Updated DEC 22, 2014 6:34p ET  Todd Graham has made one thing clear: ASU is treating the 2014 Sun Bowl like any regular-season game.  What it's not being treated as is a victory lap for a group of seniors who have bridged the Dennis Erickson era and the Graham era. The Sun Devils have every intention of sending those seniors out with a victory, of course, but they won't be sacrificing their chance of winning by dolling out sentimental snaps.  "Sun Bowl's a great bowl tradition-wise. It has a lot of history in it," said senior Marcus Hardison. "But Sun Bowl's just another game. We're playing Duke, we just need to get another win."  And that leads us to the first of three big questions as ASU and Duke clash with each hoping to put together a second consecutive 10-win season.  Will there be quarterback shuffling?  Senior Taylor Kelly will get the Sun Bowl start, but his benching in favor of junior Mike Bercovici in the Nov. 28 loss to Arizona makes one wonder how short of a leash he'll be on.  A broken foot has led to the rockiest season of Kelly's career.  He's had half of the total passing attempts he did as a junior and missed three games. After rushing for 608 yards and nine scores in 2013, Kelly has been limited to 232 yards and three touchdowns on the ground this year. In the last two games, he finished with negative rushing yards as Washington State and Arizona got into the backfield.  The last month could do Kelly some good. He's gotten enough reps to find a rhythm in practice, but it's also offered him time to get his legs under him.  But if the Territorial Cup game showed us anything, Graham won't be shy about throwing in Bercovici if Kelly is off.  "For us as a team, it's not our focus," Bercovici said of the quarterback situation. "It's not just Taylor. It's Jamil (Douglas), Kyle Middlebrooks, guys who have been here for four, five years, hoisting that trophy up at the end of the game."  Is Duke the real deal?  The context to how ASU finds itself with a 9-3 record heading into the Sun Bowl is as important as how Duke enters with the same mark.  Historically, the teams come from very different postseason backgrounds. Duke, after all, is new to being a relevant football school and is searching for its first bowl win since 1961. The Blue Devils have been to four bowl games since then. Meanwhile, Arizona State has a long history of playing in the Sun Bowl alone. ASU dropped Purdue a decade ago and in 1997 saw Sun Devil legend Pat Tillman win his final collegiate game in El Paso, Texas.  The different perspectives between the two teams can be boiled down to this season as well. The Blue Devils are hoping they are the team that got out to an 8-1 start, not the one that fell to mediocre Virginia Tech and North Carolina in the heart of November. Duke's nine wins came against teams that went 37-70 (.346), and it lost to three teams that were a combined 18-18 (.500). The Blue Devils' strength of schedule ranks 83rd in the nation, according to Jeff Sagarin's ratings. It won nine games in arguably the lesser division of the least-impressive power five conference.  In comparison, the Sun Devils beat teams that combined to go 50-60 (.450) on the year and lost to squads that finished the year 24-13 (.649). They had the 35th most difficult schedule, per Sagarin.  Who each team played has a bit to do with numbers on the field as well. Duke ranks 21st nationally by allowing only 20.6 points per game, which in the Pac-12 would only be bested by Stanford's 16 points allowed. But ASU giving up 27.7 points per game had to do with nine Pac-12 teams averaging better than 30 points per game.  It's all context, so feel free to view the game as a flexing match between the Pac-12 and ACC.  Have the freshmen backs earned bigger roles?  “Kalen Ballage is a guy who has really matured and really progressed a lot during these practices.”  - ASU head coach Todd Graham  In D.J. Foster's first year as ASU's main man at running back, offensive coordinator Mike Norvell hasn't shied away from using his best offensive weapon in the passing game. A quarter of Foster's touches this season have come in the passing game, where he wracked up 646 yards to go with his 1,002-yard rushing season.  So the Sun Devils have also given their backup running backs a lot of snaps, either in place of Foster when he's moved to the slot or in two-back sets. With senior Deantre Lewis leaving the team in the middle of bowl preparation, the door is open for bigger doses of the youngsters.  Demario Richard has been the second back this year and should get his touches. He and Foster each got 13 carries in the Arizona game.  Don't be surprised to see another freshman have an opportunity to produce on Saturday.  "Kalen Ballage is a guy who has really matured and really progressed a lot during these practices," Graham said last week.  Ballage admitted earlier in the season he was struggling to learn the playbook, and his production dipped as the season went on. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound running back with breakaway speed has used the recent practices to his advantage. That could lead to more snaps.
Arizona State and Duke clash in the 2014 Sun Bowl. Here are three looming questions for the Saturday showdown.