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The only podcast covering all things Arizona State athletics! We bleed maroon and gold, and love talking about the Sun Devils no matter what sport.
David Howman (00:00)
Welcome one, welcome all to another episode of the Echo from the Buttes podcast. We are having in honor of Thanksgiving a super stuffed, super sized episode, stuffing everything into this one episode, talking about everything from last week, everything coming up this week. We got a lot to discuss. We're going to get into it. I'm your host, David Hauhman joined as always by my co-host, Tom Harden, Andrew Hazlett and Austin Bundy. And folks, we...
Andrew Hayslett (00:16)
you
David Howman (00:26)
⁓ we got to go on the road for one last time in the regular season to colorado it was freezing cold it was high elevation doesn't matter as you wins they'd be colorado in big fashion and that leads us right into the biggest week of the season hate week territorial cup coming up ⁓ it's there's so much going on we have so much to discuss in this episode but first i just want to go around around the hill and you know thanksgiving coming up
everybody just say what's your what is your favorite Thanksgiving food? It can be a side, it can be a main, it can be a dessert. It can you can surprise us. Last time we did this with Halloween, we got some interesting answers. So Tom, ⁓ what is your what is your number one thing that you have to have on the Thanksgiving table?
Tom Hardon (01:14)
It's stuffing for me hands down. mean, you you know, obviously, you know, turkey is going to be going to be the centerpiece of the meal, but stuffing is really what makes the turkey great. And especially, especially, you know, my family recipe, great sausage stuffing got nice chunks of onion and celery in it. It it's it sticks to your ribs, drizzle gravy on it.
I've been known to have just entire plates of just stuffing and people are looking at me like I'm absolutely insane, but I want it. I gotta have it.
David Howman (01:48)
See, I'm, I'm, stuffing has a lot of mixed opinions. I'm not, I'm anti-stuffing. I don't like stuffing. I try it every year, still don't care for it. Andrew, I see you shaking your head. Is that because you agree with me or you think I'm foolish for being anti-stuffing? You're pro-stuffing?
Andrew Hayslett (02:04)
I agree with Tom.
Yes.
David Howman (02:09)
Austin, you pro-stuffing? Okay, so I'm in the minority here, but I just, I try it every year. I've never enjoyed it. It's always dry, it's always bitter. I don't know. Maybe I'm having horrible stuffing, but I've tried stuffing from, I've tried stuffing from multiple different people. It's not like it's just my family recipe.
Austen Bundy (02:11)
Pro Stuffing.
Tom Hardon (02:27)
If it's bitter, who's making your stuffing?
David Howman (02:36)
I've had it. I want to say I've had it all but clearly I haven't because you guys are having great stuffing. I don't know
Austen Bundy (02:43)
Well, what are you thinking of stuffing? Are you just thinking of plain bread or are you getting sausage thrown in there, a little celery, some seasoning? Like that's where you got to get creative with it.
David Howman (02:54)
I, you know, I've been on this earth for a lot of years. I couldn't tell you every single one I've had. ⁓ I don't think there's ever been celery in it. So we can cross that one out, but I don't know. You guys, guys ship me some stuffing this year. I'll try it. I'll heat it up in the air fryer. We'll give it another chance. But I'm also not a turkey guy. said, Tom, said turkey is the centerpiece.
Tom Hardon (03:24)
Yeah, you know, it's just a classic meal.
David Howman (03:25)
This is another thing, a lot
of people don't like turkey.
Tom Hardon (03:28)
Yeah, no, it's, I'm a white meat turkey only. people will go white meat, dark meat. ⁓ There's no in-between. I've never been a fan of dark meat turkey, but like, turkey doesn't have to be on my table as long as I've got stuffing and potatoes would be my second round draft pick.
Austen Bundy (03:51)
Are you one of those, David, are you one of those ham freaks?
David Howman (03:55)
Not for Thanksgiving. I mean, I do like a good ham. No, I smoke a brisket usually.
Austen Bundy (03:56)
that eats a ham at Thanksgiving.
Okay, you're in Oklahoma, so I'll give you a pass on that one. That's a cultural thing.
Tom Hardon (04:03)
I can get down with that.
David Howman (04:09)
Yeah, I mean, I know that like, there's ways that you can make turkey that makes the turkey better. For the amount of effort you have to put in to make the turkey better. I'm like, at that point, why don't I just smoke a brisket for 18 hours? And it's just gonna be so much better. It's a lot more low maintenance. I don't know, that's just me. Apparently I'm in the minority on all these Thanksgiving opinions. But Andrew, I just bought you a lot of time.
Tom Hardon (04:10)
Thank you.
David Howman (04:37)
to give your answer. I know you're pro stuffing, but is that your, is that gonna be your first round draft pick here?
Andrew Hayslett (04:44)
No, I'm gonna go with pumpkin pie. My dad makes a good recipe and I made it for the first time last year for my friends and I was joking, ⁓ I'm not gonna make it this year. And they're like, Andrew, you're making it this year, so.
David Howman (04:48)
Mmm.
That's it.
Tom Hardon (05:03)
Not even the
outrage that it was demanding.
Andrew Hayslett (05:07)
Yeah, it's a demand. You have to...
David Howman (05:10)
Yeah, that is a top tier pick. That
is like a, that's like the Andrew Luck of first round picks for Thanksgiving food. It's like, is just, you you gotta give the pumpkin pie a little bit of protection, you know, give it an offensive line, but it's gonna be great. I love pumpkin pie. I need that at every Thanksgiving meal. I'll go through, I'm like Thomas with stuffing. I'll just take a plate full of.
Give me one pie by itself and then another pie for everyone else
Tom Hardon (05:42)
calling Andrew Luck's soft like pumpkin pie?
David Howman (05:48)
No comment. I mean, he did retire early.
Austen Bundy (05:51)
Don't you dare come at the General.
See, you're all missing out here on some important side dishes here. I'll give you two. You gotta have some homemade cranberry sauce and some proper sweet potatoes.
Tom Hardon (05:56)
Very true.
David Howman (06:04)
Ugh, no.
Go.
Andrew Hayslett (06:09)
⁓ no.
David Howman (06:10)
So somewhat now.
Tom Hardon (06:10)
You lost me with the sweet potatoes,
but I'll add one for you with pickled beets.
Austen Bundy (06:16)
No, now we're just getting out. Now we're just... This is not Thanksgiving anymore. This is just a potluck.
David Howman (06:20)
Pickled beets
at Thanksgiving?
Tom Hardon (06:24)
Don't sleep on the pickled beets.
David Howman (06:25)
I will. I will.
Austen Bundy (06:29)
Make my bed, tuck myself in and sleep right on him.
David Howman (06:31)
Yeah,
pickle beats?
Tom Hardon (06:33)
Absolutely. I'm the only one in the family who likes them.
David Howman (06:35)
I wouldn't have that at a regular meal, let alone
Thanksgiving.
Tom Hardon (06:39)
I am the only one in my family who likes them. My parents both look at me like I'm insane every time I say, hey, we should have them this year. They're like, you're going to be the only one eating them. I'm like, fine. Just give me my own dish.
Andrew Hayslett (06:52)
If we're giving second rounds here, I'm gonna take, ⁓ rolls.
Austen Bundy (06:58)
Which ones?
Andrew Hayslett (06:59)
Crescent Earls, the Pillsbury.
Austen Bundy (07:02)
wow, okay, see I thought you were gonna go Kings of Wyin'.
Tom Hardon (07:02)
Okay.
David Howman (07:02)
See you in one.
Tom Hardon (07:05)
Yeah, that's.
Andrew Hayslett (07:05)
Those are good
for me growing up it was always Pillsbury Crescent.
David Howman (07:12)
Yeah, I don't think you can go wrong with either. I knew one guy who he would get the take home and bake Cheddar Bay biscuits from Red Lobster and those were the rolls. That's a really good move.
Tom Hardon (07:20)
you
Austen Bundy (07:20)
No.
David Howman (07:26)
I would do that. Yeah, that's,
Austen Bundy (07:27)
high IQ move right there. Now if
Andrew Hayslett (07:28)
I would.
Austen Bundy (07:31)
only you would go to Texas Roadhouse and get their rolls.
David Howman (07:34)
Yeah, that would be the move.
Tom Hardon (07:35)
And that's cinnamon butter, yes.
David Howman (07:39)
⁓ Alright, I'm gonna give you guys the sleeper pic of this Thanksgiving food draft. Green bean casserole.
Tom Hardon (07:48)
I like green beans, I like casserole, but there's just something, there's something about the two combined that I just can't wrap my head around.
Austen Bundy (07:48)
plans.
David Howman (07:51)
The crowd is silent.
Andrew Hayslett (07:58)
For me and my family, we do green beans and then we put bacon in it.
Austen Bundy (08:05)
not bad. See David you're talking about green
Tom Hardon (08:05)
That's a move.
David Howman (08:07)
Oh, green bean casserole.
Green bean casserole, you know, you got the green beans, you got the sauce in there, you got the crispy onions on top. I always do extra crispy onions. You know, you get some green bean in, you get a little crunch.
Austen Bundy (08:22)
I see it, see the potential, but I feel like you're hyping Green Bean Casserole up as a sleeper the same way I hyped up JJ McCarthy as a sleeper in my fantasy draft this year.
David Howman (08:35)
You know, ⁓ no, this is more of a sleeper as like Lamar Jackson when he was in the draft, you know? All 32 teams pass on him, including the Ravens, they obviously they drafted him later on. They had to trade back up to get him. And Lamar Jackson is great. Is he the best quarterback in the NFL? Is Green Bean Castle the best food on the table at Thanksgiving? Probably not, but it's definitely up there. It's top five.
Austen Bundy (08:36)
You
David Howman (09:05)
And I think in the right system, Lamar Jackson can be the best. And in the right system as far as the right kitchen and the right person making it, Green Bean Casserole can be the best.
Tom Hardon (09:20)
that Nikhil Harri was a higher draft pick than Lamar Jackson was.
