ASU’s defense shines through the dust in win over Southern Utah

(Photo via Hailey Rogalski/WCSN)

Arizona State Football’s 2023 season opener was a bingo card of shenanigans. The two halves of Thursday night’s matchup against Southern Utah showcased two distinct Sun Devil teams separated by nearly a three-hour weather delay.

“We played really, really, really clean in the first half, and then you come out in the second half, and you play the exact opposite,” Dillingham said. “And the question is why? And how do you let a circumstance affect us like that? That’s something I got to find a resolution to.”

ASU looked locked in to begin the game. Then, a lightning hysteria filled with ponchos, Twitter updates and fans swinging their shirts to the weather gods to resume play filled Mountain America Stadium. They answered, but the fans probably wished they didn’t.

The following half would be a blood-pressuring slugfest that would nearly see the Sun Devils blow a 14-point lead and lose head coach Kenny Dillingham’s debut. The saving grace was the tenacious defensive performance on the ground that impressed throughout.

“[The defense] were the ones that won us the football game. I mean, just to be brutally honest,” Dillingham said. “That’s going to happen. It’s a team for a reason, both sides of the ball coming together in all three phases to win the football game, and our defense got us off the field, and our defense got the ball back.”

The defense’s energy in the first half was electrifying from all three levels. The opening drive showcased the secondary’s depth and experience, with returners like redshirt junior defensive back Jordan Clark showcasing a critical one-handed deflection on a second down, ending the Thunderbirds hopes early.

Clark’s career dawning the maroon and gold hasn’t only seen him grow as a player but as a leader of the locker room.

“I thought the best moment was when Jordan Clark was running off the field in the fourth quarter, and he just said, ‘We got y’all,’” Dillingham said. “That’s leadership. So that’s what I was pleased about.”

The Sun Devils’ newcomers also had a major impact on the game, including redshirt junior defensive back Demetries Ford. On Southern Utah’s last drive of the first half, Ford was on an island alone with freshman wide receiver Zach Mitchell.

ASU was only up 14-7 to this point and could have swung the game in favor of the Thunderbirds, but the Austin Peay transfer appeared. Ford was a hound on Mitchell and forced the deflection, reinvigorating the ASU sideline that later led to a Sun Devil score to end the half.

ASU also overwhelmed Southern Utah’s run game in the trenches. The play before Ford’s heroic 3rd down efforts, junior defensive end B.J. Green illustrated his freakish speed at 270 pounds, chasing down Thunderbirds senior quarterback Justin Miller from behind to stop a potential first down scramble.

The ASU defensive line’s impressive performance answered some questions entering the season. Most of last season’s starters at the position had moved on, either through the transfer portal or the NFL. The depth in the trenches was cut in half and filled in with question marks.

Regardless of the skepticism, it didn’t affect a superb first-half performance, halting Southern Utah’s ground game to under three yards a carry. The Thunderbirds’ determination to get the run game going was admirable. Those efforts didn’t match the production, as ASU had three tackles for loss and dominated the physical game.

“The defense played very well,” graduate defensive tackle Dashaun Mallory said. “There’s a ton of plays that we could’ve played better. I thought we could’ve been a lot more aggressive. I feel like we could have paid more attention to the little details going into the week. “

Southern Utah had 21 carries equate to only 61 first-half yards. Outside of a 21-yard gain by sophomore running back Branden Wissler, the Thunderbirds didn’t have a single run past seven yards in the first half.

Fast forward past a near three-hour weather delay and the defense began to show cracks. Dillingham didn’t accept the delay as an appropriate excuse and was still critical of the second half performance.

“It’s unfortunate, but both teams have to do it right? There’s no excuses whatsoever,” Dillingham said. “Rain delays are very easy pieces of adversity when you’re talking about football. That’s not a difficult adversity to overcome.”

Penalties were a huge issue in the second half, giving Southern Utah ample opportunities to score. Personal foul penalties were ridden through almost all of the Thunderbirds’ scoring drives, a trend that ASU will need to clean up in the future.

“The drives they gave up touchdowns were usually penalty-aided,” Dillingham said. That’s where we’ve got to be better [is] not getting penalties. Especially personal foul penalties, those showed up in the second half.”

The defense showed ocassional lapses in the second half, including multiple plays on the Thunderbirds’ lone offensive touchdown of the final 30 minutes. The big one was a 52-yard reception by senior wide receiver Isaiah Wooden that almost immediately was followed by a miscommunication in the secondary for a wide-open 17-yard touchdown by Mitchell.

“[Southern Utah] had their plays, and that’s on the defense,” Mallory said. “I’ll take ownership. I’ll take accountability for that … We had each other’s back.”

While the secondary showed shortcomings, the battle in the trenches was one-sided with Southern Utah not surpassing 30 rushing yards in the second half. Even after losing redshirt sophomore defensive end Clayton Smith due to a targeting penalty in the first half, the front seven locked down the Thunderbirds to only 2.6 yards in the final two quarters.

“Man, we’re here to handle adversity … It’s next man up,” Clark said. “We prepare to exhaustion every week. Everybody does to be ready in those moments. So, when [redshirt junior defensive end] Prince [Dorbah] came in, and the rest of those guys came in and did their job, it was exciting to see.”

Special teams put the defense even more into peril after a 47-yard punt block return brought the Sun Devils lead down to three. As more pressure began building, the more ASU’s defense responded. The unit improved their poor third-down defense in the first half, holding Southern Utah to 1-for-5 on third downs in the second half with a critical three-and-out on the Thunderbirds’ final possession.

Dillingham opened his coaching career with a win, albiet not in the prettiest fashion. For the defensive line, aesthetics are never the top priority after all.

“Doesn’t matter who you play. It matters [if] you get it done,” Dillingham said. “At the end of the day, the guys got it done, and that’s what I told them in the locker room, ‘You got it done. You’re 1-0, and we got a lot of crap to fix, but you got it done.’”