Five games into the season, not many outside of Arizona State’s football building thought the Sun Devils would be here.
Most expected some improvement from Kenny Dillingham’s squad, which went 3-9 last season, but the Sun Devils were picked last in the 16-team Big 12 preseason poll. Through five games at least, they’re proving the doubters wrong. After Saturday night’s 35-31 win over Kansas, Arizona State has already surpassed its win total from each of the last two seasons, and are within just two wins of going to its first bowl game since 2021. The Tempe community is buying in, selling out Mountain America Stadium for last night’s game.
Sun Devil quarterback Sam Leavitt, a Utah transfer portal target, led the game-winning drive after Kansas QB Jalon Daniels threw a 34-yard strike to put the Jayhawks up 31-28 with two minutes remaining.
The eight-play, 75-yard drive for Arizona State featured a heavy dose of Cam Skattebo, who jumpstarted the series with a 39-yard run. Leavitt used his legs for two first-down conversions, including a 4-yard run on third-and-3 from the Kansas 7-yard line, and capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Jordyn Tyson to take a 35-31 lead.
Leavitt’s final line was 14 of 24 for 157 yards, four touchdowns and a interception through the air, plus 77 yards on the ground, while Skattebo added 186 yards and one touchdown on 25 carries.
Down 17-14 early in the second half, Leavitt threw a red-zone interception that bounced off the hands of his receiver and into the hands of Kansas, but Arizona State’s defense answered the bell and forced a three-and-out. After that, aside from Kansas’ last drive with 16 seconds left, both teams scored a touchdown every time they touched the ball as the lead swung back and forth.
Of note to Utah were two second-half targeting calls that led to the ejection of linebacker Keyshaun Elliott and defensive end Clayton Smith, two key Arizona State starters that will have to sit out the first half of the Utes’ dance with the Devils next Friday.
Both Utah and Arizona State enter this week’s game with the same 4-1 record (who saw that coming before the season started?) but the circumstances around each team are completely different.
The Utes, who lost to Arizona at Rice-Eccles Stadium a week ago, are coming off of a much-needed bye week and are eager to get back into the win column. They’ve had a week to correct their red-zone play-calling and defensive miscues, recharge and perhaps get some injured players closer to full health for the second half of the season.
Meanwhile, the Sun Devils are riding high, securing their first Big 12 win after bouncing back from a 30-22 loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock, but have to quickly turn the page to a rested Utah team ahead of Friday night’s game (8:30 p.m. MDT, ESPN).
“Unfortunately, you play a Friday night game and Utah is off a bye, so I don’t know how we got a schedule where we have six days and they have a bye week, but it’s possibly the worst scenario you could ever have is have a short week when another team has a bye,” Dillingham said. “So I don’t know how that happened, but we’re going to have to be as fresh as physically possible. It’s all about being fresh for this football game. They’re going to be fresh.”
Utah, which moved up two spots to No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 following a chaotic weekend in college football, opened up as a five-point road favorite on Sunday afternoon.
