ASU suffers loss in worst possible way

It is, simply, the cruelest way for Arizona State to lose a football game.

Final seconds.

The Arizona Wildcats lining up for a field goal.

The last name on the kicker’s jersey: Zendejas.

Arizona nips ASU 20-17 on final play

ASU’s Williams: Hero to goat in 59 seconds

ASU notes: Burfict throws punch in scuffle

Slideshow: ASU vs. Arizona

In 1983 and 1985, Max Zendejas made last-minute kicks and Arizona celebrated on the enemy turf of Sun Devil Stadium.

Saturday, as a light rain fell and the wind blew, Max’s nephew, Alex, paced off his steps, took one last look at the uprights and then, with five seconds left, let his right leg fly.

The 32-yard kick was perfect.

It had happened again.

Unbelievable.

“I don’t know how you can lose any worse than that,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said after Arizona’s 20-17 victory.

And to think, when ASU trailed 14-0 at halftime and the offense looked like it had closed its playbook for the winter, we thought that was as bad as it could ever get for Sun Devil football.

We were wrong.

Had ASU flat-lined in the second half and lost by three touchdowns or so, there would have been a flash of anger by fans and then relief that the season was over and there was a basketball team to enjoy.

But this … this was the stuff of broken hearts and sleepless nights. To come back in the second half, to tie the game on a brilliant Kyle Williams catch in the back of the end zone, only to see Williams muff a punt at ASU’s 22-yard line with just more than a minute left?

It’s enough to make a grown man cry.

“It’s gut-wrenching right now,” said quarterback Danny Sullivan, his eyes red as he labored through his postgame interview. “It basically sums up the season.”

Ah yes, the season. The less said about it, the better. But we’ll leave it with one final thought: After a 4-8 record, after six straight defeats to end the year, after watching an offense that had little imagination and even less success, the next couple of months will tell us a lot about Erickson.

If he’s serious about winning here, he’ll nudge Rich Olson into retirement and hire an offensive coordinator.

But if he keeps Olson and doesn’t make any staff changes, we’ll know he’s more loyal to his friends than he is to Sun Devil football.

“We can’t stay like we are,” said Erickson, who declined to be specific about what changes he might make. “We have to get better.”

It’s a shame ASU lost because there was such a wonderful story line to write about Sullivan. Ineffective most of the year, taken out at halftime of the USC game, it appeared his season would end on the sidelines, Sun Devil fans gleefully waving him goodbye.

But midway through the second quarter, when it was apparent Samson Szakacsy was overwhelmed by the moment, Erickson called on Sullivan.

For a while, little changed. But in the fourth quarter, Sullivan nearly became the unlikeliest of heroes.

He led ASU on a 96-yard drive to cut Arizona’s lead to 14-10. Then, on a fourth-and-12 from Arizona’s 14 with 2:10 left, he scrambled to his right and fired a bullet to Williams, who turned into John Jefferson circa 1975 and laid out to make the catch.

Sullivan’s fourth-quarter numbers: 8 of 12 for 121 yards and two touchdowns.

He didn’t get the win, but after a season in which he was criticized at every turn, he finally won some respect.

“All the ups and downs, the criticism, people hating on me … I may not have had a good season but from what I’m told I’m a good person and a true Sun Devil,” Sullivan said.

That, he can be proud of.

The game ended ugly, with Arizona’s players jumping up and down on the interlocking ASU at midfield, the Sun Devils confronting them and a scrum ensuing. The worst exchange came when Zendejas taunted freshman linebacker Vontaze Burfict, and Burfict, in response, threw a closed-fist punch at backup long-snapper Ricky Wolder.

The punch missed.

Just like the season.