Brittany Bowyer: Sun Devils troll Wildcats with “70-7” billboard

Brittany Bowyer is a freelance journalist who started her career as an intern at a small sports website in 2015. Since then, she has obtained her master’s degree in Sports Journalism at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is in the fourth year of coverage at various levels of sports. on a wide range of platforms in Arizona. You can follow her on twitter @ bbowyer07

At Casa Grande, a huge 10 × 40 foot billboard popping up on a brown background with the simple message “70-7” and “No mercy for the kitten” in gold was seen west of I-10 on Monday morning. market. The friendly, or not-so-friendly reminder, was generated by anonymous Sun Devil fans online who were finally looking to get revenge on the Wildcats for years of relentless mockery and bragging that they have taken for years.

Few words inflict more pain on an Arizona Wildcat fan, as it echoes the final score of the 2020 Desert Duel for the Territorial Cup between Arizona and the State of Arizona, or as some still like to call it, Tempe Normal. It is a night that Wildcat players, coaches and fans want to erase from their minds.

“I’m still upset about it”, ex-Wildcat and newly hired defenders coach Chuck Cecil said at a Zoom press conference last week.

“It is still very embarrassing. Nobody likes to lose. Nobody likes to be expelled. But being kicked out And by your rival is beyond shame, ” Al Bravo, a Tucson native and current Mesa resident.

“The only thing that could erase that memory would be a 71-7 victory in Tempe,” said Bravo.

But forgetting the past will not be easy for many Wildcats, and Sun Devil fans have ensured this by installing a simple but firm reminder for those who may have forgotten.

Stubborn fans of the 247recruiting sign-up site Sun Devil Source gathered in the chat forum to discuss the rivalry game, just as they would any other opponent. Just beyond the gate, the state of Arizona brought the heat, lighting up Arizona Stadium and lighting the fire that left behind what looked like a latent mess for the Wildcats’ football program.

Sun Devil fans, in shock at what was happening, came to the forum to discuss what was happening. While they were delighted with the team’s success, Sun Devils wanted to ensure that the Wildcats did not forget how their team had fallen, which was when brainstorming started.

A number of ideas were launched by fans, but one quickly emerged as the favorite: a billboard.

For years, ASU students and alumni have complained about billboards popping up not only in the Phoenix metropolitan area, but across the state, claiming “This is Wildcat Country”.

It also brought flashbacks of the Arizona Athletics billboard located in Tempe, near Loop 202, with the Sun Devil Stadium being seen in the background, announcing the hiring of Kevin Sumlin in 2017.

“These are just things that ASU’s truly passionate fan community has undertaken,” Chris Karpman, said the site’s main copywriter and reporter.

Karpman, who said it is essential for those in a position like his to remain impartial, he had no involvement with the overall planning. He, however, found it really remarkable that they were able to build such a strong community of such passionate members over the years.

“I think it’s really cool, not so much because of anything I’ve done, but because there is a group of really passionate fans who are trying in the ways that really make sense and that work to support Sun Devil athletics and show the program successes, ”said Karpman.

For any collaborative brainstorming to become a reality, someone needed to take control of the project. In this situation, he became a user of the site by the name of ForkEm6114, also known as “Tommy”.

“It touched me. I drive through the states on business and see their billboards going in and out of the state, ”said Tommy. “They have every right to do that kind of thing, but what bothers me most is that ASU doesn’t seem to be doing the same thing.”

This was an opportunity for Sun Devil fans to have a little fun with the rivalry and remember the Wildcats, although they may have the advantage in the overall record from now on, the State of Arizona is kicking up the dirt as they race towards the lead .

After obtaining some details such as price, location and lighting, he made the executive decision to finalize the plans, settling in the location next to Casa Grande. The location offers a solid view for anyone heading to the Valley.

“At that point I realized that because the prices were reasonable and so many people had already said ‘count on me for $ 70 or $ 100’, I knew it was realistic. So at that point, I decided to go ahead, ”said Tommy.

