(Photo: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)
TEMPE — With eight-and-a-half minutes remaining in the second quarter of Saturday’s game, a brief wave of confusion came upon Mountain America Stadium.
Arizona State redshirt junior edge rusher Clayton Smith appeared to have sacked Mississippi State senior quarterback Blake Shapen inside his own five-yard line as he was throwing, but fellow defensive lineman C.J. Fite was quick to scoop up the loose football, dive for the pylon and fall into the end zone, proceeding to put his arms up in celebration.
He knew it immediately, but in a few short moments, all 21 other players on the field and the 45,504 fans looking on were on the same page. Fite had scored another defensive touchdown for the Sun Devils — their third through only two games in 2024 — to put his team up 20-3.
At that time, the possibility of ASU picking up its first win over an SEC opponent in program history, a different outcome from their last five attempts, felt increasingly tangible. Two quarters later and despite a late comeback effort from the visitors, that vision became a reality, as the Sun Devils (2-0) held off the Bulldogs (1-1) to earn a 30-23 victory.
“In practice, we set a standard on defense,” Fite said. “Anytime the ball comes out, go pick it up. So I saw the ball, went and got it, it wasn’t really too much. I just saw the ball and I was close to the end zone, so I tried to stay inside the pylon. I stared at the ref, he called a touchdown, I got happy.”
Fite’s scoop-and-score was the only takeaway ASU came away with on Saturday, but that’s not to say its defense didn’t put forth another lights-out performance. Out of the gate, it was clear the Sun Devils came to play, forcing a three-and-out on Mississippi State’s first drive of the night largely thanks to graduate safety Shammari Simmons’ pass breakup on second down.
Through their first two drives, the Bulldogs had two total yards on six offensive plays. At the conclusion of the first half, they were out-gained 262-82 with only three points to show for. A Jeff Lebby-led offense that prides itself on playing with tempo and keeping the defense off balance couldn’t get anything going, a true testament to ASU’s game plan and execution.
“I thought they did a phenomenal job there,” head coach Kenny Dillingham said. “And shoutout to something that not everybody will see, but to (defensive line coach) Vince Amey… I’ve really been harping on substitution patterns and being elite at subbing, and he did such a good job subbing the (defensive line) to slow the tempo down when they subbed.
“I think that’s one of the little things in a game that nobody notices, but that’s also one of the things that good teams do. They do all the little crap, right?”
In total, the Sun Devils finished with seven tackles for loss, three sacks and five pass breakups. Not to be outdone, ASU’s offense was also firing out of the gate. Beginning their opening drive at their own 21-yard line, the Sun Devils marched down the field before redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt finished it off by taking a 17-yard keeper to the house.
Along with Leavitt’s 32 rushing yards, senior running back Cam Skattebo was also dominant on the ground, picking up 20 yards on four touches throughout the first drive. It was a foreshadowing for how he’d perform for the rest of the night — despite being held without a touchdown, he finished with 262 rushing yards, the second-highest single-game total, only behind Eno Benjamin’s 312 against Oregon State in 2018.
Following the first touchdown, the two teams combined for three field goals, and the score remained 13-3 Sun Devils until Fite’s defensive score in the second quarter. While Leavitt punched in a one-yard sneak for his second rushing touchdown of the night, he didn’t enjoy his best performance, completing 10 of his 20 passes for 69 yards. He had opportunities to connect on more passes, but struggled on multiple deep balls and overthrew his receivers on several occasions, a byproduct of ASU running the ball 57 times on Saturday.
“Bullying dudes, grown men that are 300 pounds, that’s fun to us,” Skattebo said. “The quarterback, he probably hates it. He probably likes watching, but he didn’t complain one time the whole game. That’s why I love that kid right there.”
The second half was a vastly different story, with the Sun Devils only managing a field goal in the game’s final 30 minutes. Mississippi State, on the other hand, began to chip away, as senior running back Keyvone Lee took a handoff six yards for the Bulldogs’ first touchdown of the night with less than three minutes to go in the third quarter.
Shapen capped off an eight-play, 50-yard drive to start the fourth quarter by finding senior running back Davon Booth unguarded up the middle for a 15-yard touchdown pass, making the score 30-16. Despite punting on their next drive, the Bulldogs found the end zone courtesy of a Shapen pass again with just under five-and-a-half minutes left in the fourth to narrow the Sun Devils’ once-gargantuan lead to just seven.
All of a sudden, the complacency that plagued ASU during its most recent Tuesday practice inconveniently resurfaced again, this time during a game.
“Even though I probably lost three months off my life, our team needed that,” Dillingham said. “We needed to get hit in the face, we needed to have to get back up. We got really comfortable… For us to get hit back in the mouth, and they have to get up, that’s what I was proud of. And we got up with a vengeance.”
The Sun Devils executed a five-plus-minute drive to ice the game, with Skattebo predictably rushing for 78 yards. Now 2-0 for the first time since 2021, ASU will face a new challenge: a road date with Texas State on Thursday, meaning Dillingham and company have a short week to prepare. The Bobcats are also 2-0 on the season, picking up a 49-10 win over UTSA on Saturday.
“We play in five days,” Dillingham said. “So I told them, ‘Celebrate, you should have fun. Celebrate with each other, be smart, make good decisions. When you wake up tomorrow, it’s over… You have ‘til tomorrow, when we get back to work at about 2:00, to really celbreat this thing, and then we’re going to put it to bed.'”