Andrew Hayslett (09:25)
Hmm.
David Howman (09:27)
and he turned out great. ⁓
Tom Hardon (09:33)
Just goes to show how far those sleepers do slip.
David Howman (09:39)
Yeah, well it's a sleeper for a reason because you guys are sleeping on green bean casserole. ⁓ But it's great. If you guys are going to sit here and say, well, you haven't had the good stuff and you haven't had good green bean casserole.
Austen Bundy (09:54)
Like I said, it depends on how you prepare it. There are some green bean casseroles that are not so great, and others that are banging.
David Howman (10:00)
Yeah.
Tom Hardon (10:03)
friendly reminder to anybody who is listening to this tomorrow, if you haven't taken your turkey out of the freezer, look into making some reservations for Thanksgiving dinner.
Austen Bundy (10:04)
But wait.
Hahaha
David Howman (10:11)
Yeah,
it's too late. If you haven't taken it out yet, you're too late. ⁓
Austen Bundy (10:17)
But David, what do you have against cranberry sauce?
David Howman (10:20)
everything, everything about it. From start to finish, the taste, the texture, the look, when it comes out of the can and it's got the little ridges on it.
Tom Hardon (10:31)
No, not talking about the cam.
Austen Bundy (10:31)
I'm not I'm not talking no,
we're not talking about the cans We're talking about homemade like still has the berries and stuff in it type of cranberry sauce
Tom Hardon (10:38)
Yeah, cranberry
David Howman (10:38)
still.
Tom Hardon (10:40)
sauce.
David Howman (10:41)
I am anti-cranberry. I won't even listen to the music from the band The Cranberry, it's just on principle.
Andrew Hayslett (10:48)
Thank you.
Tom Hardon (10:50)
I think that's a tad excessive.
Austen Bundy (10:53)
You
David Howman (10:53)
I mean, I also won't listen to songs from the band The Eagles in the week that the Cowboys are playing The Eagles, like this past week, when of course, you know, I gotta mention they came back, they beat them, tied the franchise record for largest comeback win in history, down 21-0, score 24 straight. Austin, I feel like you should take some joy in that as a Giants fan.
Austen Bundy (11:22)
I mean, yes, but I'm also still kind of riding on the high of Jamis Winston absolutely schooling a cornerback on a trick play for a touchdown. Like that's where the game ended for me. Nothing else happened after that point.
David Howman (11:31)
Yeah, I was
going to say nothing happened after James Winston caught a touchdown, but ⁓
Tom Hardon (11:38)
See, Austin's a Giants fan, there will be no joy for him on Monday.
Austen Bundy (11:44)
This is fair.
If Jackson Dart is healthy, we're getting the reincarnation of Brady and Manning.
Tom Hardon (11:58)
We'll see about that.
David Howman (12:00)
Well, I'll throw one last food draft pick in there, my second round pick, mac and cheese. Get a little mac and cheese in there, broil the top a little bit, make it nice and crispy. And I knew that was gonna be, that's the low-hanging fruit. Now we can all agree on something as we end that part of the conversation.
Tom Hardon (12:11)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Hayslett (12:20)
Nope, nope,
I'm not gonna agree on that mac and cheese is not as Thanksgiving food to me.
Austen Bundy (12:27)
⁓ hot take.
David Howman (12:28)
What do mean?
Andrew Hayslett (12:30)
Growing up, I never had it on Thanksgiving.
Austen Bundy (12:34)
doesn't mean it's not a thanksgiving food, it just means you never had it. I never had,
Tom Hardon (12:35)
Yeah.
David Howman (12:35)
Yeah!
Austen Bundy (12:38)
I mean, I cheese it thanksgiving and I still think it's a thanksgiving food.
David Howman (12:40)
Three out of four of us
agreed and now you're gonna be like, it's not, I didn't have it so it doesn't count.
Andrew Hayslett (12:47)
Like to me, it's not a Thanksgiving food. Like, it's...
Austen Bundy (12:51)
Don't let Andrew ever go
Tom Hardon (12:51)
It was never on my table at
Thanksgiving,
Austen Bundy (12:52)
to states east of Texas and south of Kentucky for Thanksgiving.
David Howman (12:57)
Yeah, that's totally a Thanksgiving food.
Andrew Hayslett (13:01)
Not to me, it's not.
Austen Bundy (13:04)
See,
we're all in agreement that mac and cheese is good in this ⁓ potluck. Mac and cheese is the fourth round Kam Scadaboo pick that everybody regrets not taking until now.
David Howman (13:15)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Hayslett (13:16)
I don't know, regrets.
Mac and cheese is good, I will say that, but it's not Thanksgiving food to me.
David Howman (13:29)
I don't even, I can't even respond to that, I can't.
Austen Bundy (13:31)
So then
is turkey not a Thanksgiving food because you can have it at a deli any time of the year?
Andrew Hayslett (13:37)
No, turkey served on Thanksgiving. Mac and cheese are not-
David Howman (13:40)
So is my fingertips.
Austen Bundy (13:40)
I can get
a turkey served to me at the deli underneath my building at work. Like they legitimately have a gigantic turkey breast they slice it from. That's turkey served, not on Thanksgiving.
Andrew Hayslett (13:51)
Well, mac and cheese is, like it's not been at my house growing up. It's not Thanksgiving food.
Austen Bundy (14:02)
You heard it here first folks, Andrew Hazlitt's family home is the end all be all rolling on Thanksgiving food.
David Howman (14:09)
Yeah.
What other foods do they have at your table so I can make sure we have the list going forward on what's allowed?
Tom Hardon (14:11)
We must all abide now.
Austen Bundy (14:16)
You
David Howman (14:19)
Okay, turkey is a white meat or dark meat?
Tom Hardon (14:22)
White meat, hands down.
Austen Bundy (14:23)
I'll take either,
Andrew Hayslett (14:23)
But yeah.
Austen Bundy (14:24)
but I'm partial to dark.
David Howman (14:24)
No, no, I'm asking
Andrew, what is, cause that's the deciding factor. Both? Okay.
Andrew Hayslett (14:29)
Both. Like, you can
have both. I prefer dark, but if you're not gonna have one, that's sacrilegious.
David Howman (14:41)
not gonna have one as in no turkey? Yeah, okay, I'm sacrilegious. I mean, we're all here talking about the sun devils. We worship the devil every Saturday.
Andrew Hayslett (14:44)
Yeah.
Austen Bundy (14:50)
Yeah
Andrew Hayslett (14:54)
I we've talked about 15 minutes for Thanksgiving food. think we might have one up to Mike Leach as the best ⁓ Thanksgiving college football conversation ever.
David Howman (14:54)
I'm fine with that. I can live with that.
You
Austen Bundy (15:12)
We gotta call up some Harry Potter fans, find out what kind of powers a Sun Devil has. Can you kill a Sun Devil?
David Howman (15:16)
Yeah.
Yep. Yeah. Well, and this works as a perfect segue to because in that in that conversation about which mascots, which mascot would win in a fight, he specifically singles out Ralphie for Colorado because it's an actual live, ⁓ live animal that charges onto the field. And of course, you know, as you did go up to Colorado, Ralphie ran out onto the field.
Tom Hardon (15:19)
Sparky from a grace.
Austen Bundy (15:21)
Rest his soul.
David Howman (15:45)
And it was a great time. And then the rest of the football team for Colorado ran out onto the field and it was not such a great time for the Buffaloes. Of course, ASU, you're getting the win and it was kind of a weird game to watch because for the first three quarters, it was incredibly tight and I was kind of convinced that we were going to blow it. And then that fourth quarter happened and almost like from the moment the fourth quarter started, it was just domination. ⁓
It felt very weird because there was of course the fumble right before the fourth quarter. when that happened, was kind of, had this feeling of like, yeah, like we're gonna lose this game. know, a territorial cup won't really matter. Like we're gonna essentially be eliminated from the big 12 contention. ⁓ And then, you know, half an hour later, it was like, ⁓ no sweat. This is an easy win. Like we got this one in the bag. How quickly things can change.
⁓ What was?
Tom Hardon (16:43)
Uh, point one,
uh, point one, never say the territorial cup doesn't matter because we all know it matters the most every season, no matter what the record is. And point two, um, you know, it wasn't until I got home from hockey that the team started playing well. So take that as you will.
David Howman (17:03)
Well, thank you, Tom.
Tom Hardon (17:06)
You're welcome, I do what I can.
David Howman (17:08)
You
Austen Bundy (17:09)
Was this the
third game this season that they have lost the turnover margin and still won the game?
I know it happened at least twice before where Kenny had a mid-game interview where he's talking about, we're losing the turnover margin, like you can't have that, you're not gonna win football games that way, and then they somehow pull out the win in the fourth quarter. I feel like it's the third time this year they've done that.
Tom Hardon (17:30)
And I think you're right. It was 4-1 on the turnover margin this time. And it's really, you can't be banking on that. But somehow, some way, Kenny Dillingham's team has managed to come out on the right side of it in these games. And call it an ugly win, but a win is still a win. And it's...
You put down the pedal in that fourth quarter and pulled out the margin of victory that we were all expecting. So it was nice to see that boost in the final 15 minutes.
David Howman (18:10)
Yeah, I they stepped up when they needed to. They made the plays that they needed to. And ⁓ I think the players just like, they want Kenny to look foolish. Cause he keeps saying Austin, to your point, like, ⁓ we get like, we're losing the turnover battle. We can't win that way. And then now three games, they're like, no, actually we can't. Like, ⁓ just kind of, kind of proving him wrong, which, hey, if it works, you know, whatever, whatever works for you. ⁓ But of course this game also had a
You Jordan Tyson came back and he was able to play. He said that he wasn't 100 % fully healthy, but he was still able to out there and play. He said he he felt a lot more sore than he normally does in a game playing in that one. Obviously, the weather being a factor there. But, you know, him being a former Colorado player, there was a lot of motivation for him to come in and play this one wasn't his best game. But again, being off for for multiple weeks with an injury coming in.
to a difficult environment. What did everybody make of the way that the offense approached this one with regard to Tyson and his utilization with Jeff Simms and his performance, the overall offensive game plan?
