur the surge, scoring three touchdowns off of those to help initiate the rout.

Taylor got things going right out of the gate, taking the opening kickoff 100-plus yards to the house for the first career score for the true freshman. It was ASU's first opening kickoff return for a touchdown since 2011 and the first kick return touchdown allowed by the Wildcats since 2007.

ASU immediately capitalized on a fumbled handoff on Arizona's first drive, recovering the ball and punching it in from inside the Wildcat 5-yard line with a four-yard Chip Trayanum touchdown rush and 14-0 lead 56 seconds into the game. It was just the third time any FBS program has scored two touchdowns in the first minute of a game since 1996. 

After stuffing Arizona on fourth down inside Wildcat territory, ASU put another touchdown on the board punctuated by a highlight reel spin move from Daniels on a 20-yard touchdown rush. 

White blew open his big day with a 93-yard touchdown rush in the second quarter for the first rushing touchdown of his career. 

Another forced fumble on the ensuing Wildcat drive ended with a Daniels touchdown pass to a wide open Pearsall in the end zone for the first touchdown catch of the latter's career. 

"The big explosion plays always help you and we got it in all phases: In the kickoff return phase, in the running phase, in the passing phase and that was good to see," Edwards said. "And then the defense, Marvin (Lewis) and those guys did a great job of preparing our guys. We had seven takeaways. When you have seven takeaways you have a chance to win a football game and we didn't turn it over and so that is credit to our defense. The defense really put us on the board for our first three scores when you think about it because we got turnovers."

ASU capped the opening barrage with Ngata's first touchdown of his career a couple of drives later, making it 42-0 and giving ASU 62 unanswered points at Arizona dating back to the 2018 contest before the Wildcats finally got on board late in the half to send the team's to the locker rooms with ASU up, 42-7.

White picked up touchdown rushes of two yards and a yard in the first 10 minutes of the second half to extend ASU's lead to 56-7 and give ASU its sixth 50-point effort over Arizona in history, the third time in the last eight years it has reached the mark.

Daniels then found Hodges on a 74-yard house call to extend the lead to 63-7 and give ASU its most points ever over its rival.

Despite the big halftime lead, Edwards said he and his staff made it a point not to let the team lose its focus. "Marvin and myself talked about it and we had a lead and we were going, 'this is too fast.' And you know college football how it can turn with a couple plays and obviously they scored and that made it interesting. And then from there it was a matter of just keeping our focus. With a young team like we have, I was really hollering at guys on the sideline. I hollered more this game than any game I've been involved in (because) we have so many young guys I didn't want them to fall asleep and fall into the trap of relaxing.

"What's great is Marvin is in the box and (Antonio Pierce) is on the sideline and AP is telling the players not to relax and he was doing a good job keeping those guys focused with the job at hand."

The night could not have ended on a higher note as He saw his first career action as a Sun Devil and became what is believed to be the first Chinese-born player to ever score a touchdown at the FBS level after using a second effort to score from one yard out.

"Jackson He was the sideline favorite and we put him in the game and lo and behold he was able to score a touchdown and that's a lot for a kid that is a walk-on and has been here two years," Edwards said.

He's touchdown gave ASU just its second 70-point game in program history, trailing only the school record 79 points against Colorado State in 1969.

COACH HERM EDWARDS FROM POSTGAME RADIO SHOW
"When you watch Arizona play on tape, they are very competitive at home. They lost to USC by four and really took Colorado down to the wire. I told our players it would be very important that we get off to a fast start. Now lo and behold I did not realize it was going to be a 108-yard kickoff return by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought getting on the board early helped us. And then we got on a little bit of a roll. We got some momentum, but with that being said I thought we scored early because of turnovers. We got some turnovers and had a short field and scored. The first half they had 52 plays and we only had 25, but the turnovers were the key for us and that's what got us going and then it was really in the second half telling our football team we needed to finish this game."
 
ON THE BIG PLAYS
"The big explosion plays always help you and we got it in all phases: In the kickoff return phase, in the running phase, in the passing phase and that was good to see. And then the defense, Marvin (Lewis) and those guys did a great job of preparing our guys. We had seven takeaways. When you have seven takeaways you have a chance to win a football game and we didn't turn it over and so that is credit to our defense. The defense really put us on the board for our first three scores when you think about it because we got turnovers."
 
ON COACHING WITH SUCH A BIG LEAD
"Marvin and myself talked about it and we had a lead and we were going, 'this is too fast.' And you know college football how it can turn with a couple plays and obviously they scored and that made it interesting. And then from there it was a matter of just keeping our focus. With a young team like we have, I was really hollering at guys on the sideline. I hollered more this game than any game I've been involved in (because) we have so many young guys I didn't want them to fall asleep and fall into the trap of relaxing. I saw it at USC in the fourth quarter with 4:26 left when we let that one get away and I didn't want that to happen again."
 
ON FORCING THREE AND OUTS TO START THE SECOND HALF
"What's great is Marvin is in the box and (Antonio Pierce) is on the sideline and AP is telling the players not to relax and he was doing a good job keeping those guys focused with the job at hand."
 
ON WHEN TO PULL JAYDEN DANIELS AND THE STARTERS
"I told (Jayden) he wasn't coming out until the fourth quarter and I knew if he was in there the offensive line was staying in there. And then from there it was a matter of getting guys in the game. We wanted to get young guys opportunities and some of these kids will never play. Jackson He was the sideline favorite and we put him in the game and lo and behold he was able to score a touchdown and that's a lot for a kid that is a walk-on and has been here two years. And there's a couple other kids that walked on here and we got them in the game and so the coaches made sure everyone got a chance to play." 
 
ON ARIZONA
"I can't say enough about Arizona. They've been injured and have gone through a lot. Coach Kevin Sumlin has done a remarkable job with all the injuries, with some guys opting out, it's been hard. It's been hard on every college football coach, but when you watched them play, for the most part they had played tough games and they were in the game and this one just got away from them."