Revisiting Classic Arizona State Games: 2014 Win vs Notre Dame

The Arizona State Sun Devils football program is now back on the right track after struggling for the better part of a decade.

That wasn't always the case, as the first three years of the Todd Graham era were marked with incredible consistency and reaped the feeling of a significant amount of hope that the future of the program was bright from across the fanbase.

The signature victory in that three-year span is quite arguably the 55-31 victory over Notre Dame on November 9, 2014.

The two programs went into the game with one loss each - Arizona State was ranked number nine and Notre Dame was ranked 10 - the game was widely believed to be an elimination game for the first ever College Football Playoff.

Notre Dame started the game out with a field goal midway into the first quarter behind an elongated drive.

Graham's Sun Devils responded with four touchdowns in less than a 10 minute span and tacked on a pair of field goals to take a 34-3 lead late into the first half.

A late second quarter touchdown from the Irish made the score 34-10 going into halftime.

A late fourth quarter surge from Notre Dame brought the Arizona State lead down to three in crunch time - the Sun Devils were up 34-31 with under seven minutes remaining in the game.

Freshman running back Demario Richard scored his second touchdown of the day in response to bring the Sun Devil lead back up to 10.

A costly Everett Golson interception was returned for a touchdown by Lloyd Carrington to put the game on ice - a turnover on downs and subsequent rushing score from Taylor Kelly put an exclamation point on a landmark victory for Arizona State.

The 55-31 victory resulted in the program rising three spots in the College Football Playoff rankings - the sixth-ranked Sun Devils fell the very next week to Oregon State, but there have been seldom outcomes since the 19-0 victory over top ranked Nebraska in 1996 that felt as satisfying for fans of Arizona State.

Read more about ASU on SI evaluating Kenny Dillingham's performance as head coach of the football program here, and the coaching staff making an effort to retain in-state high school recruits here.

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