FACTS & STATS: Site: Arizona Stadium (57,400) -- Tucson, Arizona. Television: ESPN. Home Record: ASU 4-3, Arizona 4-2. Away Record: ASU 1-3, Arizona 2-3. Neutral Record: ASU 0-0, Arizona 0-0. Conference Record: ASU 4-4, Arizona 4-4. Series Record: Arizona leads, 44-36-1.

GAME NOTES: A fight for the oldest rivalry game trophy in the nation takes place on Saturday night in Tucson, as the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Arizona Wildcats meet up in a battle for the Territorial Championship Cup. This 82nd edition of the Duel in the Desert dates back to Thanksgiving Day in 1899 and shows Arizona leading the way with a mark of 44-36-1. This season the teams closely mirror each other as far as their records are concerned, currently tied for fifth place in the Pac-10 with 4-4 marks. The Sun Devils still need another win in order to become bowl eligible and have managed to weather a rough section of the schedule during which it lost six in a row. Since a 27-25 setback to Oregon State on the road the first of November, the team has run off three consecutive victories, including a 34-9 romp over UCLA last week. As for the Wildcats, they started things with a bang this season by crushing Idaho at home, 70-0. The squad went on to win four of five to begin the campaign, but has since fallen in four of the last six outings, including two in a row. On November 22nd, Arizona came close but still fell short in a 19-17 decision versus 21st-ranked Oregon State at home.

Arizona State failed to score a single offensive touchdown last week against UCLA, yet still played well enough to record the 25-point win in Tempe. Rudy Carpenter, who was sacked three times, converted just 13-of-26 passes for 101 yards and an interception in the decision, while Keegan Herring was the tip running back for the program with 32 yards on 13 attempts. Altogether the Sun Devils posted a mere 21 yards on the ground and just 122 yards of total offense on 50 snaps. Carpenter should have had a huge season in 2008, but for some reason he simply could not work his way up to his potential. This year he converted 62.5 percent of his pass attempts for 215.4 ypg, but against 15 touchdowns he also tossed eight interceptions. The senior signal-caller has thrown for at least 2,000 yards in four straight seasons, but last year he lit up the skies with his 3,202 yards and 25 touchdowns, with just 10 picks. In 2005 Carpenter showed tremendous promise with close to 70 percent completions and 17 TDs, while tossing a mere two picks.

The ASU defense did all the work versus the Bruins last Friday, producing four touchdowns to tie an NCAA record. Travis Goethel, Troy Nolan and Mike Nixon all returned interceptions for touchdowns and Paul Unga picked up a fumble and brought it back 17 yards for a score early in the second quarter. The unit surrendered 217 yards passing and 306 yards of offense overall, but because of the aforementioned quartet it did little to change the outcome. While he failed to come up with a turnover, Morris Wooten made sure he was noticed with 17 tackles, two of which were sacks. One of the nation's leaders in interceptions with five, Nixon is also the team leader in terms of total tackles this season with 81. As one of the more punishing tacklers for the program, Dexter Davis paces the group with his 10 sacks and 14 tackles for loss, all while posting just 36 total stops on the season thus far. As a unit the Sun Devils are now fourth in the conference and 16th in the country with an average of seven TFLs per outing.

The Wildcats, who have outscored opponents in every quarter this season, have dominated on the ground in terms of points produced. Nicolas Grigsby and Keola Antolin have taken the ball and run with it every chance they've had, resulting in 11 and 10 touchdowns, respectively. Grigsby has averaged five and a half yards per carry in his 11 starts, while Antolin has subbed his way to 512 yards overall in a backup role. However, the performance of Willie Tuitama cannot be completely overlooked because he's averaged better than 225 ypg passing and has connected on nearly 65 percent of his attempts. Of Tuitama's 19 TD passes, nine have gone to tight end Rob Gronkowski in just eight games. As a whole the unit has produced 402.4 ypg of total offense, good enough for fourth in the conference and 34th in the nation entering the week, which has led to 37.6 ppg to place third in the Pac-10 and 16th in the country. However, were it not for 111 total points in the first two games that number would be significantly lower.

As is the case with ASU, the pass efficiency defense for the Wildcats is also one of the best in the nation, placing 19th this week with a ranking of 106.3. the squad has let through only 16 touchdowns through the air and an average of 173.9 ypg. Defenders have come up with 14 interceptions, four of those by Trevin Wade who has started just one of 11 games this season and has logged half as many picks as he has tackles. In terms of overall takedowns, Ronnie Palmer leads the way with his 70 tackles and is also first with nine TFLs. With less than half the tackles total of Palmer, Brooks Reed has managed to turn his 30 stops into mostly important events as he leads the group with five sacks and is also tied for the team lead with a pair of forced fumbles. However, sacks appear to be a precious commodity in the desert because the team is averaging a mere 1.72 sacks per outing to rank eighth in the conference and 77th in the country this week.

With so much left to fight for, expect to see the Sun Devils pull out all the stops in order to give themselves a chance to extend their season.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Arizona State 31, Arizona 20

Saturday, December 6th, 8:00 p.m. (et).