ASU to face West Virginia in Cactus Bowl on January 2

“We are thrilled to welcome West Virginia and Arizona State and their extensive fan bases to our game and to Phoenix”, Executive Director Mike Nealy said. Founded as the Copper Bowl, the game has had many names, including the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, but became the Cactus Bowl in 2014.

“It’s like an additional spring training nearly for your young guys”, Graham said. “It’s something that’s been a big part of us being successful”.

The Sun Devils will instead be making roughly a 10-mile drive from Tempe to play at the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl at Chase Field in Phoenix, the Fiesta Bowl Committee announced Sunday. Arizona State fans couldn’t have asked for a better bowl game to be placed at, especially with the way this season played out. In the higher-tier bowls, Stanford faces Iowa in the Rose Bowl, USC faces Wisconsin in the Holiday Bowl, Oregon faces TCU in the Alamo Bowl, UCLA faces Nebraska in the Foster Farms Bowl, Utah faces BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl and Washington State faces Miami in the Sun Bowl.

On the opposite sideline of West Virginia will be Arizona State head coach Todd Graham, a former Mountaineers assistant under Rich Rodriguez. West Virginia lost to Missouri, 43-31, but quarterback Marc Bulger was named offensive player of the game after throwing for 429 yards and three touchdowns. The teams last played in 1979, when the Sun Devils prevailed, 42-7.

“I think it’s going to be a heck of a matchup between two really good programs, and a very unique setting”, said Graham, who was the defensive coordinator at WVU in 2001 and 2002. RB Wendell Smallwood, 1,447 yards & 9 TDs dashing NOTABLE Arizona State: The Sun Devils played within the last bowl game at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, beating Rutgers within the 2005 Insight Bowl. Graham’s defensive coordinator is Keith Patterson, who held the same position under current WVU coach Dana Holgorsen before leaving to join Graham at Arizona State.

When Chase Field last hosted the game, it was known as the Insight Bowl. Chris Thomsen, the offensive line coach, will likely handle most of the play calling this game.