Key Takeaways from ASU Football’s Saturday Night scrimmage

(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)

TEMPE — It’s been many months since Arizona State football has snapped into any sort of game action. Now the 2024 college football season is looming large around the corner, beginning just two weeks from the time of this writing. It will be the second chapter of the new era of ASU football, authored by head coach Kenny Dillingham.

Saturday night, the Sun Devils held one of their last full-contact intrasquad scrimmages before their opening night matchup with Wyoming on August 31. The coaching staff was attempting to find clarity on the cast of characters that will contribute this year for the Maroon and Gold. It’s evidently become no easy task to pin down starters in every position.

“We’re going to have more ‘or’s’ than anyone has ever seen on the depth chart,” Dillingham said. “We have a bunch of guys we want to play.”

The scrimmage did offer some key talking points on the potential outlook of the new Big 12 member. Here are three takeaways from the scrimmage.

Sam Leavitt Making Strong Case For Starting Role

On December 11, 2023, former Michigan State quarterback Sam Leavitt committed to an ASU quarterback room where he entered spring camp the perceived backup behind former four-star Jaden Rashada. Rashada had started the season for the Sun Devils the previous year before injuries derailed his season.

There were rumblings that the redshirt freshman would unseat the incumbent starter due to his play in camp. Rashada entered the transfer portal that same spring, eventually landing with Georgia.

More competition walked through the door in the form of former Nebraska and Georgia Tech senior quarterback Jeff Sims. Sims brought with him four years of starting experience at the Power 5 level and a deeper cache of athletic ability.

If this most recent scrimmage was any indication, Leavitt was unfazed by the new competition and continued his beeline for the Day-1 starting role under center.

The former Spartan led two touchdown drives with the starting group Saturday night and displayed good qualities adjacent to what could lead to Sun Devil’s success this year. He showed an ability to search through a defensive zone and find his receivers in soft spots and was impressive hitting on comeback and timing routes. He also showed an ability to get through his progressions and — while not the same pure athlete as Sims — relocate outside the pocket while keeping his eyes downfield and finding receivers breaking back to the ball.

Sims struggled to go through his progressions and show patience in the pocket to go past his first read before bailing and scrambling. He also struggled with accuracy from the pocket missing some throws low in the dirt. While he did flash his ability to explode out of the backfield and be a dangerous downfield runner, Leavitt was certainly more consistent.

Leavitt did struggle to find his receivers down the field as the arm strength didn’t pop, but in the system implemented by new offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo, he won’t have to rely on downfield shots often. Arroyo’s offense is heavily built on Run-Pass Option concepts with an emphasis on distributing to playmakers on the outside as quickly as possible and giving them opportunities to get yards after the catch.

Considering the Sun Devils won’t often ask for a quarterback to stand in the pocket and deliver 50-yard strikes, Leavitt gets the job done at a higher efficiency than Sims. Dillingham said that a starter is expected to be named in the coming days and all indications point towards Leavitt being the name that is called.

This Year’s Running Back Room Could Be Special

A quarterback’s best friend is a successful running game and the Sun Devils look to have one brewing. In 2023, this team averaged 111 rushing yards per contest led by a one-two punch of Paul Hornung award finalist and senior Cam Skattebo and senior DeCarlos Brooks. This season, the Sun Devils may have four stable playmakers deep in the backfield.

Skattebo will reprise his role as one of the most versatile players on the Sun Devils. He ran for just under 800 yards and nine scores on the ground while catching another through the air, also attempting 15 passes and throwing another touchdown. For good measure, he added 8 punts as well.

With a deeper roster, the necessity for Skattebo to do everything may decrease, but his main role as a bell-cow running back remains intact. He’s a workhorse power back that, due to pneumonia sickness, lost 14 pounds in the offseason. Now he’s set to be that same power back with added speed and quickness leading the running back group.

Behind Skattebo is where the offense becomes dangerous. Redshirt sophomore USC transfer Raleek Brown was the top all-purpose running back recruit in the country when he initially committed to the Trojans in 2022. While not physically imposing, listed at 5 feet 9 inches tall, he possesses game-breaking ability. Brown is an all-around playmaker who possesses lightning quickness who can navigate crowded rushing lanes and make people miss in the open field. He also showed at USC he can operate as a slot receiver. He is the type of player that can do a lot of damage in an RPO offense, as he just needs the ball in his hands as quickly as possible and can handle the rest on his own.

The breakout star of Saturday night’s scrimmage was true freshman Jason Brown Jr. Brown was a consensus four-star recruit out of Seattle and a top-20 nationally ranked running back prospect across the major recruiting services. On Saturday, he showed exactly why.

Brown made the most of his reps showing a special ability to break down defenders and accelerate out of cuts. The former junior Olympic sprinter may have the fastest 0-to-60 acceleration on the team.

For Dillingham and his staff, the most promising part is that multiple times when he was caught and hit, he almost never went down on first contact. Brown showcased incredible strength bouncing off some tackles, shedding others, and rarely going down on first contact. He’s a future all-around star for the Sun Devils but for now, he’s a lightning-in-a-bottle rotational piece that only multiples the effectiveness of this ASU backfield.

New Technology In Use

Large million-dollar NIL deals aren’t the only place in which the lines between the college game and NFL game are enow being blurred. There is a new technological evolution for NCAA football this year, and ASU used Saturday’s scrimmage to officially test it out. In April, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel officially approved the use of radio communication between coaches and one player — often quarterbacks — on the field.

Additionally, teams can use up to 18 active tablets on the sidelines to watch exclusively in-game film. This allows all players to come back to their coaches after drives and visually see where improvements can be made for the next series.

The Sun Devils scrimmage doubled as a dress rehearsal for their coaching staff to practice the usage of tablets and how to accurately use them to their fullest extent. After every drive, there were long pauses in play where players would huddle in various groups across the sideline utilizing the new technology to learn and adjust on the fly.

“It’s very difficult to see the game live and adjust,” Dillingham said. “The ability for both sides of the ball to watch every play changes the game at such a high rate because you’re going to have to change what you do more than you ever have.”

There is a sizable defensive advantage to the newly allowed technology.

“[ASU] should get a good beat on how the (opposition) offense wants to attack,” Dillingham said. “Teams that don’t have big menus on offense, usually have complimentary plays. That’s going to stay the same. To be able to show your players the complimentary plays and show the film and say, ‘Hey, when we bring this stunt, this is how it should look when they run this play again,’ it just makes it so much easier to make adjustments than it was.”

The onus isn’t just on the players to watch the film live and adjust but on the staff to add more variety to their play calling. Especially now, knowing the opposing team has the means to study them more intently in action.

“If they didn’t figure that out before, they’re gonna figure it out now,” Dillingham said. “So you better have a variety of things to change up your calls with this new technology. That’s what we were practicing.”