by Randy Policar, Sun Devil Class of 2002
Change is inevitable in college football. Every year, new student-athletes join the program while others move on. Head coaches and assistants come and go. Even the logos on the helmet aren't forever. But for the past 21 years of Sun Devil football, Lora Borup has been the one constant. With her desk sitting just outside the head coach's suite, Borup has been the go-to for Arizona State University's head football coach. But now her time with ASU football is coming to an end as well – Borup is retiring from her post at the end of April, closing the book on two-plus decades dedicated to the Arizona State football program.
Her contributions to the football program go way beyond her title as Administrative Associate. She was the "mother" of the football office, as former head coach Dirk Koetter described her. Not just to the student-athletes, but to everyone she came in contact with. Quick with a warm greeting and a smile, she always made you feel right at home. The football offices could sometimes feel like a lion's den, especially right before a game, but Borup was like a kindly lion tamer, using her charm instead of a whip to make sure everyone felt welcome.
Her Sun Devil career has spanned five head football coaches, beginning with Bruce Snyder, then Dirk Koetter, Dennis Erickson, Todd Graham and now Herm Edwards.
"They each hold a special place for me," Borup said of the coaches. "They were all different in their own way."
She worked for Coach Snyder for the shortest amount of time (March of 1999 until December of 2000), but developed a very close bond with him.
"He was like a father to me," she said. "I cried when he left."
When Coach Koetter was hired in December of 2000, she found herself in the uncomfortable position of working with two coaching staffs simultaneously.
"When I came to ASU from Boise State, it was the middle of December, before Christmas," Coach Koetter recalled. "(My coaching staff) was going to come to Tempe for two weeks and recruit, then go back to Boise to coach in the Humanitarian Bowl. Meanwhile, Coach Snyder and his staff were still in the football offices getting ready to coach the Sun Devils in the Aloha Bowl. For that two-week period, both coaching staffs were at ASU. It was an awkward time with two staffs working at the same time, and Lora was caught in the middle of it. But as always, she handled it like a pro."
Borup worked with Coach Koetter until his tenure ended in 2006, building a strong friendship that exists to this day.
"It took awhile for me to get to know Dirk when he first got to ASU because it was a new situation for both of us," she said. "He was coming to a new school and I was working with a staff that was totally new to Arizona State, but we developed a great relationship."
One of Borup's duties was to type up the daily practice plans and on Thursday prepare the game plan, transforming them from Coach Koetter's handwritten ideas to neatly typed and produced documents that could be distributed to players and coaches. Typing the game plan soon became one of her favorite tasks and even developed into a competition between her and the coach.
"It became a contest between Dirk and I, to see who made the first mistake," Borup said. "Was it something he wrote down wrong or a typo by me?"
Coach Koetter left ASU following the 2006 season and just like with Coach Snyder, it was hard on Borup.
"It was such a fun coaching staff to work with," she said. "I cried when they left."
When Dennis Erickson arrived in Tempe, it was another transition that left her unsure of what the office would be like.
"When Coach Erickson was hired, I really didn't know what to expect. He came from such a different background than Coach Koetter. He was this famous coach with National Championships and NFL experience," she remembered. "But he was so funny, he could always make me laugh. I really enjoyed listening to his stories."
Erickson's tenure came to an end after the 2011 season, and just like before, it was a difficult transition.
"I cried when he left."
The hiring of Todd Graham signaled a change in Borup's job, as she transitioned away from the Xs and Os and moved into more scheduling and recruiting work, while also helping plan the Senior Day festivities at the end of the season. She also continued to help plan the football camps that the coaches hold during the off-seasons.
"Coach Graham has a great heart," Borup said. "He wanted his Graduate Assistants to work on the game plans so they could learn how it was done. It was a change for me, but I understood why he did it."
Coach Graham departed following the 2017 campaign, putting Borup once again in a familiar position.
"I cried when he left."
Apart from the head coaches she worked with, Borup also built relationships with every assistant coach who has been through the program over the last two decades.
"There were so many great people I had the chance to work with, it is hard to narrow it down," she said. "Matt Lubick, Ron English, Chris Ball, John Pettas, Del Alexander, Jamie Christian, Jackie Shipp, Joe Seumalo, Shaun Nua, Jamar Cain, Jay Norvell, Brent Myers, Mark Helfrich, Dan Cozzetto, I could go on and on. They were all so wonderful to be around.
"Phil Snow was another great coach to work with. I will never forget when he asked me how to spell hat. I still laugh thinking about that story. It's H-A-T Coach!"
"Lora was definitely the gatekeeper to the head coach," Coach Koetter recalled. "She was really good at knowing when I was not to be disturbed and when it was ok. People had a tendency to want to just pop-in to the office and visit, sometimes at inconvenient times, but she did a really good job of running the office and making sure we had everything we needed to take care of our day-to-day activities."
