Although the Sun Devils could have improved their bowl game standing if they would have had a win over Cal last week, it doesn’t seem to be working out too badly for Arizona State.
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Arizona State, from the Pac-12 Conference, finished 6-6 and is coached by Todd Graham, who was a linebackers coach at WVU under former head coach Rich Rodriguez.
ASU (6-6), Washington and Cal all had 4-5 conference records.
The Cactus Bowl is normally played at Sun Devil Stadium, but with stadium reconstruction ongoing, it will be played at Chase for three years. “This will be an exciting game in our hometown, in front of our fans, with Chase Field less than a mile from Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus and an easy Phoenix Metro Light Rail ride away from our Tempe campus, west Mesa and north Phoenix”.
Arizona State coach Todd Graham is wrapping up his fourth season with the Sun Devils. “West Virginia is a tough opponent and I look forward to an entertaining match-up in a unique environment at Chase Field”.
“There’s no better place to go in the country than the Scottsdale area and the Phoenix area especially at the beginning part of January”, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. The bowl game will be played at Chase Field for at least three years. After the 2009 meeting – a 46-45 Houston win – Holgorsen accused Graham of making his defense fake injuries to slow Houston’s offense.
Graham worked as an assistant West Virginia in 2001 and 2002 and was the head coach at Pittsburgh in 2011. They also beat their equally-unpredictable in-state rival Arizona, their fourth Territorial Cup win in six seasons.
This is the first time ASU will play in an Arizona-based bowl since 2005 when it defeated the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 45-40 in the Insight Bowl – which is coincidentally the last college football game Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, hosted. Attendance for that contest was 43,536.
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WVU is one of seven Big 12 teams headed to a bowl game. Chris Thomsen, the offensive line coach, will likely handle most of the play calling this game.