Andrew Hayslett (19:28)
Well, I'll start off kind of pivot a little bit to something that go back to our predictions because David you did that once so now I'm gonna do it here. was one of us said Tom Petty's ⁓ run down a dream opening line. It was a beautiful day the Sun beat down Although the game will be at night in colder weather the Arizona State offense will be running down the dream with a run game being explosive
David Howman (19:37)
Hahaha
Andrew Hayslett (19:58)
I was the one that said that and Relief Brown popped off for 200-something yards. David, you're the only one that mentioned the run game possibly being ⁓ used while everyone was also talking about Jordan Tyson returning. I said, yeah, he'll be there, but the run game is what's going to be efficient and that's what happened.
So I just want to say I knew something once.
David Howman (20:31)
You
Austen Bundy (20:31)
He set a program record. He set a program record for ⁓ road rushing yards, I believe. Most road rushing yards in a single game.
Tom Hardon (20:41)
and second in program history for any game behind Nino Benjamin.
David Howman (20:47)
Yeah, and I mean, shout out to Sean Iguano, the running backs coach too. How many different thousand yard rushers has he had now? You know, we can discount the 2020 season obviously, because I was shortened by COVID, but I mean, he brings guys in and just thousand yard rusher, thousand yard rusher, thousand yard rusher. And I mean, it's easier said than done. Not a whole lot of programs that aren't like the blue bloods like Alabama, Ohio State.
are doing that and consistently doing that. You know, Sean Iguano, of course, also was the interim head coach during that 2022 season, helped kind of steer the program through some turbulent times. And then Kenny Dillingham smartly retained him. I mean, this run game, it's been up and down throughout the season. There's been some questions at various points about who really is our lead back, like, who can they rely on? Relique Brown has really
really cemented himself the last few weeks and he's come on really strong at the end of this season. Which Andrew knew was gonna happen, by the way. He was, in the same way that his Thanksgiving dinner table is the arbiter of all things true, he knew exactly what was going down with this game.
Tom Hardon (22:07)
I for one loved seeing the running game be paramount. Being colder weather, higher altitude, gotta have those adjustments to the game plan. Can't be running on, trying to go through the air. I wouldn't go as far as to say we all thought the air game was gonna be a big part of the game plan, but we were counting on Tyson to have some sort of impact.
He did to a degree, two catches for 61 yards. There's no discounting that, but major shout out to Derek Eusebio, who has been really the unsung hero of the wide receiver room this year, just quietly having great game after great game. this was another in that same vein with that big 68 yard touchdown run on really a short check down pass that he just
took down the field for six yards after making the catch. seeing these young guys develop and seeing the targets outside of your number one really start to come into their own, it's promising that Tyson, he is fully healthy for...
this week and for whatever is down the line, he won't be relied on as the end-all be-all for the wide receivers, but he will be just, he'll be another weapon in that tool shed.
David Howman (23:42)
Yeah, think like, I mean, Tyson being on the field, even though he didn't have a big game in the stat sheet, I think that helps open things up for the rest of the offense too. And I think it was almost a blessing in disguise that he wasn't playing the last couple of games because it did force these other receivers to step up to some degree. It forced them to get a little bit more involved than they had been before.
and also gave an opportunity for Jeff Sims to build some chemistry with them. And so now he's got, he knows a little bit more about like, where's you say you're going to be? Where's McLean going to be on these kinds of reps? Where do they like that ball? A little bit more chemistry and actual reps throw into them, live game reps throw into them. And then you bring back Jordan Tyson. Of course, the Colorado defense, as soon as they see Tyson's on that field, that's their number one priority. They want to take him away. And I mean, you know.
I'm sure Buffalo fans are sitting there still crying into their mug and everything with their cup of tears and saying, ⁓ but we shut him down. We took him away. That's something. ⁓ And sure, maybe to an extent, but I think also it kind of works as a double-edged sword against defenses is that you can commit the rest of your defense to taking him away, but now they have other guys that are going to step up. And that's where you can start to see some real potential with this offense.
moving forward to the extent that they are moving forward because of course we know that ⁓ the chances are slim of going to the Big 12 title game at this point. Who wants to walk us through the scenarios? It's a little more clear cut this time around not connecting all the different points on our Charlie Day yarn board but who's got all the scenarios?
Tom Hardon (25:32)
I've
got all the scenarios up here. I can run through those. So Arizona State does still have a case to win the regular season title and enter as top team in the Big 12 championship game. Obviously with a win on Friday plus BYU losing to UCF.
Kansas losing to Utah and Texas Tech losing to West Virginia. If all three of those losses happen with an Arizona State win, Arizona State will be the number one team going into the Big 12 championship game. That is the only case for the top spot. There are three cases for the second spot with the caveat that obviously these all come with a win on Friday. Case one, BYU loses to UCF and Kansas loses to Utah.
Case two, BYU loses to UCF and Texas Tech loses to West Virginia. Case three, Utah loses to Kansas and Texas Tech loses to West Virginia. So it's really just a round robin of you need at least two losses out of the three games involving all the mathematically alive teams plus an Arizona State win to get back to Dallas for the big 12 championship game.
David Howman (26:53)
Yeah, and there's no scenario in which Arizona State loses this week and they can still go to the Big 12 title game. That's correct?
Tom Hardon (27:03)
Correct. With a loss, Arizona State is out.
David Howman (27:09)
Yeah, and I mean, we already said, you know, obviously, and Tom, you got the low hanging fruit of correcting me in my foolish statement. I was just testing you by the way, giving you a softball. Territorial cup always matters. ⁓ But, and Kenny Dillingham said this in, after one of the practices this week too, it's more fun when it's meaningful football for the postseason. It's more fun when both teams are playing well. You know, obviously it's...
fun to beat them no matter what and that happens quite often. It's fun to beat them 70 to 7 and the game is over pretty much from the opening snap. That's still fun but when both teams come into this and they're both playing well, they're both playing for something beyond this game, it makes it mean just a little bit more. It already means so much. It's the oldest rivalry trophy in college football but the fact that like
ASU needs to win this or else they've got no shot at the Big 12 title game. That is fun. That adds an extra layer to it beyond all the other things that go into this heated, intense, historic rivalry. But again, they got to win obviously, and then they need a few things to go their way in the rest of the Big 12, which don't necessarily seem all that likely.
but you're saying there's a chance.
Tom Hardon (28:41)
There is a chance, a slim chance, but there is a chance.
David Howman (28:45)
Yeah, but ⁓ so needless to say, it's it's gonna go down to the wire. ⁓ And other things that went down to the wire ⁓ to transition to talk a little bit about some other ASU sports that were going on these past few days. ⁓ Women's basketball got a win a thrilling win over UNLV that also came down to the wire. And for those that are not ⁓ not with it.
on the women's basketball front, UNLV. They've been to the tournament three the last four years. They've been not necessarily a powerhouse, but they've been one of the better ⁓ women's basketball programs the last few years. This was kind of an opportunity, a statement game for ASU early on. ⁓ They haven't really played a murderer's row of opponents so far. UNLV was their first real test. And it was a back and forth game.
all game long, like leads were changing, they were going back and forth. And then at the very, very end, ⁓ ASU had the ball tie game last like 10 seconds and they're trying to run a play, things don't go quite well, ball rolls on the ground. And with like a half second left on the shot clock, Marley Washington just heaves it up like over her head pretty much from three, from a deep three and it banks in and they win that way.
And the shot was so special, so magnificent that it was actually on ESPN Sports Centers number one of their top 10 plays of the day. So Sun Devil Women's Basketball getting high praise, high praise and lots of attention from ESPN, the worldwide leader for their win and in dramatic fashion. And on top of that, obviously, like I said, the statement win coming over UNLV.
a really important pivotal early moment for Molly Miller and her staff in this new season.
Andrew Hayslett (30:43)
That's some ⁓ demonstration of innovation right there as ASU is the number one in innovation.
David Howman (30:50)
Yeah, going on how many years now? Have we stopped counting?
Austen Bundy (30:55)
According to the signage,
Andrew Hayslett (30:55)
I don't know.
Austen Bundy (30:56)
they stopped counting. I was in Tempe a couple of weeks ago and now it just says repeatedly ranked number one innovation. We're not even counting anymore.
David Howman (31:03)
That's an innovative way to start counting it.
Austen Bundy (31:05)
You
It's like 11, 12 years now, something like that.
David Howman (31:12)
Yeah, I mean, I've got hats. I've got hats somewhere here from when it was three in a row. And I no idea where that hat is, but it's somewhere. But yes, an innovative way for the women's basketball team to get the win. And they're having a really great season. They're playing a really fun brand of ball. I know I've said it the last few times, but if you guys haven't had a chance to check out this women's basketball team,
Do yourself a favor, change that, go watch. They're just, they're relentless, they're energetic, they've all their wins, they haven't lost this season so far, but all of their wins have come in different ways. They found different ways to win. Sometimes they're shooting threes like they're the vintage Splash Brothers Warriors. Sometimes they're just, their very first win, I think they shot like 22 % from three. They just.
got so many steals and so many points off turnovers that that was what the difference maker for him. It's just fun ball all the way around. And sticking with that theme of fun basketball is also the men's basketball team who had a really, really late tip off against Texas in Hawaii. They won. I did not stay up for it because I am on central time. Alston did not stay up for it because he's on ⁓ Eastern time.
Tom Hardon (32:35)
Thanks.
David Howman (32:39)
Andrew and Tom really had no excuse. Did you guys stay up for it?
Tom Hardon (32:43)
Hey, I work East Coast hours, so I'm metaphorically with Austin there.
David Howman (32:45)
okay.
