Arizona has no mercy over ASU; Cats win 56 – 35

By Francisco Romero. – The season finale for the Arizona Wildcats turned out to be a record setting night against the Sun Devils of Arizona State. In the 56 – 35 win against ASU, Arizona rushed for 511 yards, establishing a new school record for rushing yards in a game. The previous high was 499 set in 2015 versus Northern Arizona.

The Wildcats also established a record in rushing yards in a Pac – 12 game, the previous high in a conference game was 480 versus UCLA in 1989

The Wildcats ran at will against the Sun Devils; three wildcats ran for 100-plus yards. Brandon Dawkins, Samajie Grant and Zach Green could have ran to Tempe and back with very little resistance from the ASU defense.

Dawkins rushed for 183 yards and two touchdowns, Grant rushed for 176 yards, and Green finished with 126 yards on 14carries; The Wildcats had seven rushing touchdowns Friday night.

The win improves Arizona’s record against ASU to 49-40-1 all-time.

It is no secret that both programs came into the 2016 season with high expectations, but injuries, bad luck and sometimes lack of execution didn’t produce the results expected.

During the postgame conference Arizona’s head coach Rich Rodriguez talked about the importance of the first touchdown of the game by the Cats, a 71-yard rush by Dawkins and how it was able to set up a rhythm for the offense, “When you have a quarterback that can run like him and is a willing runner, it gives you a whole different dimension”, said Rodriguez.

Quarterback Brandon Dawkins praised the offensive line for creating openings and allowing the run to be successful, “The offensive line had a tremendous night and made Zach’s (Green) and Samajie’s job a lot easier”; Dawkins told a group of reporters gathered after the game.

Brandon Dawkins was awarded the Bob Moran Trophy as the game’s most valuable player.

23 Seniors were honored before Friday’s game, but most importantly those Seniors will leave the program knowing that in a tough and difficult season they were still able to dominate and beat ASU.

The Territorial Cup is back at Arizona Stadium.