They defeated the defending champ on its home turf, overcoming multiple special-teams errors. UCLA made a furious comeback attempt; however, they came up short holding on to record a 38-33 win at the Rose Bowl.
Thanks to the unlikely win by Arizona over the fifth ranked Oregon Ducks the Pac-12 Championship Game is set with a week left in the season.
ASU ( 9-2, 7-1 in the Pac-12) will play North champion Stanford (9-2 and 7-2) at a site to be determine by the outcome of next week’s game with Arizona. If the Sun Devils defeat rival Arizona next week, the championship game in Tempe (if they lose Stanford) will have home field advantage.
On Sept. 21, Stanford defeated ASU 42-28.
With the offensive line controlling the line of scrimmage, Kelly led the Sun Devils to a 35-13 halftime lead.
The second half belonged to UCLA. The Bruins scored on their first two offensive possessions, and ASU couldn’t get any closer than a field goal.
The Sun Devils had a chance to close it by running out the clock, but they had to punt with 3:30 on the clock. UCLA took possession at its own 36. Somehow, the Sun Devils’ defense held, ending a wild second half. No. 14 UCLA dropped to 8-3 and 5-3.