Andrew Hayslett (32:49)
I was awake but I was doing things with my roommate. ⁓
Austen Bundy (32:54)
That's that's not, that's
pretty ambiguous. That's not concerning at all. Could you be any more specific?
David Howman (32:57)
Best. ⁓
Tom Hardon (32:58)
You
specific spot.
Andrew Hayslett (33:03)
It was... We were doing...
Austen Bundy (33:08)
edit this out
David before he incriminates himself edit this out
David Howman (33:09)
yes.
I'm getting really worried.
Austen Bundy (33:15)
You
Andrew Hayslett (33:15)
We were doing survivor simulations.
David Howman (33:21)
Can you expand on that?
Austen Bundy (33:22)
You can't
just leave it with that.
Andrew Hayslett (33:23)
You know what the show Survivor is?
Austen Bundy (33:26)
Yeah.
David Howman (33:26)
yeah, my wife is the biggest
survivor fan that exists. Genuinely, if anybody out there is a bigger survivor fan, no you're not, but also prove it.
Andrew Hayslett (33:30)
No.
So me and my roommate have our own ⁓ version where we put random people in and see how the seasons go. And we were doing that instead of watching basketball.
Tom Hardon (33:52)
Okay, Brett, your on mark if you're listening to this, you don't have to take us off the air.
David Howman (33:52)
I dig it.
Austen Bundy (33:57)
No, I think you can take Andrew off the air. Go ahead. We give you permission.
David Howman (34:00)
No,
I kind of dig that. I kind of dig that. That's actually pretty fun. ⁓
Andrew Hayslett (34:05)
We did our 66th and 67th season. Yeah.
David Howman (34:09)
Oh my God.
Who won?
Andrew Hayslett (34:16)
Justin Lassertosa won one those of Devil's Digest.
David Howman (34:21)
I love that.
Andrew Hayslett (34:23)
So yeah.
David Howman (34:26)
Okay.
Andrew Hayslett (34:28)
That's what I was doing.
Austen Bundy (34:29)
Anyways,
here's Wonderwall.
David Howman (34:31)
Yeah
Tom Hardon (34:32)
You
David Howman (34:34)
So yeah, so men's basketball beat Texas by one. None of us stayed up to watch it. But they're also.
Tom Hardon (34:40)
But again, it was ⁓
on a last second shot. 10 seconds ago, Mo Odom with a three pointer to take the lead for good.
David Howman (34:50)
Yeah, and Mo Odom, the transfer point guard, he's been having a heck of a year. And his style of play, he's just like, he's such a true natural point guard. He makes it a very fun team to watch. I mean, it's not just him, but a lot of the offense is running through him and that's where he's clearly most comfortable. He's been facilitating a lot. He's been scoring more recently as well, really coming into his own.
and I think the team around them are really starting to build some chemistry. You know, of course, I'll couch it with, we've seen this before, Bobby Hurley's notoriously great in the non-conference. And this feels a lot like the win over St. Mary's from last year, where everyone is just like, ⁓ we beat Texas? Okay, you know, maybe this is, maybe we got something. ⁓ Until big 12 play starts.
and the wins keep coming. Personally, I cannot buy in. I cannot be emotionally invested, but I will say even when Big 12 Play starts, I do anticipate this team will still be fun to watch. Even if they're not able to win games, they will be fun to watch, which, you know, call it what you will. ⁓ That's at least something. That's more than we got last year out of this team.
Tom Hardon (36:14)
Absolutely.
Austen Bundy (36:16)
Yeah, I mean, you can't ask for more than just being competitive at this point. We all know Bobby Early's on the final year of his contract. This is a more than likely farewell tour, more than a prove it year for Bobby. ⁓ So, I mean, if they're just going to make this entertaining, then all for it. Hopefully we ride it to something close to the tournament. I don't know. Maybe we go back to that weird basketball tournament in Vegas like we did last year. ⁓
But I mean, as we're recording this now, they're playing Washington State semifinals of the Maui Invitational. ⁓ We'll see how they do. By the time this comes out, we'll already know whether or not they're gonna be playing USC in the final or they're gonna be playing in some consolation match or going home.
Tom Hardon (37:02)
Also a shout out for women's basketball schedule. The 5-0 Sun Devils are taking on Utah Tech. Tip off is coming up in a matter of minutes from Desert Financial Arena.
David Howman (37:03)
I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah earlier when I was talking about them and I said they haven't lost this season as soon as I said it I was like If they lose to Utah Tech it is entirely my fault So if y'all are listening and after a women's basketball loss, I'm very very sorry ⁓ Please find it in your hearts to forgive me Tom I'll let you brief us on on hockey and and where we're at with with hockey before we get into
The Territorial Cup.
Tom Hardon (37:48)
hockey had a ⁓ in my mind at least a highly anticipated series with the Denver Pioneers and it was truly a tale of two games this weekend. Friday night was a flat out embarrassment at the hands of the Pioneers come to a 7 to 1 final. A game that saw both goaltenders see action and neither goaltender was particularly effective.
Samuel Urbann got the start gave up four goals in 27 minutes of play Connor Hasley came in to relieve him at that point gave up a further three goals including a penalty shot goal on a on a slash in the third period by Justin Kipke when the Denver Ford had a clear breakaway on the net It was it was a very forgettable night. It was one that coach powers and ⁓ in the in the postgame comments, he was just
very very resigned to the fact that it was not the best game at all on any any any area of the team and this coming on the heels of his his announcement of the being in the first endowed head coach in Sun Devil athletics history so not a not the best game to bring in that news but thankfully on Saturday night the Sun Devils did
redeem themselves with a 3-2 overtime victory. This game saw Connor Hasley get the start. He was phenomenal throughout the game. He was back on his form that Sun Devil fans have come to expect out of the senior, making highlight save after highlight save. A couple of goals from Sam Harris for the Pioneers tied the game up after Arizona State had the 2-0 lead in the first period, thanks to goals by Carmelo Crandall and...
and Jack Beck. And a score was, after Harris' goal tied the game, coming up on the midway mark at the third, almost all the way through the three-on-three overtime period, Colin Potter streaked down the left wing side of the ice and buried the overtime winner with about 21 seconds left, salvaged a series split, got two important points in the NCHC standings.
The Sun Devils now sit in fifth place in the conference standings with a matchup against Ohio State coming up. A Friday's game will be a matinee before the Territorial Cup. That game starting at 3 p.m. from Milit Arena. Saturday's game, the regular is scheduled 5 p.m. This Ohio State team, as I started doing my research into them, they came into this season with...
high expectations. They too were ranked in the US HO preseason top 20 like Arizona State and have not performed to expectations. The Buckeyes are coming in at five and seven overall, countering the Sun Devils at five, eight and one. It's, you know, this is the kind of series that we will.
truly know what kind team Arizona State has for the rest of the season if they can take care of business against a scuffling Buckeyes team.
Andrew Hayslett (41:04)
to go off of that in the current U.S. whatever the abbreviations are for that Letters aren't my thing. your USCHL poll, Arizona State has one vote to Ohio State's two votes. So a battle of two teams of similar skill, I guess.
David Howman (41:12)
USCHO.
Number one and number two.
Andrew Hayslett (41:29)
But Ohio State does have technically doubled the votes that Arizona State does. And also it's a kind of a, I don't, a quote unquote revenge game for Noah Powell who played on the Buckeyes last season before leaving the team in the middle of the year.
Tom Hardon (41:52)
And some additional hockey news. Lincoln Keene is currently taking part in the with the US ⁓ US National Team Development program. They are currently playing a ⁓ a challenge series against the Canadian Hockey League prospects. Keene is filling in for another injured defenseman for the development program. Believed to be just a one off. He should be returning to the team for this weekend series with Ohio State.
Andrew Hayslett (42:23)
And he's a guy that is an underage player for the Sun Devils. He's still 17, there's not many 17 year olds in the NCAA. I think there's like five others, if memory serves me right, with couple of those being names like Gavin McKenna for Penn State, Keaton Barhoff for North Dakota, likely the number one and two pick in the NHL draft this year. So it's cool to see ASU have one those guys in Lincoln Keen where he's not gonna get the stats of those guys because
Let's face it, Keen's a defensive defenseman. He's gonna be there to hit people and block a lot of shots and do things that aren't gonna show up on the scorecard day in and day out, but he's still going to be a force on the Sun Devil team for hopefully years to come if he winds up staying.
David Howman (43:11)
Yeah, and I feel like, cause you mentioned the potential for a revenge game too. Maybe it's just me as somebody who grew up in ASU fan with two parents who are from Ohio, but I feel like there is a rivalry between Arizona state and Ohio state. Am I the only one that feels that? Like just a little bit.
Austen Bundy (43:29)
There's just a little bit of you got a little history there with Ohio State used to be the biggest university student body population wise for a while and then as you took over right around the time I got there in twenty fifteen. And of course you can no one can ever forget. We put him over exactly that was us that are hard to put it put it right over the top when they counted us. I mean you can't forget.
David Howman (43:43)
You and me both, we put them over.
Tom Hardon (43:53)
Thank you for your contribution.
Austen Bundy (43:57)
You also you can't forget the 1997 Rose Bowl obviously with a with a controversial finish there the Phantom P. I. that set up Ohio State for the game winning score. ⁓ So there is a little bit of history there especially in football I mean.
David Howman (44:10)
It's also
the fact that they poached John Cooper from us as our head coach. Last time that an ASU coach actually got poached, there were concerns it was gonna happen again with Kenny Dillingham and he quickly laid those to rest. no, everything you said, yeah, I don't like Ohio State. A lot of that has to do with my parents coming from Ohio and they both are huge Ohio State fans. And so I think just to...
just lovingly to spite them. I've always rooted against Ohio State, but I think part of that is also fueled by that little bit of a rivalry with Arizona State. So it's, guess in that way, we can consider it a rivalry week for hockey as well. ⁓ More of a rivalry than ASU and Utah as we.
