Smacked in the Pac

In Arizona State’s first home Pac-10 football game since being moved — kicking and screaming, in some corners of the athletic department — into the conference in 1978, the Sun Devils stunned a Southern California squad that went on to win the national championship and featured 37 future NFL players.

A new league? No sweat; we’re still rolling.

However, as the years went on, ASU and Arizona, the in-state rival that also made the move, have found steady football success harder to come by than when both were in the Western Athletic Conference. This despite residency in a power, higher-profile league and proximity to the Southern California recruiting territory.

“I was a little apprehensive about getting into the Pac-10 because of the challenges I knew we’d have,” said Frank Kush, the Sun Devils’ coach from 1958-79. “I felt it would take four or five years to get established as a year-in, year-out contender, which we already were in the WAC.”

There have been big seasons for both. ASU has won 10 games four times, won or shared three conference titles and reached the Rose Bowl in the 1986 and ’96 seasons. Though Arizona has never made it to Pasadena, it shared a league title in 1993 and went 12-1 in ’98.

ASU is the Pac-10’s fourth-winningest program since 1978; Arizona is sixth. But for both schools, the pursuit of annual excellence that Kush spoke of now is in its fourth decade.

What has kept them from regular championships and major bowls? And in today’s college football climate — where such once-storied programs as Notre Dame, Florida State, Miami (Fla.) and Nebraska have become mired in mediocrity (or worse) — is that even a reasonable expectation?

“The expectations should not be worrying about the peaks as much as it is mitigating the valleys,” said Jeff Van Raaphorst, and ASU quarterback from 1983-86 who is the team’s radio analyst. “ASU could be in the top three or four in the Pac-10 every year.

That’s realistic. What gets the fans frustrated, I think, are highs and lows, where it’s either really good or bad. It gets to the point where you don’t know what to expect. Fans like consistency.”

While ASU has had just six losing records since arriving in the Pac-10, it has won six games 10 times. Arizona has not played in a bowl game since 1998, one of just four Bowl Championship Conference schools — Duke, Baylor and Vanderbilt are the others — with a postseason absence that long.

The keys to perennial winning in the Pac-10 are coaching stability, recruiting success in Southern California and developing the talent once it is on campus. Achieving all three objectives simultaneously is a big challenge.

“Any program that puts together a long string of success is defying the odds,” said Allen Wallace, Scout.com national editor. “There are so many variables and ways a program can hurt itself, say with scheduling and personnel mistakes. Even USC went through a period of a few years where they were thrilled to get to the Rose Bowl once in a while, and they couldn’t beat Notre Dame or UCLA.”

Since 1978, Arizona and ASU have had a combined three coaches last more than six seasons.

Bruce Snyder (1992-2000) was unable to build on ASU’s 1997 Rose Bowl appearance and near national championship and was fired. At Arizona, Larry Smith (1980-86) departed to take the USC job, and Dick Tomey (1987-2000) resigned while on the hot seat just two years after guiding the Wildcats to their best-ever season.

“I think Dick Tomey was close to getting there,” said Glenn Parker, an Arizona offensive lineman in 1988-89 who is a television analyst. “Unfortunately, we live in a world today where coaches are run out if they don’t win all the time, and that happened. He had one down season after high expectations, and he’s gone. But that consistency is possible — look at what (Mike) Bellotti has done at Oregon, for example.

“You can’t be changing coaches every few years if you expect to contend for championships.”

ASU’s greatest California recruiting success was under coach Darryl Rogers from 1980-84. Assistant coach Willie Shaw plucked talent from the Golden State that stocked the program for years, including Van Raaphorst, Greg Battle, Dan Saleaumua, David Fulcher, Aaron Cox, Bruce Hill and Scott Stephen.

Since then, the Sun Devils have enjoyed a few recruiting hits, but the competition is fierce, from every other Pac-10 program — particularly the tractor beam that is USC — powers from other conferences and Notre Dame.

“Coaching is the most important factor in the whole thing,” Wallace said. “Superior coaching is going to find and bring in that talent, regardless of where it comes from.”

ASU coach Dennis Erickson is a two-time national championship winner who has extensive recruiting experience and contacts in California while at Washington State, Miami (Fla.) and Oregon State.

“A lot of people recruit there,” Erickson said. “You can’t just go in and pick whoever you want.”

Arizona coach Mike Stoops is 23-34 in five years, but this year, the Wildcats will end their bowl drought.

“The key is finding the best kids for your program,” Stoops said. “As for the proximity to Southern California, I’d rather have it. I think it helps. There are only so many guys that USC and UCLA can take, and that opens up the door for the rest of the conference. I think every Pac-10 team has to make a living in Southern California.”

For ASU and Arizona, success also means building from an in-state pool of high school talent that coaches feel is getting bigger and deeper.

Arizona will take a 6-5 record into Saturday’s Territorial Cup game, ASU is 5-6.

Those records constitute a valley, as Van Raaphorst would say.

“The floor should be third or fourth in the Pac-10, and once or twice in a while, you should rival for the championship,” Van Raaphorst said. “There are some good programs in the Pac-10, so contending for the conference title every year is asking a lot. I would rather see the focus on being good every year and getting out of the inconsistency that we’re in now.”