Arizona football: ASU senior captains promise the return of the Territorial Cup

Just over nine months ago, the senior leaders of Arizona State got together, and wrote a little note to Sun Devil Nation. This was published by Arizona State Athletics, and seems to have been forgotten about in the past few months.

The letter thanks the fans for their support, which is funny now considering their pitiful attendance this season. But that's probably what happens when your head coach talks this team up to National Championship contention, only to drop two of your first four games, and now sit at 5-5 on the season.

Anyways, the letter goes on, talking about "the grind" to compete for championships, and the hunger of this team heading into the upcoming season. But that's not the best part. The seniors end the letter.

"One last note: The Territorial Cup will return to Tempe this year"

- Your Sun Devil Football Team,

Michael Bercovici

D.J. Foster

Jordan Simone

And when it comes to the three seniors that signed off on the letter, well, they all have had interesting seasons.

Mike Bercovici was considered by some to be a Heisman dark horse, and ASU fans were wanting him to replace Taylor Kelly towards the end of last year. Now, those same fans were the ones calling for Berco to be pulled out, for Mike Norvell to change up the playcalling, and to just start fresh with Manny Wilkins.

Then we have D.J. Foster, who moved from running back to wide receiver, which I for one think was a terrible move. He's a much better playmaker in open space, and it seems as if they wanted him to try and fill the void of Jaelen Strong. He's another one of those guys who had dark horse Heisman potential, as one of the most versatile players in the nation.

And then there's Jordan Simone, who is the nation's leader in tackles per game. Unfortunately, Simone went down last game vs. Washington with what is now a season-ending knee injury. That wraps up Simone's Sun Devil career, who was such a great story for this program, going from walk-on to senior captain safety, similar to that of our very own Jared Tevis. No matter how big the rivalry, you never want a kid's collegiate career to end early, especially one week before the biggest game of the season.

This letter was something that was written over nine months ago, and I'm not quite sure how I suddenly remembered this being published, but I did. But both teams are on the tail end of very disappointing seasons, considering the success of both programs last season, and the expectations that came to be, which explains why this might have been forgotten.

Rich Rodriguez and gang definitely don't need any more motivation going into this one. Hitting their stride at the right time, they'll do all they can to keep the Cup back to Tucson. May the best team win on Saturday.