Xavion Alford was last in AT&T Stadium five years ago, snagging an interception that helped Alvin Shadow Creek win its first state championship, capping a 31–1 run in its first two seasons as a Varsity program. 

Alford is one of 23 former Texas high school football players on Arizona State’s Big 12 Championship team, the spearhead of head coach Kenny Dillingham and defensive backs coach Bryan Carrington’s ‘Texas2Tempe’ recruiting movement. Arizona State’s mission to reach Jerry’s World for the conference championship game wasn’t new to them; the pinnacle of their high school career was to play there in December. 

But only some, like Alford, actually achieved it. In this week’s practice, he’d prepped his teammates for the jumbotron, the lights, the stage and the moment, because he’d experienced it all at 17 years old. He was the blue-chip recruit off to the blue blood program, the University of Texas, nicknamed the ‘100 Yard Landlord’ because he had every square inch of turf locked up.

In a way, the Alford that returned to AT&T Stadium on Saturday was the one everyone projected him to be, a First Team All-Conference safety playing for a Big 12 Championship. Yet his journey back to Arlington was not linear. It encapsulates the Sun Devils’ season, winning the Big 12 after being picked last in the preseason conference media poll. From written off to remembered.

And that’s what makes it so much more meaningful.