Sun Devils Open Season Against Wyoming

(Photo: Wyoming Athletics)

After 280 days and great anticipation, Arizona State football will play a game against an opponent wearing different colors. The Sun Devils are set to kick off the second season of the Kenny Dillingham era by facing Wyoming, a former Western Athletic Conference foe, for the first time in 47 years on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium, with kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m. PDT.

Former Cowboys defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel will make his debut as the 33rd head coach in Wyoming history, taking the place of Craig Bohl after ten years. During that decade-long period, the Pokes failed to win six games only four times — one season being the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign — and went 4-2 in bowl games in that span, winning at least seven contests in each of the past three years.

Sawvel brings a wealth of experience, as he spent time with names including Lou Holtz and Jerry Kill throughout his 20-plus year coaching career and looks to continue the hard-nosed, fundamental culture established over Bohl’s tenure while adding his own spin.

“This is a head coach who’s a veteran,” ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham said. “He’s worked for some of the best head coaches in the country… Having his entire process of he’s only been around winning teams and winning cultures… We’ll see what their identity became over fall camp, nobody knows that.”

The Sun Devils have several connections to Wyoming, with multiple members of their staff having spent time in Laramie over the course of their careers. Current linebackers coach AJ Cooper was a defensive coach with the Cowboys from 2014-19 while offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo had that same role at Wyoming from 2009 to 2010.

Coming off their first nine-win campaign since 1996, the expectation in 2024 is that the Cowboys will once again find their way into the postseason, with Vegas setting their win total at 6.5. Wyoming was picked to finish sixth in the Mountain West Conference’s Preseason Poll, and aim to begin its new era with a benchmark victory on the road.

“I know a lot of guys on that staff, and I know what that culture is and the philosophy,” defensive coordinator Brian Ward said. “Those guys are going to come ready to play, so we better be ready to play. Because they’re not coming in here to lose, they’re coming in here expecting to win. We’ve just got to be ready, we’ve got to be fundamentally sound, and we need to be sound in how we align and execute against these guys.”

Offense

Total Offense: 4,251 yards (10th MWC), 25.3 points/game (9th MWC)
Passing: 2,191 yards (9th MWC), 168.5 yards/game (11th MWC), 20 passing touchdowns (T-6th MWC)
Rushing: 2,060 yards (7th MWC), 158.5 yards/game (7th MWC), 19 rushing touchdowns (6th MWC)

The Cowboys’ attack wasn’t otherworldly under offensive coordinator Tim Polasek in 2023, ranking middle-of-the-pack in the Mountain West at best in most offensive categories. However, an average offense didn’t stop them from securing their most wins in a season in nearly 30 years. Now with Johnson, who spent the past four years at Michigan State and even worked with ASU starting quarterback Sam Leavitt last season, will look to yield better results with his own philosophy.

Johnson found great success in East Lansing, namely in 2021, when he helped the Spartans’ offense to the third-most points per game in the Big Ten (31.8) and multiple players — including quarterback Payton Thorne and 2022 NFL Rookie of the Year Finalist Kenneth Walker III — to award-winning seasons. He will likely bring a more balanced approach to a Wyoming offense that ran the ball 61% of the time a year ago, tapping into the passing game by spacing the field.

“They want to run the football,” Ward said. “(Johnson) will spread the ball around a little bit, but we’re going to get a lot of motions and shifts and things to get our eyes bad. So we’ve been repping that a lot and want to get our guys to play fast.”

Senior quarterback Evan Svoboda will be tasked with leading the Pokes this fall after showing promise in his limited reps in 2023. Last year, the Red Mountain High School product appeared in ten games and completed 23 of his 38 passes for 184 yards while also throwing an interception. Standing at 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds, Svoboda is more than capable of running the ball himself and added 72 yards and a pair of scores on the ground in his first season of action with Wyoming.

He turned heads in a start at then-No. 4 Texas in September, when he went 17-for-28 with 136 yards through the air along with an interception in a 31-10 Cowboys’ loss. Svoboda displayed the clutch gene in the Arizona Bowl against Toledo, leading a late-game drive that concluded in a one-yard rushing score that sealed his team’s 16-15 victory.

“He has a really strong arm,” Dillingham said of Svoboda. “And then he’s really big, so you have to be alert for quarterback runs… You’ve got to anticipate that they’re going to run him directly… We’ve got to make him uncomfortable (in the pocket) and we have to be prepared for him to have direct runs in the plan.”