Tom Hardon (44:59)
And keep in mind that this is also a quote unquote owed return series for Ohio State because back in the 2020-21 season, Arizona State played an all road schedule against the Big Ten because of COVID implications. So this is a series that Ohio State is returning from the Sun Devils going on the road twice to Columbus during that season.
Andrew Hayslett (45:26)
I believe Michigan State and Wisconsin are the only two left to visit. Yeah.
Tom Hardon (45:33)
Correct.
And Notre Dame's visit as part of the icebreaker satisfied that. Penn State obviously to open the season and Minnesota came a couple years ago.
Andrew Hayslett (45:48)
and she can apply.
Tom Hardon (45:49)
and Michigan came
last year.
David Howman (45:53)
I I've said it a million times, the Big Ten is scared of us. So that checks it.
Austen Bundy (45:59)
mean in football that's
true. No Big Ten team has come to Tempe and won a football game.
Tom Hardon (46:06)
Acts don't lie.
David Howman (46:08)
that things that are hard to believe, but they're ⁓
But of course we also have, you know, the big rivalry in football coming up against that other school that's in the state of Arizona. I'm not talking about the Lumberjacks. mean, Grand Canyon doesn't have a football team. ⁓ But the other one, the one down in Tucson and you know, the Territorial Cup, said, you know, it's the oldest rivalry trophy in college football.
And I don't think that gets enough credit. Everybody wants to talk about Ohio State Michigan. I understand. I get that. And again, this is going to go back to my parents and everything. I really hope Michigan beats them again. It would just be so funny for the bit if Ryan Day still can't beat Michigan. ⁓ I just I really, really hope after all this season of them being so dominant, it would be so funny. I'm really pulling for that. ⁓
People like to talk about the iron bowl, that's a big one. There's other rivalries that people always talk about. But for me, this one always, and obviously we all are Sun Devils, but just the vitriol, the hate, the animosity, it's just a little bit different. And if you've ever gone down to Tucson for one of these games, we don't have to talk about what happened on the field after I went down there, but...
just the atmosphere and the environment going into one of those games, ⁓ feeling like you're in enemy territory and then vice versa when they come up to Tempe. It's so much fun, it's such a fun environment. I'm really, really excited for it. I know everybody on the show is, ⁓ Austin, you do have trivia for us. Austin has prepared trivia for us because we're all very, very knowledgeable. Andrew.
Austen Bundy (48:02)
I do. I do. We're going to play a little.
David Howman (48:08)
Andrew knows what's already going to happen in the game, but does he know his history? Does he know his trivia? We're going to find out. Austin, give us the rules.
Austen Bundy (48:15)
Alright, so we're gonna go... I'm gonna go in the order that I can see you on my screen, which means Andrew will get the first question, but if he does not know the answer or he gets it incorrect, it will move to the next person who could potentially steal, and that would be David. And if David can't get it, we go down to Tom. And if Tom can't get it, we're just gonna keep going in a circle until we're just gonna move on to the next question.
David Howman (48:43)
It'll be really embarrassing if none of us get it.
Austen Bundy (48:47)
I tried not to pick really niche things, but I tried to avoid a ton of the obvious things too. I want to see how well any of us have studied up on these things.
Andrew Hayslett (48:57)
I did not study.
David Howman (48:59)
I didn't study at all, but I feel like I'm fairly knowledgeable.
Tom Hardon (49:03)
I haven't been in school in almost a decade, so.
Stop sending this foreign to me.
Austen Bundy (49:11)
Alright, we'll start with an easy one then. Andrew, you're up first. ASU's longest winning streak in the Territorial Cup Series is nine straight wins from 1965 to 1973. Who was the head coach in that time?
Andrew Hayslett (49:26)
I'm Frank Kush.
Austen Bundy (49:28)
Correct. One point to Andrew.
David Howman (49:30)
What? That's so easy.
Austen Bundy (49:33)
All right, David, you want to go a little harder? We'll get a little harder here with your question.
David Howman (49:37)
Yeah, you're
gonna ask me like, who caught the pass on second and six at the 13 minute mark in 1952? My God. Yeah, probably.
Andrew Hayslett (49:43)
Thank
Austen Bundy (49:49)
Hahaha
Tom Hardon (49:50)
Wait.
Austen Bundy (49:53)
What year
did the rivalry become an annual matchup?
When did we start playing U of A every season?
David Howman (50:07)
feel like that's a trick question because they started playing them annually and then they had to take a break at one point and then they resumed it.
Austen Bundy (50:13)
Nope.
Nope.
David Howman (50:17)
No, they didn't take a break, they did.
Austen Bundy (50:18)
No, they
didn't take any breaks. Once we started playing them annually, there were no breaks.
Tom Hardon (50:23)
Hmm... Well...
David Howman (50:25)
I'll know about that.
Well, okay.
I'll say 1952.
Austen Bundy (50:38)
Incorrect, Tom, you can steal.
Tom Hardon (50:41)
I know the first year it was played was 1899, but I think the it's been continuously played, I believe since 1913.
Austen Bundy (50:50)
No, incorrect. Andrew Steele.
Andrew Hayslett (50:54)
⁓ I'm gonna attempt to use logic here. Since you said continuous, they might have stopped it for World War II. So I'm gonna say the first year after that was 1946.
Austen Bundy (51:08)
Correct, Andrew. 1946 was the first year we played it annually.
So Andrew's up 2-0. We're going to go back to David now.
David Howman (51:22)
I'm fact checking you just so you know.
Austen Bundy (51:25)
Alright, that's fine.
David Howman (51:29)
but I'm ready for your other question. I'll butt in again once I prove you wrong.
Austen Bundy (51:31)
Okay.
Alright, so the first game like Tom said was in 1899 between Arizona and Tempe Normal School. What was the final score of that first game?
Andrew Hayslett (51:49)
you
David Howman (51:54)
⁓ okay.
Well, it was.
I mean, there wasn't a whole lot of passing back in those days. So it's gotta be like a really low scoring number. ⁓
10 to three.
Austen Bundy (52:16)
very close.
Tom Hardon (52:19)
It was 11 to 2, ⁓ using the former name Tempe Normal with the win.
Austen Bundy (52:25)
Correct. 11 to 2 is correct. So it's 2 to 1, Andrew and Tom.
David we'll go back to you again, we're trying to get you on the board here.
David Howman (52:33)
What the fuck, Joe?
I'm not gonna publish this episode, guys.
Austen Bundy (52:43)
So Arizona leads the series 51 to 45 with a single tie. What year was that tie? And you get a bonus point if you remember the score.
David Howman (52:56)
What year was the tie? Let's see, when did they stop doing ties? ⁓ I think that would have been like the 80s or the 90s. ⁓
Shot in the dark, 78.
Austen Bundy (53:18)
Close, Tom, still.
Tom Hardon (53:21)
1987 was a tie.
Austen Bundy (53:24)
Why do I feel like you're looking things up off to the side here?
David Howman (53:26)
i know
Tom Hardon (53:26)
I'm not,
no, absolutely I'm not.
David Howman (53:27)
he's like he's like staring at the screen he's staring at the other screen he's just like here's the answer he's the exact answer he's gonna give you the exact score he's gonna give you the date he's gonna give you the time of kickoff
Andrew Hayslett (53:29)
you
Tom Hardon (53:32)
No, and.
Austen Bundy (53:39)
You
Tom Hardon (53:40)
I can't tell you what the exact date was. Obviously I have a ballpark date, but no, I know it was 1987 because I did, well, background for the purposes of this, I did go through to counter some of those other fans with the record since Arizona State became a university and I did go through and find when that tie was so I can make sure I had the correct record. So that's why I know it was 1987.
Total shot in the dark 2727 was the final score.
Austen Bundy (54:12)
Very close, 24-24 was the final score of that game. So Andrew and Tom are tied at 2-2 with one question left. David is eliminated. He is mathematically eliminated from climbing back into this.
Andrew Hayslett (54:26)
just like how Arizona is currently. ⁓
David Howman (54:26)
Well, we could make this one worth extra.
Austen Bundy (54:30)
Alright, this one's worth
100,000 points for anybody who can chime in for it.
Andrew Hayslett (54:34)
I
was going to say David is eliminated just like how Arizona is eliminated from the Big 12 championship race at this moment.
Austen Bundy (54:40)
There you go. Shot across the bow. All right. This is I left the really hard one. This is the niche one that I was pulling out. The cup was originally priced at $20 in 1910. Who manufactured the trophy and where? Andrew.
Tom Hardon (54:41)
There we go.
David Howman (54:42)
That's
pretty good.
Andrew Hayslett (55:02)
I see Tom's got it, so.
David Howman (55:03)
Yeah, Tom
knows it. Austin, I think you shared the questions with Tom.
Austen Bundy (55:08)
I to God,
they're just sitting there. I literally wrote these down like 10 minutes before I left work today.
David Howman (55:11)
We're gonna need an investigation.
Andrew Hayslett (55:17)
Can you repeat?
Austen Bundy (55:17)
I also
specifically made a couple of these really neat because I knew Tom was probably going to be the most knowledgeable out of all of us. I was going to try and stump him.
David Howman (55:22)
Yeah
Tom Hardon (55:25)
I mean, I can tell you who manufactured it, I just, I don't know the exact where, I have a guess on the where, but I know who it was.
Andrew Hayslett (55:31)
you repeat the question.
Austen Bundy (55:34)
So the cup was originally priced at $20 in 1910, who manufactured the trophy and where.
Andrew Hayslett (55:41)
Okay.
We'll just go with like Tiffany Company and I'm guessing their headquarters might be in San Francisco.
Austen Bundy (56:01)
Incorrect. David, you want to just give it a wild guess?
David Howman (56:06)
⁓ Well, I liked the guess of ⁓ Tiffany and company and I'm not just saying that because I literally couldn't think of another answer to give. So I'm going to stick with that, but I'm going to say that it was manufactured in...
⁓ In Austin, Texas.
Austen Bundy (56:29)
Nope. Both of you wrong time zones. Tom, go ahead and show us how smart you are.