The nature of the football beast is wins and losses, but Borup always tried to make sure she was the same person, whether she had celebrated a win or lamented a loss on Saturday.
"Lora could always keep her cool, no matter how hectic it was and no matter how excited or depressed other people might be," Coach Koetter said. "She was a consistently nice person on a daily basis. In the football office, the mood swings can be extremely high or extremely low, based on wins or losses or a key recruit coming or not coming. She was always the same. She was just so steady in her demeanor. She was never too high, never too low."
"I hate losing and I never knew what to say to the coaches or kids after losses,"
Borup said. "Every staff was great that by Monday they were over it."
But without question, her favorite part of the job was interacting with the student-athletes. She has seen them come from all over the country, different backgrounds, different stories, and she has watched them grow and mature right before her eyes, season after season.
"Unequivocally, I will miss the players the most. They have made my day, every single day."
Of all the positions, it was the quarterbacks who spent the most time in the coaches' offices, meeting with either the QB coach or the head coach.
That gave her the unique opportunity to get to know the most important player on the field on a more personal level.
"I can't say there was a bad one in the bunch," she said. "Rudy Carpenter, Brock Osweiler, Taylor Kelly, Mike Bercovici. They were all so great to be around.
"Manny Wilkins never passed my desk without stopping for a hug or asking me about my day. I loved watching him play the game, but I did tell him that he had to stop leaping over the defense because it was freaking me out. I didn't want him to get hurt! He obviously ignored me."
"I spent a lot of time in the football offices and around her," said former Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter. "I'm not sure people always appreciate what she does and what her job entails. I know I didn't when I was playing. I was up in the office it seemed like every day, and Lora always stopped and talked to me, and always about something other than football, which I appreciated. She always asked about my family, and I just thought that was really awesome."
Over her 21 years with the team she has seen her share of triumphs and setbacks. Having been a part of more than 200 games with the Sun Devils, they can all start to run together, but the one that sticks out most in her mind was the 2005 matchup in Tempe with the LSU Tigers. Because of Hurricane Katrina, the game was moved to Sun Devil Stadium from Baton Rouge just a few days before kickoff. The days leading up to the meeting between the #5 Tigers and the #15 Sun Devils were stressful, and the game lived up to its hype.
"That was an amazingly memorable game. I thought we had it in the bag right until the end," Borup recalled of LSU's last-minute 35-31 victory.
"That loss broke my heart. I was so proud of the way we played and everything we did leading up to the game. It felt so bad the way it ended. But at the same time, it was nice for all the people who were suffering in the New Orleans area to have something positive to cheer for during such a hard time."
She also remembers fondly some of the Bowl trips she was able to go on, especially her first, the 1999 Aloha Bowl in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
"That was such a fun and memorable trip, because I was able to bring all three of my boys along," she remembered. "It was a great family vacation right over Christmas. Everyone got meal money, which we all spent shopping for each other's gifts. It was great time, other than the game itself (a 23-3 loss to Wake Forest)."
As the sun sets on her Sun Devil career, she knows that what she will most of all is the people.
"I will miss the coaches. I will miss watching the team come down the tunnel just before kickoff on game day. I will miss the former players coming back to the office and giving me a hug. Jayden Daniels came in every day and gave me a hug. I will miss that so much."
"She is so loyal to the program," Carpenter said. "She has been around ASU for many, many years and has put in so much time in that building getting to know so many different players over so many different years."
"Lora just always had a real way of treating people well and her sweetness always came across no matter what was happening in the football office," said Coach Koetter.
"Lora was one of the first people I met when I took the job," adds Coach Edwards. "From that day forward she has been a trusted assistant and confidant. She is so valuable to the football program in so many ways. It's difficult to keep track of everything she does and all of the good that she inspires in people. We all will miss her dearly!"
For 21 seasons, Borup has kept the football office operating like a well-oiled machine. When the calendar changes to May 1 and Lora officially begins her well-earned retirement, an era will have ended. There will still be student-athletes visiting the floor, coaches hustling around preparing, and games at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturdays. There will still be hugs and friendly greetings, camps planned and travel booked, but without Lora Borup there to watch over it all, it won't feel quite the same.
Sparky will surely cry that she left.
-----
Randy Policar (Class of 2002) spent four years as a student worker in the Sun Devils Sports Information office while earning his degree in broadcasting. He worked three years as the PR Director for the Arizona Rattlers before returning to his alma mater in 2005 as a sports information director, where he worked with Volleyball, Baseball and Football. He is currently a Senior Public Information and Communications Specialist for the City of Mesa.
