Halloween Monday was a time to play dress-up for Arizona State quarterback Brock Osweiler, who showed up for his chat with reporters in a loose-fitting button down shirt, ASU visor, spectacles and gray coloring in his hair to appear as coach Dennis Erickson.
The outfit came complete with a Seattle Seahawks cup (Erickson is a former head coach there).
Of course, the Devils will get down to business, for there is important business at hand. The 20th-ranked Devils go on the road after beating Colorado Saturday in Tempe to face the UCLA Bruins, a team that can look horrible one week and impressive the next.
In fact, UCLA presents the biggest -- and really the only -- challenge for the Devils as far their path toward a Pac-12 South Division title. Win, and ASU takes a two-game lead over the Bruins (4-4 overall, 3-2 in conference) with three games to play. And the Devils have Washington State, Arizona and California -- all well below-.500 teams in conference play at present -- left on the schedule.
Lose, and the Bruins are suddenly tied with ASU (6-2, 4-1) in conference play. From that point, who knows what could happen? The Bruins have winnable games against Utah and Colorado remaining, plus the season-finale against USC.
Both of ASU's losses have come on the road this season, and the Sun Devils are very aware of what is at stake.
"They're sitting there in a situation like us where they've got a chance to win our division, but they've got to beat us to do it," ASU coach Dennis Erickson said.
One key will be avoiding hometown distractions, as many Devils are Southern California natives. Erickson hopes that fact is a positive.
"Every time we go to L.A., we get in there a little later, and we've played pretty well down in Los Angeles for the most part," he said. "I think it's a positive, because our players get a chance to go down, play in front of their friends and families."
ASU is bowl-eligible at six wins and is a virtual lock to play in a bowl game. But the team has more goals.
"That's the first goal of many that we're trying to achieve this year," Erickson said.
"This means a lot to us, and we understand that to meet our end-of-season goals, this is one of those football games that we've got to get," Osweiler, who was once a UCLA recruit, said.