(Photo credit Lucas Peltier)
Arizona State Football’s rollercoaster 2021 campaign will come to an end on Thursday when it faces the Wisconsin Badgers in the Las Vegas Bowl at Allegiant Stadium.
Both squads finished 8-4 overall and 6-3 within their respective conferences in 2021. The Sun Devils concluded their regular season in second place in the Pac-12 Conference’s Southern Division while the Badgers grabbed the same placement in the Big Ten West.
Both teams were pegged with serious expectations that inevitably slipped between cracks to deal them the fate they now possess.
Overall, both ASU and Wisconsin are very similar in trajectory and expectations, as well as performance and outcome. The Las Vegas Bowl brings them together for the first time since Sep. 2013.
The last game between the two is one that lives on in infamy in ASU history, as the Sun Devils edged the No. 20 ranked Badgers 32-30 in an early season contest that ended on a failed spike attempt by Wisconsin and a controversial setting of the ball afterward by the game’s referees.
ASU owns a meager but respectable 3-1 record against Wisconsin historically, with two of the three wins coming at home in Tempe. While the Sun Devils’ long term success against the Badgers speaks for itself, the latest installment won’t be an easy one for ASU.
The Sun Devils will have to manage without senior linebacker Darien Butler, redshirt senior running back Rachaad White and senior cornerbacks Jack Jones and Chase Lucas, who all have opted out of the game to prepare for the 2022 NFL Draft. Additionally, the transfers of sophomore running back DeaMonte Trayanum and redshirt freshman wide receiver Johnny Wilson will particularly hurt ASU offensively. The Sun Devils also have key injuries on the offensive line.
“We don’t talk about it a whole lot, it really is about the next man up,” head coach Herm Edwards said on Wednesday. “We’ll have a bunch of young players on defense with both our starting corners out. When you talk about the players that aren’t here, maybe some opted out or are injured, we’ve dealt with that since I took this job.”
Head coach Paul Chryst leads a Wisconsin defense that gave up the least total yards in all of the FBS this season, particularly finding success at suppressing its opponent’s ground attack. The Badgers only surrendered 100-plus yards rushing four times all season and held opposing ball carriers to a measly 2.1 yards per carry.
With junior and Butkus Award finalist Leo Chenal and senior Jack Sanborn at linebacker, Wisconsin boasts a front-seven that is fast, athletic and above all else, plays smart. As a unit, Wisconsin’s defense accumulated 80 tackles for a loss, tied for first in the Big Ten with Ohio State.
The group didn’t relent much in the secondary as well, intercepting 15 passes and allowing just 175.6 air yards per game. They also racked up 33 sacks as a team, good enough for fourth in the Big Ten.
“They’re a very disciplined team and defense,” junior quarterback Jayden Daniels said. “They don’t give up big plays that much and they try to keep everything boxed and in front of them. The game is going to be won up front – it’s about who wants it more.”
In sum, there’s not a whole lot the Wisconsin defense can’t do, and given the Sun Devils’ current predicament offensively, the Badgers have an edge that alone might be enough to keep ASU away from victory.
“We’re playing a very good opponent,” Edwards said. “They’ve been very consistent all season and the teams they competed and didn’t quite get it done against are very good football teams.”
The Sun Devils do pose a threat on defense as well, finishing as one of the most stifling units in the Pac-12. ASU has surrendered 20.9 points per game in 2021 to go along with allowing a shade under 330 yards per game.
While they haven’t faced an offense and a rushing attack quite like that of the Badgers, the Sun Devils understand what they are up against.
“Overall they’re a great offense,” senior linebacker Kyle Soelle said. “The O-line works together, they’re physical. They have the best blocking receivers we’ve seen this year so we have a big task at hand.”
That task mainly comes in the form of freshman running back Braelon Allen, who rushed for over 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns as the primary option out of the Badgers’ backfield. Paired with junior running back Chez Mellusi, Wisconsin had a one-two punch in the run game that translated to massive success throughout the season.
But since early November, Allen has been carrying the majority of that load after Mellsui was ruled out for the season with a leg injury suffered against Rutgers. Allen still managed to scamper for 448 yards and six touchdowns over the final three games of the regular season.
“I’d say the overall run game of Utah is a good comparison to what we’re facing [in the bowl game],” Soelle said. “The backs have great contact balance and they can break it if you give them enough room.”
With all their absences, the Sun Devils will lend new opportunities to plenty of young players on both sides of the ball, which presents an even larger challenge for the inexperienced and youthful. Redshirt freshman running back Daniyel Ngata will get his first start after sitting backseat to White and Trayanum all season.
With ASU’s dynamic rushing group all but gone, Ngata will have to shoulder a large responsibility out of the Sun Devil backfield especially considering the recent struggles in the passing game.
“We still have a guy in Daniyel [Ngata] who wasn’t showcased a lot this year but the little spurts that he had, you could see he was something special,” Daniels said. “Like coach Herm tells us, no matter if you’re one or two, prepare like you’re a starter because you never know when your time might be.”
Undisciplined and flat offensive production plagued ASU down the stretch this year, forcing it to become one-dimensional in its play-calling and overall scheme, which was remedied by simply letting White take over. They won’t have that option this time around, which means ASU will likely need to find a rhythm as soon as possible and get creative with their attack against the Badgers.
The Sun Devils’ journey to this point has been riddled with inconsistencies like these on both sides of the ball, but it has reached the conclusion of the season with one final test at hand.
“We look at it as two teams that are coming in and both understand the importance of the game,” Edwards said. “If you can win the last game you play of the season it’s very important. I think both teams are excited about participating.”