Tom Hardon (56:34)
It was Tiffany and Company, that I know for a fact. I feel like Massachusetts is part of the lore. want to say Fall River Massachusetts is sticking in my brain for some reason. So that's going to be my guess. Tiffany and Company, manufactured in Fall River Massachusetts.
Austen Bundy (56:53)
Well, it wasn't Tiffany, it was Reed and Barton in Taunton, Massachusetts, who made the original cup.
Tiffany wasn't a thing yet.
Tom Hardon (57:06)
I have the right state though. A town over.
Austen Bundy (57:07)
You did.
David Howman (57:12)
OK, so who won? I think it was me.
Austen Bundy (57:15)
⁓ well actually, Tom
got it incorrect on the last question there, so technically Andrew and Tom are tied at two.
David Howman (57:22)
Okay, well I have a tiebreaker question that I just came up with while trying to prove you wrong on your...
Austen Bundy (57:30)
But you couldn't
prove me wrong, could you?
You call into question my journalistic integrity, David?
David Howman (57:43)
All right, so I'll ask this one. It's a two-parter, so I don't have any plan for this, but.
All right, so there has been one game in the series that was not played in either Tempe or Tucson.
What was the year, who won, and what was the score? Point for each correct answer.
Austen Bundy (58:14)
You don't even want to know where it was played? That's not the question?
David Howman (58:18)
Yeah, let's
do that too. Okay, where was it? What was the year? What did I say? Who won and what was the score?
Austen Bundy (58:27)
I can tell you where it was, I don't remember the year.
Andrew Hayslett (58:30)
I guess I'll go first here and this is I have no clue. We're gonna say it was played in Phoenix. Is that as different from Tempe? Arizona State one. Let's go like at 13 to three and the year let's go with the roaring 20s were fun times. Let's go somewhere in there 1927.
Absolutely no logic is used in this, so...
David Howman (59:04)
I absolutely love the just Andrew of all people that the youngest one on the show going the roaring 20s were fun.
Andrew Hayslett (59:16)
I'm a history, to an extent.
Tom Hardon (59:19)
I I too am gonna go with Phoenix. I'm gonna be a little bit more specific. I think it was Phoenix Indian School Was the the site of the the game? I'm gonna go with 1920 I believe that that other school won by a final score of 14 to nothing
Austen Bundy (59:47)
Am I allowed to guess?
David Howman (59:49)
You can guess but you're getting zero points just like me.
Tom Hardon (59:50)
you
Austen Bundy (59:52)
That's
fine. It was Phoenix, 1936, I think Arizona won 24 to 7.
David Howman (1:00:05)
You are hilariously wrong. That's- You should be ashamed. You're actually pretty close. It was Phoenix, which is different from Tempe. It was 1933. The wrong team did win and they won by a score of 26 to seven.
Austen Bundy (1:00:07)
Great.
⁓ ho ho ho ho!
David Howman (1:00:25)
So,
Tom got two of those right. He got Phoenix and the winning team. Andrew, I'm sorry you have lost. There's no prize for the winner unless Austin came up with one.
Andrew Hayslett (1:00:37)
Hey, what's going on?
Austen Bundy (1:00:41)
No, just our undying pride and appreciation.
Tom Hardon (1:00:45)
Pride is good.
David Howman (1:00:47)
Yeah. Well, that was, I was gonna say that was fun, but that was really awful for me. I'm very upset about this. Yeah. But good questions. ⁓ Maybe next time, don't give the easy ones to the other two. ⁓
Austen Bundy (1:00:54)
You
We'll let the listeners decide.
I'm going to make that a recurring segment on this show and I'm going to come up with trivia. I'm to give really basic questions to Tom and Andrew and then David, you're to get the really extremely hard ones.
David Howman (1:01:15)
Yeah.
Yeah, what colors are Arizona State's scheme? And then for me, it's like, what was the GPA of the first person to graduate from the university?
Tom Hardon (1:01:31)
mean, obviously, you have that right.
Austen Bundy (1:01:31)
Big 12 Championship is
played in Jerry's World in Dallas, Texas. David, what material did they build the stadium roof out of?
David Howman (1:01:42)
I don't know what they did build it out of, it is falling down, so it really was not well made. ⁓ But yes, ⁓ trivia always fun. ⁓ It's good to know what's happened before, but we're more obsessed right now with what's coming next. And this game, like we said earlier, it means something. Obviously, it means something because of the rivalry, but it means something more for...
Austen Bundy (1:01:45)
Hahaha! ⁓
David Howman (1:02:08)
what it could do for ASU as far as being still in contention for the Big 12 title game. ⁓ And then, you obviously if that's not in the cards, then this win could very well help decide which bowl game they end up going to, which depending on where you are in the country might determine whether or not you go to the game. May or may not be speaking out of personal favor there. Somewhere in Texas would be great, but...
⁓ what what is the what is the number one thing that everybody's looking for in this game like the x factor in this game going into it right now
Andrew Hayslett (1:02:47)
I'm going to just say the crowd because Mountain America Stadium has been a rockin' ⁓ stadium all season. 7 for 7 sold out games. 7 for 7 great environments. I expected that with both teams being ranked Arizona State 20, Arizona 25. It's going to be an interesting one. The crowd has to get into it if you're an Arizona State fan. Be loud.
There's probably going to be more state fans and Arizona fans, so you
David Howman (1:03:21)
Get her,
Austen Bundy (1:03:22)
You would hope.
Andrew Hayslett (1:03:23)
Yeah, but I saw the end of the last game of when it was in Tempe with that. That wasn't the case at the end of it, unfortunately, for fear and Arizona State Pan. So you have to be loud. You have to be louder than the other fans. And if you do that, that's going to help the Sun Devils to an extent.
Austen Bundy (1:03:51)
Yeah, and can we just hang on like...
Tom Hardon (1:03:52)
Also, bear
in mind...
was gonna say, bear in mind as far as the crowd, ⁓ other school did give back a portion of their ticket allotment. So that opened up the door for more local fans to purchase. So that's gonna be something that lends well to the home crowd.
Austen Bundy (1:04:13)
Yeah, for sure. And let's go back to the rankings there for a second. I think we need to just talk a little bit about how the fact that ASU has jumped five spots from last week in the college football playoff selection committee's eyes, which arguably holds a whole lot more consequence over how your team is actually viewed in the overall grand scheme of the sport compared to the Associated Press, which still refuses to rank Arizona State in this week, getting
What was it? 77 votes I think they got this week, which is just under the 122 that the 25th team in the country got for the AP. So ASU was sitting at 26 going into this week. I want to know what the sports writers are watching and the selection committee. The selection committee is overhyping ASU, just getting ready to drop us as soon as we lose the territorial cup game. And the AP writers just see the writing on the wall.
or the AP writers just confirming the fact that they really have no love for this program and are just gonna refuse to give them their flowers when they're winning games and winning games in fashions that they're not supposed to be winning games with no Sam Levitt and a pretty battered up ⁓ roster to begin with.
David Howman (1:05:28)
east coast bias you know it was it's they're they're not staying up for for these late west coast kickoff games not that colorado is necessarily west coast kind of sort of ⁓ but ⁓ i mean and like we said at the beginning during our recap too as you didn't look good for the first three quarters they were playing sloppy it wasn't until the fourth quarter that they played like the team that we know that they're capable of playing and then they blew out colorado frankly i'm surprised that the
the CFP committee increased them by that many spots. mean, Colorado, like, you know, they beat Colorado big, but it's not like they beat a good team big. Like Colorado has been pretty bad all season. And you know, their freshman quarterback just announced that he's sitting out the final game of the season to preserve his red shirt. that's, that's never a great sign. And so it was, it's very like,
You know, two ends of the spectrum there, the committee just really believes in ASU more so than I thought that they would, which is cool. ⁓ But then for the AP, I would probably venture to guess a lot of those voters did not stay up for that fourth quarter ⁓ and just didn't see how that game actually ended. They saw that they won and they were like, okay, fine. know, they're still not that great. ⁓ But that's kind of, know, Taylor's oldest time is that East Coast bias and
If you're not USC or Oregon, you're not getting that kind of treatment.
Austen Bundy (1:07:01)
I think.
Tom Hardon (1:07:01)
The committee
understands Big 12 after dark.
Austen Bundy (1:07:04)
They do.
David Howman (1:07:04)
Yeah, committee
is sharp. They understand quality football.
Austen Bundy (1:07:09)
They know ball, but I also think when you look at the rest of the rankings and who ASU is surrounded by in the rest of the rankings, so I'll just go, we can ignore the top 15 because those are clearly the ones that are being postured to jump into the college football playoff on their resume alone, unless you're the ACC. But if you're going from 16 to 25, 16 starting with Texas, USC, Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona State at 20, then SMU, Pittsburgh.
Georgia Tech, Tulane, and then U of A. So the fact that they've got ASU ahead of three ACC teams, particularly three ACC teams that are waiting on, that any of them could jump from that 21, 22, 23 spot ahead of Virginia, ahead of Miami into the ACC championship game with any sort of combination of craziness that their conference has got going. I think ASU might have just been placed at the 20 spot.
on the off chance that something weird happens and they do jump BYU to get into the Big 12 championship game so they can justify potentially jumping ASU into that top 15 so they can then potentially get into a bracket if they end up winning somehow. But also, mean, Tennessee's not going to the SEC championship game. I don't think Tennessee's getting into the college football playoff. Virginia sitting at 18 right now is positioned to go to the ACC championship game.
