For the second time in three seasons, the Arizona State Sun Devils (7-5, 4-5 Pac-12) will conclude their season in El Paso, Texas, in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Their opponent will be the Florida State Seminoles (6-6, 4-4 ACC), who just hired former ASU offensive coordinator Mike Norvell as their new head coach.

This game will have no shortage of storylines between two programs that were once prominent earlier in the decade, albeit at different levels, and now find themselves trying to get back to a previous level of success with new coaching staffs.

“We’re excited in the fact that we’re so young, this will help us continue to build our program,” coach Herm Edwards said. “In another week or so, we’re going to get to practice (again).”

To be specific, ASU returns to practicing on Monday, December 16, the first full week after finals conclude at the university. Edwards has made the importance of these practices in helping continue to develop a young team abundantly clear since the final games of the season, when the Sun Devils were fighting for bowl eligibility.

Now, not only will the team get that valuable time to continue development, but it will also have another opportunity to defeat a historically decorated program. For those who have forgotten, FSU is still only six years removed from its latest national championship with Jimbo Fisher as head coach and Jameis Winston as the quarterback.

“Very talented football team, when you think about Florida State, and the history of Florida State,” Edwards said. “When I was a professional coach, I coached a lot of players from Florida State. One of my better friends, (former Seminoles defensive back and NFL hall-of-famer) Deion Sanders—I just talked to Deon a couple of days ago—so I know he’ll be excited about the matchup as well.”

While Edwards has countless reasons to be excited about his first experience in El Paso as a collegiate head coach, this will feel like deja-vu for many of the upperclassmen who were just there in 2017, as alluded to earlier.

However, this Sun Bowl experience for the likes of seniors like linebacker Khaylan Kearse-Thomas and tackle Cohl Cabral, plus junior defensive back Chase Lucas, should be markedly different than the experience they had two years ago, outside of obvious reasons such as the opponent, teammates they’ll be playing with and their own personal growth as players.

For starters, the Sun Devils were playing with a lame-duck head coach in Todd Graham, who was coaching in not only his final game at ASU but in any capacity of collegiate football—unless of course, that changes in the near future with him by landing a new gig.

Cabral mentioned the awkwardness that brought in a conversation about a month ago, when the topic was revisited to compare that situation with USC’s, who we obviously now know was not using a lame-duck coach after all, as they’ve recently committed long-term to Clay Helton as their head coach.

“Yeah it’s kind of difficult, it’s kind of awkward at some points,” Cabral admitted. “Not changing things up is smart (in that situation), I mean just going out and doing everything that you normally do.”

So much has changed for this Sun Devil program since that embarrassing 52-31 defeat at the hands of then No. 23 North Carolina State though.

In stark contrast to that embarrassing loss, this game gives ASU a golden opportunity to have serious momentum ahead of signing day in February, when senior recruits make their choice of school official with pen and paper. This contest is the Sun Devils last chance to reinforce the idea that it is one of the, if not the hottest up-and-coming program in the Pac-12 conference, something not lost on Edwards and his staff.

“It’s very important to finish the season off with eight wins, we’ve been fortunate to beat three ranked football teams this year,” Edwards commented. “I think anytime you win (a bowl game), it propels you to next year.”

This idea is something that players and coaches alike agree on, and it’s also something that senior receiver Brandon Aiyuk serves as a perfect microcosm for.

Aiyuk, playing in his first season of collegiate football at the FBS level in 2018, set a season-high with nine catches plus 61 yards (third-highest of that season) in the team’s 31-20 loss in last year’s bowl game to then No. 21 Fresno State. He also set a season-high in kickoff return yards, taking five back for 115 total yards, with a long of 32.

Now, with the hindsight of the 2019 regular season, it’s clear how that bowl game a year ago served as just another stepping stone that led to this season’s breakout campaign—one that’s got his name mentioned by NFL draft experts now more than ever.

The native of Reno, Nevada finished with 65 catches for 1,192 yards and eight touchdowns, which doesn’t include his 63-yard punt return touchdown just a few weeks ago at Oregon State. His 99.3 receiving yards per game was second in the conference (13th in FBS), and those eight receiving touchdowns were actually tied with teammate Frank Darby for second in the Pac-12 too.

Also, his 18.3 yards per reception is over two yards ahead of the next closest Pac-12 receiver with at least 30 receptions. Darby is actually third in the entire FBS at 21.32, but doesn’t qualify for the Pac-12 page due to his 28 receptions.

“It enhances your season when you get to play an extra game,” Edwards stated. “For coaches, it’s about the ability to coach your football team before Spring ball. If you think about all these young guys that haven’t played—we’ve got a very young roster going into next season, we’ll only have seven seniors on our football team. So, it just gives you the ability to coach a lot of young players that didn’t play a lot.

“With the new rule of playing four games and redshirting, we have some guys that will be eligible to play in the bowl game and still take a redshirt. So, we’re excited about the opportunity of watching them and letting those guys play as well.”

Of course, just as important as the recruiting momentum and development for young or inexperienced players going into next season is that eighth win that Edwards alluded to.

The Sun Devils have not won eight games in a season since going 10-3 in 2014, ironically Norvell’s penultimate season as ASU’s offensive coordinator before taking the head coaching position at Memphis after the 2015 season concluded his time in Tempe.

Now, defeating the Seminoles and their brand new head coach in Norvell would give ASU its first three-game win streak to finish a season since 2012, when quarterback Taylor Kelly, running back Marion Grice and receiver Rashad Ross went off to defeat Navy 62-28 in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. As chance would have it, that was also the last time ASU finished a season 8-5, so it goes without saying that the Sun Devils would love for history to repeat itself.

ASU’s Sun Bowl matchup with FSU will kickoff at noon MST on December 31, and will be televised nationally on CBS.

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