When Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders head to Tempe, Arizona in a few weeks, they’ll face off against one of the most chaotic and stressful teams in the Big 12. It seems like just about every game that Kenny Dillingham and the Arizona State Sun Devils are involved in, a ton of stress and nonsense and chaos happens to be involved.
That happened last night against the No. 24 TCU Horned Frogs. It happened a week ago against the Baylor Bears. It happened (albeit in a loss) on the road against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
But, the stress and chaos isn’t what we’re here to talk about.
With Arizona State’s 27-24 win over TCU and their 27-24 win against the Baylor Bears, the Sun Devils are suddenly in the lead in the Big 12 standings right now. This is a team that many people started counting out following their road loss to Mississippi State.
But those Bulldogs are 4-0 right now and Starkville is a tough place to play.
Arizona State could certainly provide Texas Tech with a very real challenge for the Big 12 crown
With Arizona State now being 4-1, and their only loss being on the road and coming against a team that is currently unbeaten, it’s fair to say that the Sun Devils should be ranked right now (they never should have been unranked following that loss to MSU) and they are still a very real threat in the Big 12 championship race.
Texas Tech, right now, is looked at as the best team in the conference by many people. And that should be the case. But, the Red Raiders will need to take the Sun Devils seriously, especially if Arizona State is able to beat Utah in what will be their next game.
If that happens, Texas Tech’s win over the Utes won’t look quite as special (it’ll still be good, but just not quite as impressive). Also, if Arizona State managed to beat the Utes, there’s a chance that we’re looking at two true conference championship contenders in the Big 12 matching up in the regular season when the Red Raiders face the Sun Devils.
That game is getting a lot more interesting by the week. It’s going to be fun to see how this one plays out.