Change is inevitable in college football. Every year, new student-athletes join the program while others move on. Head coaches and assistants come and go. Even the logos on the helmet aren't forever. But for the past 21 years of Sun Devil football, Lora Borup has been the one constant. With her desk sitting just outside the head coach's suite, Borup has been the go-to for Arizona State University's head football coach. But now her time with ASU football is coming to an end as well – Borup is retiring from her post at the end of April, closing the book on two-plus decades dedicated to the Arizona State football program.
Her contributions to the football program go way beyond her title as Administrative Associate. She was the "mother" of the football office, as former head coach Dirk Koetter described her. Not just to the student-athletes, but to everyone she came in contact with. Quick with a warm greeting and a smile, she always made you feel right at home. The football offices could sometimes feel like a lion's den, especially right before a game, but Borup was like a kindly lion tamer, using her charm instead of a whip to make sure everyone felt welcome.
Her Sun Devil career has spanned five head football coaches, beginning with Bruce Snyder, then Dirk Koetter, Dennis Erickson, Todd Graham and now Herm Edwards.
"They each hold a special place for me," Borup said of the coaches. "They were all different in their own way."
She worked for Coach Snyder for the shortest amount of time (March of 1999 until December of 2000), but developed a very close bond with him.
"He was like a father to me," she said. "I cried when he left."
When Coach Koetter was hired in December of 2000, she found herself in the uncomfortable position of working with two coaching staffs simultaneously.
"When I came to ASU from Boise State, it was the middle of December, before Christmas," Coach Koetter recalled. "(My coaching staff) was going to come to Tempe for two weeks and recruit, then go back to Boise to coach in the Humanitarian Bowl. Meanwhile, Coach Snyder and his staff were still in the football offices getting ready to coach the Sun Devils in the Aloha Bowl. For that two-week period, both coaching staffs were at ASU. It was an awkward time with two staffs working at the same time, and Lora was caught in the middle of it. But as always, she handled it like a pro."
Borup worked with Coach Koetter until his tenure ended in 2006, building a strong friendship that exists to this day.
"It took awhile for me to get to know Dirk when he first got to ASU because it was a new situation for both of us," she said. "He was coming to a new school and I was working with a staff that was totally new to Arizona State, but we developed a great relationship."
One of Borup's duties was to type up the daily practice plans and on Thursday prepare the game plan, transforming them from Coach Koetter's handwritten ideas to neatly typed and produced documents that could be distributed to players and coaches. Typing the game plan soon became one of her favorite tasks and even developed into a competition between her and the coach.
"It became a contest between Dirk and I, to see who made the first mistake," Borup said. "Was it something he wrote down wrong or a typo by me?"
Coach Koetter left ASU following the 2006 season and just like with Coach Snyder, it was hard on Borup.
"It was such a fun coaching staff to work with," she said. "I cried when they left."
When Dennis Erickson arrived in Tempe, it was another transition that left her unsure of what the office would be like.
"When Coach Erickson was hired, I really didn't know what to expect. He came from such a different background than Coach Koetter. He was this famous coach with National Championships and NFL experience," she remembered. "But he was so funny, he could always make me laugh. I really enjoyed listening to his stories."
Erickson's tenure came to an end after the 2011 season, and just like before, it was a difficult transition.
"I cried when he left."
The hiring of Todd Graham signaled a change in Borup's job, as she transitioned away from the Xs and Os and moved into more scheduling and recruiting work, while also helping plan the Senior Day festivities at the end of the season. She also continued to help plan the football camps that the coaches hold during the off-seasons.
"Coach Graham has a great heart," Borup said. "He wanted his Graduate Assistants to work on the game plans so they could learn how it was done. It was a change for me, but I understood why he did it."
Coach Graham departed following the 2017 campaign, putting Borup once again in a familiar position.
"I cried when he left."
Apart from the head coaches she worked with, Borup also built relationships with every assistant coach who has been through the program over the last two decades.
"There were so many great people I had the chance to work with, it is hard to narrow it down," she said. "Matt Lubick, Ron English, Chris Ball, John Pettas, Del Alexander, Jamie Christian, Jackie Shipp, Joe Seumalo, Shaun Nua, Jamar Cain, Jay Norvell, Brent Myers, Mark Helfrich, Dan Cozzetto, I could go on and on. They were all so wonderful to be around.
"Phil Snow was another great coach to work with. I will never forget when he asked me how to spell hat. I still laugh thinking about that story. It's H-A-T Coach!"
"Lora was definitely the gatekeeper to the head coach," Coach Koetter recalled. "She was really good at knowing when I was not to be disturbed and when it was ok. People had a tendency to want to just pop-in to the office and visit, sometimes at inconvenient times, but she did a really good job of running the office and making sure we had everything we needed to take care of our day-to-day activities."