And crazy enough, Miami at 12 is not in an ACC Championship game position, and yet they're the highest ranked ACC team in the committee's eyes. So either they think something weird is going to happen on Friday and Saturday that's going to get Miami into the playoff, and they're just really holding onto that at this point. ⁓ But as it stands,
Right now, the Big 12 is only getting one team into the playoff, and that would be the champion which they're projecting is going to be Texas Tech at number five. And then BYU at 11, Utah at 13 are both outside of the bracket by virtue of the ACC champion Miami getting in, and then the group of five projected champion Tulane at 24 getting into that bracket. So clearly it looks like the Big 12 is going to be the big loser here when it comes to having a quality runner up.
potentially get in. think the only scenario in which the Big 12 gets two teams in is if BYU and Texas Tech both win their games this weekend. BYU upsets Texas Tech because then how can you leave out Texas Tech dropping them from five all the way down to an 11, 12, 13, 14 spot and leave them out of the playoff? I mean, that would be lunacy because we all know that the committee seems to know ball in some fashion here, but for them to...
have this set up to potentially include somebody like a Vanderbilt or Michigan in that final position and leave out of Texas Tech would be asinine in my opinion.
David Howman (1:10:03)
Yeah, well, and we know Ball, we know that they know Ball because, you know, not too long ago, they had the foresight to leave out Florida State, undefeated Florida State, before they fell off a cliff. Which they've been terrible ever since, so they knew what was coming. They knew what they were dealing with. So they clearly know what they're doing. ⁓ Yeah, I see that scenario working out the same way if BYU is able to upset Texas Tech in that theoretical Big 12 title game.
I don't see how you don't get two big 12 teams into that college football playoff. But of course, the hope is it's ASU. If it's only one team, let it be ASU by way of a bunch of miracles happening and getting that rematch with probably with Texas Tech. think that's probably the lock is that Texas Tech is going to be in that game. And it would be fun to have that rematch given that ASU beat them.
⁓ It would also be cool if it was BYU because, you know, last year that game was really incredible and obviously both teams would be very different from that game and getting to see a rematch between those two teams after so much has changed for both of them would be very fun. But honestly, I don't care who it is as long as ASU gets back to the college football playoff, especially if it means Texas isn't there because they deserve it.
Tom Hardon (1:11:31)
Thank
David Howman (1:11:31)
after
how things ended last year. But of course, like we said though, it all comes down to winning the territorial cup, keeping the cup. ⁓ that's, you know, easier said than done, I guess I would say. Not that I'm necessarily worried. I think I feel fairly confident, but this is the best team that we've seen.
in a minute from them, ⁓ especially with the turnaround that they've had with Brent Brennan, their head coach, of course, he was a little bit embattled coming into the year and they've turned things around really well. ⁓ is anybody here like worried or concerned? is this, Austin, I know you said as soon as you saw they bumped ASU up to 20, that it guaranteed the loss.
Austen Bundy (1:12:28)
I mean, that's just the me being the resident pessimist here. But again, like seeing how well you have is played in its most recent games and ASU having slow starts and having to really claw its way back to victories in the last couple of weeks. I personally don't like the matchup because you have a is the team that's on the rise here and has been a little more consistent, a little bit more dangerous on offense. Whereas ASU's defense has taken, I mean, ASU's defense has stepped up. I mean, they essentially won the game against Colorado. Like ASU's defense is the only reason. ⁓
Colorado didn't take any massive lead somewhere in the second, third quarter that would have made it very hard for ASU to overcome. I don't think that you're going to get that same kind of performance out of the ASU defense against U of A. I think Noah Fafita is going to drop bombs all over them and it's going to be a very difficult matchup for ASU to really, I don't want to go to the survive category, but I am very much.
Preparing myself for a 14 to 17 point lead by halftime for for you of a
Tom Hardon (1:13:26)
Thank
Andrew Hayslett (1:13:33)
I'm concerned too. I just like Austin said, U of A is a team that's on a hot streak right now. Been knocking off team after team after team as of late. Where ASU, yes they've kind of done the same, but it hasn't been super like effective. Like ASU let Colorado stay in the game for a
David Howman (1:13:33)
is.
Andrew Hayslett (1:14:01)
longer than they probably should have. They let West Virginia hang around for the entire game. So I'm not sure. I think it's going to be a one score game, regardless who wins. Because that's the football Kenny Dillingham place. We've seen it week in and week out. That's why he said a week ago in his press conference on Monday that if there was a food item named after him, it would be a cardiac burger.
I, like, you're gonna get a cardiac burger Friday night for the football game.
Tom Hardon (1:14:40)
know, U of A is not immune to their share of slow games as well. We've seen that with their matchups against Iowa State earlier in the season. I believe against, I think against BYU earlier as well. But you can't, know, Arizona State can't be counting on those performances. you know, Austin, you hit it right on the head with Noah Fafida.
He does have the potential to drop bombs all over the place. You've got Chris Hudson, Javin Watley out there at wide receiver. But my X factor is going to be stopping Kiedrick Ricano. He's really emerged as, know, he's gotten a couple of starts lately. Ismael Mahdi has been the lead back for the majority of the season, but Ricano coming off of a three touchdown performance against Baylor last week and
just really not quite the feature back, but also not the backup running back. This running back room for U of A has incredible depth and is scary. That offensive line is one of the highest rated offensive lines according to Pro Football Focus. And they are going to create
space in the defensive front for these running backs to just run wild. Saw it firsthand, saw it in highlights with ⁓ a couple weeks ago, Recono with a 50 yard touchdown run. These guys are scary. They're going to attack both through the air and on the ground. To me, it's got to be stopping Recono out of the backfield.
David Howman (1:16:23)
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of challenges that they present. you know, Tom, you were talking about some of the games where they've not been at their best. Of course, Iowa State, that was their first loss on the season. And in fairness, Iowa State, at that point, they were undefeated. They looked like one of the best teams in the Big 12 early on. Then obviously, you know, things kind of went into a downward spiral for them. But they lost to BYU in double overtime. At the time,
It was the closest BYU had come to losing all season until they played Texas Tech. Week after that, they lost on the road to Houston by three. ⁓ So when you look at their resume, it is a pretty good resume. They beat Oklahoma State big, that's not saying much. They beat Colorado big, that's not saying much. They beat Kansas, they beat Cincinnati on the road, which was genuinely impressive. And then they beat Baylor big last week.
⁓ so it's like they've, they've gotten a lot of big wins over bad teams. They've lost really close games, some really good teams, and then their signature win really was Cincinnati on the road. ⁓ so it's, it's hard for me to like necessarily say that they are this, ⁓ this like juggernaut right now. They've won four in a row though, that, that, that lends some confidence to it. And for me, really what I'm, what I'm more focused on than anything
⁓ for two reasons is their defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales he's of course was the defensive coordinator at Arizona State ⁓ you know hired by Herm Edwards I'll say his name I don't think that's the the worst name to be uttering this week in particular given given the the week but
And that was a genuinely great hire. Danny Gonzalez did a lot of great things for ASU for their defense. He was a... He... I've never seen a non-alum connect with the fan base in the way that Danny Gonzalez had. ⁓ Which is why it makes it so hard to see him at their number one rival now. But of course he comes from that rocky, long San Diego State, New Mexico 3-3-5 defense. It's so funky. It's so difficult to play against because it's just...
Such a different look than what any other defense will throw at you and he has completely turned this defense around and it's Like I I want to feel proud because it's danneke and solace, but I can't because it's because it's them ⁓ But he really has done some incredible work with this defense. They were so bad last year Of course, he was on the staff, but he was just the special teams coordinator brent brennan smartly moved him into the defensive coordinator role and things have
just blossomed ever since. And that's been a big part of these wins that they've had. I mean, even the losses, BYU only got 33 points on them in double overtime. Houston got 31 on them. And that was on the road in Houston. They're still putting up good performances even when they don't win. I think this is really gonna be a challenge for ASU's offense. Jordan Tyson needs to be at 100%.
I know he said he wasn't at 100 % against Colorado, he was also on the road. The weather conditions contributed to that. But you need Jordan Tyson to be Jordan Tyson for this game. Jeff Simms needs to be the Jeff Simms of Iowa State versus the Jeff Simms that we saw last week. Again, you know, not ideal playing conditions, but he had quite a few throws that got away from him. Marcus Arroyo, I think, needs to go back to that Iowa State game plan. I don't think that they were running Jeff Simms enough.
against Colorado, especially considering the weaknesses that Colorado had on their defensive front against this 3-3-5 defense. mean, Danny Gonzalez splits is a lot, but still you get your offensive lineman moving forward. You put those linebackers in a bind with that option. You're going to have space to run. And I think that's what we need to see offensively to have some success because if you're just going to have Jeff Simms drop back to pass against the splits heavy defense.
Tom Hardon (1:20:09)
So.
David Howman (1:20:34)
where they change so much up after the snap. I'll do respect to Jeff Sims. I'll do respect to this offensive line. It's not gonna be pretty. It's not gonna be a fun time. And I wouldn't want any part of that. And I don't think that we will because I trust this coaching staff. And I'm saying that not even the least bit worried that I might have misplaced faith, but I feel good about it.
Tom Hardon (1:20:57)
You know, and not only is this defensive, this defensive unit very blitz happy, but they're a ball hawks in the secondary. They've hauled in 14 interceptions and allowed just eight passing touchdowns in their 11 games so far this season. So that's going to be a very daunting task for, for Sims as he's dropping back to throw. And then if, even if you just look at the year over year improvement, last year, the defensive unit gave up over 31 points a game.
one of the worst scoring defenses in all of FPS this year vastly improved allowing just over 20 points per game. So you can see just how much Danny Gonzalez has revamped this defensive unit and molded it into what we see today.
Austen Bundy (1:21:46)
If I'm ASU, I go with a ground and pound attack here and hand things off to Relique Brown and Kanye Udo the entire time.
I don't see why you need to rely too much on Jeff Sims through the air. mean, yes, you have Jordan Tyson, but we all know they're going to key in on him. Like, I feel like it's just the obvious thing they're going to key in. I think this week at practice, they should be focusing on repeating a lot of the things they did in the fourth quarter against Colorado where Brown went off and really creating more of those gaps and more of those jumbo linemen packages so that
Jeff Sims plays more of that play option offense. Give him an opportunity to read the secondary read where the linebackers eyes are and if they're coming hot, he needs to be able to roll out with the ball off the snap. I don't think it would be necessarily too hard for Kenny and for this offense to roll with that kind of plan, especially knowing that Arizona's defense is very ball hawkish through the air.
