SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - It’s the Big 12 versus the Pac-12 when West Virginia University meets Arizona State in the 2016 Motel 6 Cactus Bowl at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, tonight.
It's the second time West Virginia is traveling out to the desert to face Arizona State on enemy the soil, the first happening 37 years ago in 1979 when the Mountaineers dropped a 42-7 decision to Arizona State in Sun Devil Stadium to conclude the regular season.
West Virginia has also made one appearance in the Cactus Bowl when it was known as the Insight.com and was played in Tucson, Arizona, in 1998. The Mountaineers couldn’t dig themselves out of an early hole and lost that game, 34-31, to 23rd-ranked Missouri.
Although West Virginia and Arizona State have only played once on the gridiron, the two programs do have some interesting ties heading into tonight's meeting. Sun Devils coach Todd Graham spent two seasons working at WVU on Rich Rodriguez’s staff in 2001-02 before moving on to become Tulsa’s defensive coordinator and later its head coach.
When Graham was Pitt’s head coach in 2011, one of his defensive coaches was Tony Gibson, now defensive coordinator for Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia.
Also a member of WVU’s staff for two seasons was Keith Patterson, now coordinating Arizona State’s defense. Patterson and Gibson worked together under Graham at Pitt and Gibson became West Virginia’s defensive coordinator when Patterson left to rejoin Graham at Arizona State in 2014.
There is one more interesting tie to tonight's game – WVU grad and native West Virginian Ken Kendrick is the owner of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, who play their home games at Chase Field.
There will be plenty of intrigue on the field, too, specifically, a matchup that features West Virginia’s 16th-ranked rushing attack against a stingy Arizona State run defense that ranks 19th nationally in yardage allowed.
"I'd be surprised if it's a high-scoring game, but you never know how these things work out," said Holgorsen.
The Mountaineers are averaging 235.3 yards per game on the ground with college football’s 13th-best rusher in junior Wendell Smallwood. His 1,447 yards fell just eight shy of capturing the Big 12 regular season rushing title. Smallwood ran for more than 100 yards in a game eight times this year, including a 141-yard, one-touchdown performance in the regular season finale at Kansas State.
On the other side of the ball, ASU’s defense is permitting its opponents to rush for just 124.4 yards per game and five of its foes failed to reach 100 in a game, including USC (76) and UCLA (62).
The Sun Devils’ two leading tacklers are senior defensive back Jordan Simone and sophomore linebacker Christian Sam with 91 stops each, while senior linebacker Antonio Longino (10 sacks and 19½ tackles for losses) and junior linebacker Salamo Fiso (18 tackles for losses and 3½ sacks) have been extremely disruptive.
Arizona State’s other two plus categories are fewest penalties, ranking 10th nationally with an average of just 4.5 per game, and fewest penalty yards, ranking 13th averaging just 39.4 yards per game.
"They take chances," said Holgorsen. "It takes a defensive mind at head coach that is okay with putting their secondary (on an island). If it doesn't work out, then the blame falls on the head coach's shoulders. Defensive coordinators don't want that on their shoulders; it's a ton of pressure."
The Sun Devils have a 1,000-yard rusher in sophomore DeMario Richard, who shows 1,056 yards, while senior quarterback Mike Bercovici is completing 60.3 percent of his pass attempts for 3,437 yards and 26 touchdowns with only nine interceptions.
Arizona State has three players with more than 50 receptions, led by senior Devin Lucien’s 57 catches for 931 yards and seven touchdowns. Senior D.J. Foster has performed well in a complementary role, showing 54 grabs for 544 yards and three touchdowns.
A third Sun Devils receiver, junior Tim White, has 53 catches for 554 yards and six touchdowns, so West Virginia’s experienced secondary certainly will be challenged.
Speaking of West Virginia’s defense, most of the Mountaineers’ plus numbers this year have been on that side of the ball. WVU ranks 11th nationally in turnover margin (+ 0.92), 15th in third-down defense (31.9 percent success rate) and 14th in net punting (40.3 yards per punt).
WVU is allowing an average of 386.2 yards and 23.2 points per game, which ranks in the middle of the pack nationally.
Skyler Howard passed for 2,613 yards and 21 touchdowns during the 2015 regular season. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks)
West Virginia quarterback Skyler Howard got off to a good start throwing the football but the Mountaineers turned to the ground more frequently in the middle of the season as they got into the heart of their Big 12 schedule.
Howard finished the regular season completing nearly 55 percent of his pass attempts for 2,613 yards and 21 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. He was also the team’s third-leading rusher with 479 yards and six touchdowns on 149 attempts.
Junior Rushel Shell is West Virginia’s second-leading ball carrier producing 677 yards and eight touchdowns on 152 totes.
"They're run game is very, very impressive," said Graham. "They're two running backs are very, very good - as good a tandem as we played against all year. Then they can stretch the field vertically. It's different - it's a run, play-action pass more oriented offense."
Junior Daikiel Shorts Jr. leads a young and inconsistent wide receiver corps with 39 catches for 431 yards and three touchdowns, while sophomore Shelton Gibson shows 33 receptions for a team-best 744 yards and eight touchdowns through the air.
"We got some receivers that are young, that are maturing," said Holgorsen. "They're going to have to make some plays."
West Virginia’s red figures include penalty yardage (ranking 120th), punt returns (102nd) and red-zone defense (92nd).
Arizona State also has struggled to stop teams inside the red zone this year, ranking 100th by allowing its opponents an 88.1-percent success rate. The Sun Devils’ other red figures are passing yards allowed (126th), pass efficiency defense (103rd), total defense (102nd) and scoring defense (97th).
Both teams are looking to overcome disappointing regular-season ending losses to head into the offseason on a positive note. Arizona State dropped a two-point decision on the road at Cal to finish 6-6 while West Virginia fell by one at Kansas State to end 7-5.
Tonight's game will have a 10:15 p.m. EST kickoff and will be televised nationally on ESPN. The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG will provide radio coverage on stations throughout the state.
