UA News

The oldest rivalry game trophy in America, The Territorial Championship Cup, gets underway Saturday, Nov. 28 in Tempe with Arizona holding on to bowl eligibility.

State bragging rights and the University of Arizona's chances for a second-consecutive upper-division finish in Pac-10 football are on the line during Saturday's Territorial Championship Cup match against Arizona State University.

This year, ASU is out of the bowl picture, but the Wildcats have secured bowl eligibility. A Sun Devil victory, however, could leave the Wildcats desperately in need of a win at USC to close the season to actually go to a bowl matchup.

The game is slated for kickoff at 1:30 p.m. MST in Tempe, Ariz., and will air regionally on ABC TV. Arizona will try to win a second league road game this year after dropping its last two.

Last week, Arizona played 60 minutes of what might have been championship football, but fell prey to Oregon's big-play offense, dropping a narrow decision to the Ducks, 44-41, in two overtimes. 

Gone, too, were UA's hopes for a chance at the Rose Bowl as Oregon, 7-1, moved a step closer to Pasadena and dropped the Wildcats into a tie for fourth place in the conference.

Arizona leads the Territorial Cup series 45-36-1 in the state's big matchup which was first played in 1899. Arizona won 31-10 last year in Tucson. In last year's win, Arizona who was already bowl-eligible, eliminated ASU's hope of a potential bowl bid, while UA went on to win the Las Vegas Bowl.

Despite not starting the first three games this season, Nick Foles has quickly put himself on many UA single-season passing charts, while even inching towards some career marks. Foles, who has thrown at least one TD pass in all 10 games this year, has 17 on the season.

Somewhat quietly, Alex Zendejas has turned in an impressive year for a place kicker. Zendejas has connected on 15-of-19 field goals, including a career-long 47-yarder at the end of the first half against Oregon. He's missed three PATs, but still has hit 33-of-36, giving him 78 points on the year. He stands 11 points shy of reaching his uncle Max Zendejas' record of 89 points in the 1985 season, which is the No. 10 mark for a single season for scoring (all players).

Arizona's 6-4 mark this season is a credit to one of the deepest UA teams in recent memory, and that depth has been tested this year. Among the issues the Cats have dealt with this year are:

• Losing All-American tight end Rob Gronkowski to a season-ending back injury prior to the season;
• The Wildcats played three consecutive road games, including trips to Iowa, Oregon State and Washington that spanned 7,116 round-trip miles and left UA without a home game for 35 days, the second-longest stretch in the nation;
• Arizona has trotted out five different starting offensive line combinations in 10 games;
• More than 50 players suffered with the flu, missing only a handful games, but nearly all missing 2-3 days of practice time;
• Running back Nic Grigsby, who suffered a sprained shoulder on his first carry at Oregon State, has been in and out of the lineup since late September, missing two full games;
• Keola Antolin, the team's No. 2 runner entering the year, suffered through ankle problems early in the season forcing redshirt freshman Greg Nwoko to assume the No. 2 duties. He did so admirably until spraining his shoulder against UCLA and has sinceed miss nearly all of two games, before returning to the lineup against Oregon.

Arizona will close the regular season with a trip to Los Angeles to take on the USC Trojans on Saturday, Dec. 5. Kickoff is slated for 12:30 p.m. (PT) at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. A live TV broadcast on ABC will reach a minimum of 51 percent of the nation.