The nature of the football beast is wins and losses, but Borup always tried to make sure she was the same person, whether she had celebrated a win or lamented a loss on Saturday.
"Lora could always keep her cool, no matter how hectic it was and no matter how excited or depressed other people might be," Coach Koetter said. "She was a consistently nice person on a daily basis. In the football office, the mood swings can be extremely high or extremely low, based on wins or losses or a key recruit coming or not coming. She was always the same. She was just so steady in her demeanor. She was never too high, never too low."
"I hate losing and I never knew what to say to the coaches or kids after losses,"
Borup said. "Every staff was great that by Monday they were over it."
But without question, her favorite part of the job was interacting with the student-athletes. She has seen them come from all over the country, different backgrounds, different stories, and she has watched them grow and mature right before her eyes, season after season.
"Unequivocally, I will miss the players the most. They have made my day, every single day."
Of all the positions, it was the quarterbacks who spent the most time in the coaches' offices, meeting with either the QB coach or the head coach.
That gave her the unique opportunity to get to know the most important player on the field on a more personal level.
"I can't say there was a bad one in the bunch," she said. "Rudy Carpenter, Brock Osweiler, Taylor Kelly, Mike Bercovici. They were all so great to be around.
"Manny Wilkins never passed my desk without stopping for a hug or asking me about my day. I loved watching him play the game, but I did tell him that he had to stop leaping over the defense because it was freaking me out. I didn't want him to get hurt! He obviously ignored me."
"I spent a lot of time in the football offices and around her," said former Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter. "I'm not sure people always appreciate what she does and what her job entails. I know I didn't when I was playing. I was up in the office it seemed like every day, and Lora always stopped and talked to me, and always about something other than football, which I appreciated. She always asked about my family, and I just thought that was really awesome."
Over her 21 years with the team she has seen her share of triumphs and setbacks. Having been a part of more than 200 games with the Sun Devils, they can all start to run together, but the one that sticks out most in her mind was the 2005 matchup in Tempe with the LSU Tigers. Because of Hurricane Katrina, the game was moved to Sun Devil Stadium from Baton Rouge just a few days before kickoff. The days leading up to the meeting between the #5 Tigers and the #15 Sun Devils were stressful, and the game lived up to its hype.
"That was an amazingly memorable game. I thought we had it in the bag right until the end," Borup recalled of LSU's last-minute 35-31 victory.
"That loss broke my heart. I was so proud of the way we played and everything we did leading up to the game. It felt so bad the way it ended. But at the same time, it was nice for all the people who were suffering in the New Orleans area to have something positive to cheer for during such a hard time."
She also remembers fondly some of the Bowl trips she was able to go on, especially her first, the 1999 Aloha Bowl in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
"That was such a fun and memorable trip, because I was able to bring all three of my boys along," she remembered. "It was a great family vacation right over Christmas. Everyone got meal money, which we all spent shopping for each other's gifts. It was great time, other than the game itself (a 23-3 loss to Wake Forest)."
As the sun sets on her Sun Devil career, she knows that what she will most of all is the people.
"I will miss the coaches. I will miss watching the team come down the tunnel just before kickoff on game day. I will miss the former players coming back to the office and giving me a hug. Jayden Daniels came in every day and gave me a hug. I will miss that so much."
"She is so loyal to the program," Carpenter said. "She has been around ASU for many, many years and has put in so much time in that building getting to know so many different players over so many different years."
"Lora just always had a real way of treating people well and her sweetness always came across no matter what was happening in the football office," said Coach Koetter.
"Lora was one of the first people I met when I took the job," adds Coach Edwards. "From that day forward she has been a trusted assistant and confidant. She is so valuable to the football program in so many ways. It's difficult to keep track of everything she does and all of the good that she inspires in people. We all will miss her dearly!"
For 21 seasons, Borup has kept the football office operating like a well-oiled machine. When the calendar changes to May 1 and Lora officially begins her well-earned retirement, an era will have ended. There will still be student-athletes visiting the floor, coaches hustling around preparing, and games at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturdays. There will still be hugs and friendly greetings, camps planned and travel booked, but without Lora Borup there to watch over it all, it won't feel quite the same.
Sparky will surely cry that she left.
-----
Randy Policar (Class of 2002) spent four years as a student worker in the Sun Devils Sports Information office while earning his degree in broadcasting. He worked three years as the PR Director for the Arizona Rattlers before returning to his alma mater in 2005 as a sports information director, where he worked with Volleyball, Baseball and Football. He is currently a Senior Public Information and Communications Specialist for the City of Mesa.