He was also concerned about how other pro-ASU billboards in the Tucson area were removed quickly in the past and noted that he wanted to prevent this from happening by not placing the panels directly on their faces, making Casa Grande a privileged location.

By posting on a new topic on the website the finished artwork and the site, an even larger crowd of members committed themselves and sent money to the project. Finally, they raised enough money to meet their goal and then some, deciding to donate the remaining funds to the Snowden family as part of the Here for Haley fundraiser.

Haley, the two-year-old daughter of Sun Devil’s graduates, Matthew and Lindsay, was recently diagnosed with leukemia and is currently undergoing treatment. The fans decided that instead of donating the remaining funds to the athletics department, they would help Haley, something they hope others with the means to choose to do as well.

For Wildcats, the billboard can be used as a symbol of the past to focus, or a beacon of success and future achievements.

“It is better for any team to be extremely motivated after such a disgraceful defeat. If you are intimidated, you are in the wrong place, ”said Bravo.

The battle for the Territorial Cup ended up accelerating the process of getting rid of Kevin Sumlin, giving the athletic department little reason to keep him for a year, when many could have argued that it was not the year to part ways with him financially.

“It was a shame for any U of A fan. I was definitely angry about it and felt that the change of coach had to happen at that point, no matter what the cost,” Rudy Alvarado.

Alarm signals were sounding within the program before the game, but nowhere did the impending anxiety of the falling sky seem more difficult than in the Wildcat locker room.

Sumlin was fired the next day. Several of the team’s best players, including the defender Grant Gunnell and local Tucson receivers Stanley Berryhill III and Jamarye Joiner (who have since decided to stay in Arizona), entered the transfer portal. Verbal commitments for the next recruiting classes did not deliver on their promise to the program.

Nobody could get rid of the feeling that the program seemed to hit rock bottom, that is, until Jedd Fisch was hired. Just 12 days after the program’s imploding loss, the University of Arizona officially announced the former New England Patriots Quarterback coach as the program’s new leader.

Fisch quickly worked to assemble a team of stars, bringing a breath of fresh air into the program that appeared to be a model of the successful “pro-model” Arizona State recently implemented.

“I am absolutely encouraged by the hiring of Jedd Fisch. Of course, the school is taking a risk, but we haven’t seen much success with coaches established in recent seasons, ”said Bravo.

The team has already taken the first step, with ambitious goals of contacting all high school coaches across the state and extending offers to players. They are also working to use the transfer portal this year to their advantage.

Former teammates at Chandler High and Northwestern University Gunnar Maldonado and Drake Anderson both announced they would be transferred to Arizona a few days after the hiring announcement, along with the former Higley High standout and the current Colorado Buffalo Jason Harris. These are just a few of the new additions that will provide a boost next year.

“Given the new team and the transfers they are receiving from Northwestern and Notre Dame, combined with guys like Stanley Berryhill, reversing the course and leaving the transfer portal to stay says a lot. I think there is definitely a motivation to be better than the product they launched last season, ”Long-time Wildcat Scott Allen said.

“He brought AZ guys from the transfer portal and convinced several guys to stay after entering the portal, so he got off to a great start. Literally, nowhere to go but up, ”said Alvarado.

For fans, there is an excitement around the show that hasn’t been felt since well before the start of the 2019 season. The reeling program once again seems to be returning to the path of success, which the Wildcats hope to build in the coming years.

While things look promising, the full results of the hiring are yet to come and will largely depend on how well this team will be able to close with recruits. Currently, official visits have been suspended, but the Wildcats Athletic Department will continue to face one last hurdle when it comes to campus visits, whether official or unofficial visits.

As of now, most fly in and out of Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, with their flight path directly over the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe and the extensive main campus of Arizona State University. The first and last thing that players see when they arrive and leave is enemy territory, which can be good or bad, depending on the year.