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Were this rivalry turned into a movie, the breadth and vitriol condensed into a tidy two hours, there's no doubt it would be filled with montages of coaches firing up their players.

Arizona-Arizona State is filled with dramatic moments, many of which took place before the game itself.

But, of all people, it didn't affect the fiery Frank Kush.

"I was trained that the pep talk was preparation during practice," said Kush, who went 16-5 against the Wildcats from 1958 to 1978 before being fired midseason in 1979. "You must prepare the players and disregard any animosity, all the media hype. You have to get that out of the kids' minds."

Dennis Erickson, the current ASU coach, finds motivating his team during rivalry week redundant.

"You don't have to be Knute Rockne to come in here and get ready for a traditional game," he said.

But it happens — on the practice field, in the locker room, and even while barnstorming the state for political reasons.

Were the Duel in the Desert turned into a movie, the following great motivational moments would be used as a montage to be watched over and over again — the way the stories have been retold for years, building the tapestry of the rivalry.

Kush, in his first year at ASU, had been enlisted for duty.

His job: to stump around the state for the approval of Proposition 200, which would change the name of Arizona State College to Arizona State University. As he would leave his stump speeches, former UA president Richard Harvill would walk in the room to argue against the proposition.

"He was saying there should only be one university in the state of Arizona," Kush said. "I was shocked that people would be opposed to having another university in the state of Arizona. Here, these are intelligent people; what's good for the state is education."

The proposition passed in the November election, and the school's name changed Dec. 5, 1958. Kush never forgot the battle.

"The intriguing thing to me was that the rivalry was big, not only athletically but politically," he said.

UA coach Jim Young's team needed to hit somebody. Lord knows it didn't hit Wyoming the week before, though the Wildcats won 21-14.

So the Hall of Famer — nicknamed "The Sign Man" by his players for his propensity to hand out fliers — distributed handouts. He spelled out H-I-T: "Heavy hitting, Intensity, Toughness."

Then Young made his team prove it. The team scrimmaged — full-bore, full-pads, starters vs. starters — on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

"I got mad the previous week against Wyoming," said Young, the UA coach from 1973 to 1976. "That was the emphasis. We were gonna go all out.

"We went at each other."

Wednesday night, fullback Jim Upchurch — who had rushed for 1,004 yards that year — hurt his ankle and missed the game.

No matter. The hard-hitting Wildcats snapped Arizona State's nine-game winning streak in the series with a 10-0 victory.

Larry Smith had called ASU to avoid such a mess. The Wildcats, who had donned white jerseys at home most of the year, ditched them for navy jerseys. He told ASU to wear white.

The Sun Devils showed up in maroon.

Referees made Smith's team change into white jerseys — practice jerseys, because the game shirts were dirty.

Officials delayed the game by 15 minutes while the Wildcats changed. Smith used the snub to motivate his players.

"That jersey thing kind of put the cherry on top of the sundae," he said. "We exploded out there. They were (ticked) they had to wear their old smelly practice jerseys. There was a lot of boiling tempers."

The Wildcats scored the first 26 points, and won 28-18 to crush ASU's Rose Bowl hopes.

At the end of the last practice of the season inside Arizona Stadium, players huddled at one end of the field. This was the seniors' chance to say whatever they wanted to their teammates and coaches — be they inspirational, regretful or reflections on their career at Arizona.

Then they would sprint 50 yards down the field toward a tackling dummy with a familiar logo on it.

"The dummy had a big picture of Sparky on it," former UA coach Dick Tomey said. "They'd run down and knock the hell out of the dummy or sometimes just touch it.

"It was very emotional. I had a lot of favorite days — that's just the way I am. But it was certainly one of my favorites."

Tomey believed in motivating his players early in the week, bringing in former players and coaches and even academics.

But the "Senior Tackle" was when emotions came spilling out.

"It was a special time, and we did it for 14 years," he said. "I thought it was a good thing, but it's not magic. You've still got to play, and make plays."

Thoughts about Saturday's "Duel in the Desert" from former UA coaches:

"Arizona, they're in a great position because they're moving the ball now."

"You don't like to see a team like ASU come off of a loss like that. You know they're a lot better than the way they played against USC."

"(The Wildcats) are playing at their A game, and that gives you the confidence to go to the next week. I've been associated with an open date, but not an open-and-a-half date. I think that's pretty tough to manage from a coaching perspective."

"ASU beat the hell out of us (at San Jose State) at the beginning of the year, but we got better as the year went on. … I think it's gonna be a great football game. Arizona has a great chance to win. They've done a great job."

"I think Arizona has made a helluva lot of progress offensively. They're an aggressive defense. I think it's going to be a challenge between the two coaches."

— Frank Kush, ASU coach 1958-79

A good talk can change the plot in this rivalry