Best Arizona State Teams This Century: 2013

Arizona State football is in the right hands under Kenny Dillingham now.

It wasn't always that way - it did appear to be for a fleeting moment over a decade ago.

One of the teams that renewed hope in the 2013 squad - a team that took a jump in year two under former head coach Todd Graham much akin to the 2024 team under Dillingham.

Graham took over from much maligned coach Dennis Erickson ahead of the 2012 season, a season in which the Sun Devils overachieved with an 8-5 record.

The 2013 team went into the season with moderate amounts of hype surrounding them. The squad impressed with a 55-0 victory over Sacramento State and took a controversial 32-30 win over Wisconsin the following game.

The Sun Devils took another statement victory by defeating conference rival USC as a result of scoring 62 points - the defeat ended Lane Kiffin's tenure as head coach of the Trojans.

Losses to Stanford and Notre Dame were losses that were sandwiched in between the victory - the season looked bleak at that point, but seven consecutive victories to close out the season eventually clinched the Pac-12 South division for the Sun Devils.

Arizona State hosted Stanford at Sun Devil Stadium in a rematch with a chance to reach a first Rose Bowl since 1996.

Stanford unfortunately controlled the entirety of the game, and the Sun Devils were relegated to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego - where Kliff Kingsbury's Texas Tech squad handled the Sun Devils by a score of 37-23.

Graham's squad finished the season ranked 20th in the AP Poll with a 10-4 record - Graham was looking to continue incredible success that had been built over the infant stages of his tenure.

This particular team could serve as a cautionary tale for the current program under Dillingham - the prognosis of the program after this season couldn't have been better from the outside, but Graham ended up plateauing and was relieved of his duties after the 2017 season.

Dillingham is unlikely to fall victim to the same fate, but it is vital to pay attention to history.

Read more about the future of Sun Devil athletics here, and the 2014 team here.

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