I feel like if you're gonna do that, then take away one of their best assets on defense, which is their deep secondary, and get this to a point where you're burning clock, long drives, but you're still scoring. And then when you get down into the red zone, maybe go looking for Tyson at that point, because you already know he's gonna probably burn a couple guys on double move routes to find the corner or to find a post route where he's gonna be the only guy to get a ball.
Andrew Hayslett (1:23:28)
I agree with what Austin said there. He said it more eloquently than me, but yeah, I expected a lot of the ground game once again. We'll see, I think, some... When they do pass the ball, I think we'll see something similar to West Virginia, what we saw in that game, because I thought the play calling in that game was fairly good for Marcus Rorio, one of his best called games, with those quick passes from Sims.
David Howman (1:23:36)
Yeah.
Andrew Hayslett (1:23:58)
Lot of behind the line, lot of short passes. That's what I think we'll see on Friday night. it when they do pass the ball, which I think we'll see a lot of run heavy still.
Tom Hardon (1:24:15)
Yeah, I'm with you. Quick slants, quick outs, know, minimize the time that Sims is back in the pocket and just find those quick routes and pound the ball down the field outside of that.
David Howman (1:24:29)
Yeah, I think that's the way forward. You run that ball, you run it until they start cheating up, they start loading the box, and that's when, hey, just send Jordan Tyson on a deep rep, whatever he feels like, whatever he sees after the snap, and let him do what Jordan Tyson does. mean, none of us here are actually paid football coaches, so maybe they do something different, who knows? I think, I for one think that they should listen to us. ⁓
Marcus Arroyo, if you're listening, you know, free advice, something to be thankful for this year. And I, in that spirit too, as we wrap up too, I do want to go around the horn one last time and have everybody say something in the ASU football world, or I guess it could be outside of football, but one thing with Arizona State that you are thankful for this year. ⁓ So, you know, I'm springing this on you guys, so.
So I'll vamp for a little bit, give you guys a little bit of time to think about it. ⁓ But Austin looks like he's ready, so I'm gonna go ahead and hand it to Austin.
Austen Bundy (1:25:34)
Yeah, I'll start with, I'm grateful that ASU has found some consistent success on the football side. I am grateful that we didn't go from the Big 12 champions, ⁓ miraculous college football playoff appearance and a near win in the quarterfinals to some serious regression, especially with all the injuries and especially with lot of the inconsistencies we saw in the field. The fact that ASU didn't go from its 10 and two, 11 and two season last year.
to some sort of like four and six season this year, something drastic where people would start questioning whether Kenny was a fluke or whether or not this was actually going to work out. And then all the transfer stuff actually does become some reality ⁓ and things just potentially start to fall apart in the recruiting trail. mean, as much as a lot of people like to the panic button when you have a regression year right after, I regression can be natural, but we all know the Arizona state.
fan base and any sort ⁓ of any sort of regression like that and immediately it's like well Why can't we stay consistent like any of these big programs? Why can't we have what they have on the other side of the fence there? And I think this year is a proving ground of even if we do lose the cup even if we do Maybe win the cup and then losing a bowl game like ASU will have a Nine win season at that point like that's you can't ask for a whole lot more than that
And I think that's something where it's consistent success. can go to the recruiting trail and prove like, Hey, we would have had another crack at the title this year if Sam was healthy, if things had gone just a little bit differently on, on non controllables. And you can pitch that type of consistent success to the recruits and be like, you're the missing piece. is imagine what you can do here and contribute, especially with Jordan on his way out. ⁓
I'm grateful for the fact that ASU football is looking at some consistent success being competitive year in and year out with Kenny at the helm instead of us having the one year that we point to just like everybody was pointing to 1997 as the one good year ⁓ prior to the playoff run.
David Howman (1:27:53)
Andrew topped that.
Andrew Hayslett (1:27:55)
I'm kind of going to, I'm going to go different. I I'm really thankful for everyone in the Arizona state building who allows, all of us reporters here at all of us reporters at devil's detail, which is different from this, but we all work there to just cover Arizona state sports. get to be credentialed to a lot of things.
David Howman (1:27:56)
Not that it's a competition.
Andrew Hayslett (1:28:25)
And I know it's just as easy to them to say no as it is to yes, but they say yes. And it just to deliver content, grow as a human being, grow as a journalist for me, this is awesome. I'm just grateful and thankful for all that.
David Howman (1:28:49)
very well said and I endorse that. I endorse what Austin said too, but it's a very well said entry.
Tom Hardon (1:28:54)
it.
David Howman (1:28:59)
Tom, what you got?
Tom Hardon (1:29:00)
I'm going to go with two things here. First off, I'm thankful for Shamama Tayer, the namesake of our collective fan club. Just a truly exciting player to watch. We're always hoping he's a fun player to root for. We're always hoping for...
the best performance out of him and him to get the most opportunities that he can out there on the field. So that makes it fun from a journalistic side that we can all rally behind one player to really gas him up, so to speak. And then second, no matter what fans down to the South will say, we can always lord over 70 to seven on them.
Never have they ever put up a billboard to celebrate wins in the territorial cup. So I'm thankful for that little humble brag after that stretch of wins.
David Howman (1:29:58)
Yes, very, very thankful all around for that 70 to 7 win, the billboard. You said the fact that they don't put up billboards like that. Also the fact that they've never been to the Rose Bowl. That's a fun, I mean the Rose Bowl doesn't really carry the same weight these days, but it still means something, you know? ⁓ Yeah, 70 to 7. Also thankful that that was not one of the wins that was vacated in the aftermath of everything that happened because
Tom Hardon (1:30:26)
Yes, yes.
David Howman (1:30:28)
That would have been a blow. ⁓ I'm going to go a little more nebulous, not necessarily specifically to ASU, but very much involving ASU. I'm very thankful for good people being coaches in this sport. And obviously a lot of that relates to ASU. Kenny Dillingham, think, you know, we talk on here all the time about Kenny Dillingham and what he's done on the field. I think what he's done as a human being.
for this program, the people, whether it's the players, the coaches, the training staff, the support staff, like Andrew said, the journalists who cover this team, he's been an A-plus person all the way around. know, Charlie Regal, when he, you unfortunately had to step away from the team a few weeks ago, like just the outpouring of support of people saying like, this is an incredible human being, what he's meant to that team. You know, there's,
There's a lot of people that are not necessarily good people who get their way into this profession. We've seen it a lot of times and it'll manifest in a lot of different ways. Even the last few coaches at Arizona State, know, there's been conflicting opinions about how they are and how they treat people. ⁓ so thankful for somebody like Kenny Dillingham. And if I can even take a moment to say something nice about the opponent.
⁓ Brent Brennan is the coach that I have personally always very much admired the job he did at San Jose State, ⁓ kind of building that program into a perennial bowl contender. He's a coach that I always felt was very deserving of getting a better job. And I still feel he's deserving of getting a better job because I can't say he's in a good job now. But the turnaround that he's had this year after such a tough job last year, if it was any other program, I would be really, really happy for him.
⁓ and to tell just kind of a personal story. This summer when I was at the Big 12 Media Day, I actually got a chance to speak with him briefly. I shared, I'm here covering Devils in Detail, Arizona State, and he kind of made a joke about, I bet you got a lot of good questions for me. ⁓ And I did say something to the effect of, Gonzalez, you've got a great one. We loved having him here in Tempe. And his immediate response was,
I feel so blessed to have him in this building and you guys also have a great one. Marcus Arroyo is like a brother to me. Like I hope you guys love him up to you. It's fun to have good coaches on both sides of this rivalry. ⁓ So that's as far as I will go in saying positive things about the opponent. But it is in the same way that Kenny Dillingham said this game is better when it means something more for both teams. I think it also is.
is better just in general and on a personal and spiritual level when the people leading both programs are of such high quality and of such high character. ⁓ That said, no pity for the kitty. Go Devils. I know we are all pulling for an Arizona State win. We're not gonna make predictions in this one because that's coming out. We'll be putting that out in our article on devilsindetail.com. can catch that. Andrew is already gonna be correct because
Tom Hardon (1:33:43)
Thank
David Howman (1:33:53)
as he mentioned earlier, he knows what's gonna happen.
Andrew Hayslett (1:33:57)
Yeah, don't reference some of the other things I've said here on this show. Some of them haven't been correct. I'm not perfect. I'm so sorry.
Austen Bundy (1:34:01)
You
Tom Hardon (1:34:03)
Thank
David Howman (1:34:07)
Not all the predictions you've made have turned out to be wrong just yet.
Andrew Hayslett (1:34:12)
Well, not all of them are wrong either, so I'm not wrong every time. I'm not always wrong.
Tom Hardon (1:34:13)
Thank
Austen Bundy (1:34:24)
on what constitutes a Thanksgiving food, he's wrong. But everything else for a wig is debatable.
David Howman (1:34:28)
Yes, very, very wrong on what constitutes a Thanksgiving
food. So, yeah, sit back, relax, enjoy some mac and cheese, and get a little green bean casserole in there, because I know the majority of America agrees with me on that one. I will, you can have stuffing. won't. Somebody's gotta eat it, Austin. Somebody, I'd love you to enjoy it. Somebody has to, but. ⁓
Tom Hardon (1:34:34)
.
Austen Bundy (1:34:38)
you
Tom Hardon (1:34:44)
Don't forget the stuffing either.
Austen Bundy (1:34:47)
and the cranberry
sauce.
It'll be me. I volunteer to contribute.
David Howman (1:34:58)
From all of us here at Echo from the Buttes, for Andrew Hazlett, for Tom Harden, for Austin Bundy, ⁓ David Hellman, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving, wishing you a fruitful hate week, a fruitful territorial cup week, and let's go ahead and keep the cup, and as always, give them hell, devils.
David Howman (1:35:17)
you