Territorial Cup rewind — 10 years ago: UA 31, ASU 27

After debuting with a 10-win season, Dennis Erickson had minimal success at Arizona State until 2011.

The Sun Devils were 6-2, ranked No. 20 (Associated Press) through October and in contention to win the inaugural Pac-12 South title.

Then, in results and discipline, it all fell apart.

ASU dropped away games to UCLA (29-28) and Washington State (37-27) ahead of the Territorial Cup in one of the rare years when the rivalry game wasn’t the regular season finale.

Arizona was in the midst of a disastrous season that cost Mike Stoops his job after a 1-5 start. The Wildcats, under interim coach Tim Kish, were 2-8 when they came to Sun Devil Stadium for what was widely expected to be ASU’s second straight rivalry win and third overall under Erickson.

In a game matching future NFL quarterbacks Brock Osweiler and Nick Foles, ASU trailed 14-0 but forged ahead 21-17 at halftime and 27-17 early in the fourth.

Foles led UA on a 94-yard touchdown drive culminating with a 33-yard, tacklebreaking reception by Gino Crump. Foles was out of the game with an injury when the Wildcats went ahead 31-27 with 5:18 left on a 23-yard pass from backup QB Bryson Beirne to Juron Criner.

ASU has two more chances, the first ending with an interception and the second on the UA 15-yard line after consecutive incompletions. The 31-27 score was the final.“At the end of the day, it’s my job to get the offense in the end zone,” Osweiler said. “It’s my fault, I didn’t do that. We tried to find the team from the beginning of the year, find the team that had all the confidence in the summer workouts. I don’t know what happened.”

Erickson said defensively that his team had “one of the poorest tackling efforts I’ve ever seen.”

Arizona followed up with a narrow win over Louisiana to finish 4-8 then turned to Rich Rodriguez as its next coach.

ASU lost again, 47-38 to California, six days later. Erickson was fired but coached in the Las Vegas Bowl, a 56-24 loss to Boise State ending a 6-7 season. Todd Graham then replaced Erickson.