How Arizona State plans to grow from loss to Mississippi State

(Photo: Spencer Barnes/ WCSN)

Arizona State walked into Davis Wade Stadium to play Mississippi State as the No. 12 team in the country and the favorites in the matchup. To many college football fans across the nation, it seemed like a game the Sun Devils should win; instead, the cowbells sang and led to an upset victory for the host.

ASU entered the locker room at halftime trailing 17-3, having registered just 95 yards of total offense. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt, the Big 12 Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, was a paltry 5-15 with an interception, and nothing seemed to be going right. To the credit of ASU’s resilient mindset, though, the team fought back in the second half.

The Sun Devils defense held MSU at 17 points while the run game awoke, helping the maroon and gold tie MSU and take the lead on a late fourth-quarter field goal. The only issue was that MSU got the ball back and was able to take advantage of a blown defensive play, scoring a game-winning touchdown to give the Sun Devils a sour flight home.

Despite the heartbreaking defeat, ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham walked into his Monday press conference calm, cool and relatively unbothered. Nobody wants to lose, but Dillingham was more concerned with how the game looked, rather than his team’s early-season win-loss record. He knows changes need to be made before ASU hosts Texas State on Saturday, but he took positives from the loss and isn’t overly concerned about the negatives.

“I have the exact same conversations after (the game) if we make one more play and win, and if we make one less play and lose,” Dillingham said. “I think overreacting is one of the reasons why teams that are really, really good can go on downward spirals.

“Sometimes you can get lost in the external result of is it in the W column or the loss column, and if you’re too drastic, because one play was wrong, you do so many things differently. Well, that is a recipe for failure down the road.”

One of the positives that Dillingham pointed out was the defense, which he categorized as “really, really, really good.” The Bulldogs couldn’t maintain efficiency or consistent success against the Sun Devils. Graduate quarterback Black Shapen found his completion percentage under 60% on the night, and his offense turned the ball over on fourth down twice and was forced to punt another five times.

Unfortunately for ASU, MSU’s fast-tempo offense, combined with the hostile atmosphere, still created the environment for three game-changing touchdowns. Without those plays, ASU would’ve held MSU to just 192 yards of total offense. Alas, those big plays did happen and the third big play lost ASU the game.

Confusion in the secondary and redshirt senior defensive back Xavion Alford tripping while rushing Shapen gave the QB a chance to find senior wide receiver Brenen Thompson for the game-winning 58-yard touchdown. It was a risky play call, but Dillingham explained that he felt it gave the Sun Devils a chance to walk out of Starkville with the victory.

“We had an opportunity where we feel like we could sack the quarterback and end the game,” Dillingham said. “… They call the double move, we didn’t hit home, so you’re like dang, we hit home, we win the football game.

“It didn’t get the result we wanted, so I always look at that and say, ‘Man, could we have been in– could we have hit home playing a cover three pressure? Could we have hit home with just a four-man rush?’ Maybe, but we felt we had a guy that we had a chance to come free, and it didn’t work.”

The defense most likely wouldn’t have had to play the role of a closer coming in for a save if Leavitt had played to his usual standards. The redshirt sophomore finished his first game in SEC country with just 82 yards after completing just 10 of his 22 passing attempts, with two of his misfires getting picked off by the Hail State defense.

Leavitt couldn’t find a rhythm – which is something that Dillingham admitted he needs to help his QB find – and had numerous head-scratching incompletions. The West Linn, Oregon native was also only able to link up with three different teammates on the night. Still, despite the bad game, Dillingham is sticking firmly by his quarterback.

“(Leavitt) showed up yesterday (and) went back to work,” Dillingham said. “Everybody doesn’t have great games every game. The dude’s unbelievable. I wouldn’t trade him for any other quarterback in the country. That’s the quarterback I want to coach, that’s the quarterback I have complete faith in.”

To help Leavitt find his rhythm against Texas State, the ASU offense will need to improve on third downs – where it went 3-14 on Saturday – but first, it’ll need to put itself in position to succeed in those scenarios.

“You can’t go three and out and get a rhythm,” Dillingham said. “… We’re getting into third and longs, we’re not getting into as many third and good manageables as we would like. We got to get into third and better manageables, and we got to do that with first and second down, obviously. And then, once we get to third down, get one conversion (and) I think we’ll get rolling.”

Another area of focus for the offense heading into its game against Texas State is to spread the ball around. Through two games, only redshirt junior wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, junior running back Kyson Brown and redshirt junior running back Raleek Brown have registered more than two receptions. Tyson’s 18 receptions are also more than every other player who has recorded a reception combined.

“We just got to get more guys involved,” Dillingham said. “That’s the plan. In fall camp we had more guys involved all the time. We got to do a better job, myself, getting more guys involved. That simple.”

Redshirt senior tight end Chamon Metayer – who Dillingham said is “playing unbelievable” due to his impressive blocking – redshirt senior wide receiver Malik McClain and redshirt freshman wide receiver Jaren Hamlton are all candidates to get involved as pass catchers against Texas State.

Raleek Brown and fellow junior running back Kanye Udoh can also expect to be a major part of the game plan on the ground attack side. The duo combined for 225 yards of total offense against MSU and played major roles in ASU’s methodical late fourth-quarter drive, which ended with redshirt senior kicker Jesus Gomez giving the team a momentary lead.

“I told the team we’re going to run duo 14 straight times,” Dillingham said. “… Those guys, they answered the bell. I said, ‘This is an identity drive. Let’s establish an identity of who we want to be for the rest of the year.’”

The likelihood of at least some of these players seeing an expanded role is increased not only by Dillingham wanting more players involved in the offense, but also by the injuries that redshirt junior wide receiver Jalen Moss – ASU’s starting slot receiver – and Kyson Brown – ASU’s RB1 – are dealing with.

Dillingham described Moss’s status for the weekend as “up in the air,” and Brown, who suffered an ankle injury early in the loss to MSU, is expected to be out, “barring something incredible.” The injury news wasn’t all negative, though. Dillingham announced that redshirt senior defensive lineman Justin Wodtly will be ready to go against Texas State.

In the end, while ASU hopes that Wodtly can come back strong, Leavitt can find a rhythm, more players can get involved on offense and so on, the team won’t be able to move forward and bounce back against Texas State if it can’t move past falling to MSU. The Sun Devils will need to clear their minds, ignore the noise and get to work.

“The key,” Dillingham said. “Is to not get distracted by those things of the external wins and losses, and stay focused on the little things that could have flipped it. … Obviously, it’s a bad taste in your mouth, so we got to flush that. You can’t let Mississippi State beat you twice.”