(Photo: WCSN/ Spencer Barnes)
TEMPE — Expectations can shift and mold at a moment’s notice. Aug 31, 2024, was the beginning for a team that faced no expectations, headed into Week one, shocked the nation, using a chip on its shoulder to surpass all the expectations that no one had bestowed upon them.
Just 364 days later, the script flipped on its head as the Big 12 Champions re-established themselves on the Gridiron since its New Year’s Day thriller against Texas in the College Football playoffs, except this time with lofty expectations on its shoulders and a laundry list of teams looking to knock them off the throne.
Whilst it’s only week one of the 2025 season, redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt and redshirt junior wide receiver Jordyn Tyson showed early signs that they can be the best quarterback-wide receiver duo in the nation, like many national critics have coined them to be.
Tyson generated 12 catches for 141 yards from Leavitt to power the No. 11 Arizona State football team (1-0) to a 38-19 win over the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (0-1).
With towering expectations from the outside, Leavitt and Tyson’s own expectations seem to be even higher.
“I’ll say for myself, I’ll probably give it like a C-plus, maybe a B-minus,” Leavitt said to the disagreement of his head coach.
“Sam is going to be his hardest critic. That’s just who Sam is; he’s never going to be satisfied,” head coach Kenny Dillingham said. “I thought he played well. I think he’s only going to continue to play better as the season progresses.”
Leavitt completed 25 of his 39 attempts, totaling 257 yards, adding on a pair of touchdowns, both of which were to Tyson. The quarterback also added threat to NAU’s offense beyond his arm, as he ran for 73 yards with two touchdowns, one of which was a 54-yard burst through the Lumberjacks’ defense.
Saturday was Leavitt’s second career game with two rushing touchdowns, and he came five yards short of a new career high in rushing yards. Leavitt showed poise when it came time to scramble as the pocket collapsed, a trait that could provide another layer to an already versatile Sun Devil offense.
“I know that I can run; the biggest thing was just not taking off too predetermined,” Leavitt said. “I extended well, while keeping pushing down the field, which is one thing I really want to work on.”
Even with the dual-threat excellence of Leavitt, the biggest highlight of the night came deep in the fourth quarter with the game all but over. With under three minutes left in the game, Tyson made an excellent catch in the corner of the endzone, before immediately falling out of his bounds.
“I’m surprised every day they make plays like that,” Dillingham said. “When you get to coach special players, and a lot of the guys on our team are special players.”
Tyson’s own excellence came in his first game back since last season’s Territorial Cup matchup against Arizona, as he missed both the Big 12 Championship and Peach Bowl due to injury. He didn’t seem to miss a beat in his return to game action, offering Leavitt options while lined up all over the field.
‘I was short when I was a freshman and sophomore, so I played slot,” Tyson said. “Now I’ve gotten taller, I can play outside and slot, so I worked on outside things, and it went hand-in-hand.”
Whether it was through screen passes in the backfield or trying to route up defenders, Tyson showed why he has been highly revered in early 2026 NFL Draft projections.
However, this was not a performance without blemishes for ASU. The Sun Devils committed 12 penalties for 93 free yards for the NAU offense. 12 penalties are the most committed in the Dillingham-era of ASU football, something that the maroon and gold will have to eradicate before conference play.
“12 penalties for 93 yards that cost us probably an additional 170 yards, 150 yards of total yardage,” Dillingham said. “We got to get that cleaned up. That starts with me, I’m the end-all be-all when it comes to stuff like that.”
One of the lowest moments came in the third quarter, when the Sun Devils committed three consecutive penalties accounting for 20 penalty yards. However, the first two penalties negated two of the biggest plays of the night: a 75-yard Raleek Brown would-be touchdown reception and a 64-yard bomb to Malik McClain.
Instead of two plays that would have changed the complexion of the game, ASU was forced to bring out sophomore Kanyon Floyd and punt the ball away. Ultimately, the Lumberjacks didn’t chop down the Sun Devils for these mistakes, but Dillingham recognized that this is not something that can become a trend of the season.
Defensively, ASU was put in multiple short-field situations as a result of poor punting or poor coverage on kickoffs, but they never broke. NAU only converted two of their 15 third-down attempts, and were held on the Sun Devils’ 4-yard line.
At one point in the game, ASU’s offense went three-and-out on three consecutive drives, but the defense came up big. They forced two three-and-outs of their own, while holding the Lumberjacks to a field goal in the other, a possession that started at the Sun Devils’ 27-yard line.
“They played good situational defense,” Dillingham said. “The one area on defense that was our lapse was our short-yardage defense. We’ve got to find a way to find why those things happened, if the fits were wrong.”
While the third-down defense was superb, ASU struggled to stop NAU on fourth down, as the visitors completed three of their five attempts. NAU also had two excellent drives to end the second quarter and open the third quarter, where they found 10 of their 19 points.
Ultimately, it felt like a week one game, as the Sun Devils showed their top-end quality on both offense and defense, but also showed their rust, with bad penalties and poor mistakes.
Next for ASU, they take a trip to Starkville, Mississippi, to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs (1-0), in the second game of a series opened last season with a 30-23 win for the Sun Devils.
“Just happy we got a W and it’s always good to win ugly,” Dillingham said. “That’s one of the best things about coaches is when you win ugly and it wakes people up.”