Despite the program losing Wyatt Wieland and current New York Giant Ayir Asante, two of its top wideouts in 2023 who each accrued at least 350 yards and five touchdowns, Svoboda will have multiple solid options to throw to. Senior receiver Alex Brown didn’t see a ton of action last year, only logging six catches, 69 yards and a touchdown, but will be slated for a much larger role for his fourth season. Fellow senior Will Pelissier also falls into this category, reeling in eight receptions for 101 yards and a score.

2024 Mountain West Preseason All-Conference tight end John Michael Gyllenborg will look to meet the lofty expectations placed on him, as he was named to the preseason watch list for the John Mackey Award, given to the nation’s most outstanding collegiate tight end. Through his first two seasons in Laramie, he notched 381 receiving yards on 26 catches with three touchdowns.

Where the Cowboys boast the most depth on offense, however, is perhaps in their running game, with several that could be utilized throughout the 2024 campaign and senior Harrison Waylee likely leading that charge. A Doak Walker Award Watch List nominee for the best running back in the nation, Waylee impressed during his first season at Wyoming with 947 yards and five touchdowns on 164 carries.

But the backs behind the Northern Illinois transfer are also capable of doing damage out of the backfield, too.

Junior Sam Scott looks to build off a 237-yard, two-touchdown 2023 while graduate D.J. Jones will bring a wealth of experience after transferring from North Carolina, where he racked up 442 rushing yards in three seasons with the Tar Heels. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound back also has some receiving upside, as he had 12 receptions for 102 yards and a score in 2022.

After missing the entire 2023 campaign due to injury, senior Dawaiian McNeely will make a highly-anticipated return in the hopes he can find the form he had as a sophomore in 2022, when he averaged 5.7 yards on 63 carries and found the end zone once. McNeely was also named to the 2024 Comeback Player of the Year Award watch list.

With an offensive line that plays physical and features junior Jack Walsh — a member of the Preseason All-MWC Team — along with 12 other returners, three of which are also starters. Walsh, Nofoafia Tulafono, Wes King, Caden Barnett and Luke Sandy, make up a group that has 108 games of experience under its belt and aims to set the tone in the trenches early on Saturday. Because of this, stopping the run will likely be the biggest challenge for the Sun Devils on Saturday.

“(Physicality) is what they live by,” Ward said.

Defense

Total Defense: 4,651 yards (4th MWC), 22.3 points/game (2nd MWC)
Passing: 2,772 yards (5th MWC), 213.2 yards/game (4th MWC), 18 passing touchdowns (T-2nd MWC)
Rushing: 1,879 yards (2nd MWC), 144.5 yards/game (4th MWC), 12 rushing touchdowns (2nd MWC)

After securing the promotion to head coach, Sawvel appears to have wanted to keep the defense in-house, and he couldn’t have picked someone more familiar with the program, promoting linebackers coach, and son of previous head coach Craig Bohl, Aaron Bohl to defensive coordinator.

In the final year of Craig’s ten-year tenure as Wyoming head coach, the Cowboys’ foundation as a team continued to be grounded on the defensive side of the ball. In 2024, Wyoming will return seven starters from a team that allowed the second fewest points per game (22.3) in the Mountain West, including four members of the Mountain West All-Conference teams.

Returning eight starters from the defense last year, including four starters on the defensive line, Wyoming is built on the strength of their veterans.

The Cowboys’ front four is unequivocally led by graduate defensive tackle Jordan Bertagnole who enters this season as a member of the preseason All-Mountain West team. En route to being named a member of the All-Conference second team, Bertagnole racked up a team high 5.5 tackles for loss and recorded multiple tackles in all but one game.

Bertagnole is joined by a group of four returning defensive ends, all who recorded major playing time in 2023. Appearing and starting in all 26 games for the Cowboys over the last two years, graduated defensive end Devonne Harris has been one of Wyoming’s strongest and most consistent pass rushers, amassing 17 tackles for loss, 12 of which were sacks, over that time.

Joining Harris atop the the Cowboys’ sack leaderboard in 2023 was junior edge rusher Braden Siders, who has also had a productive last two seasons for Wyoming. In 25 games, Siders has recorded 18.5 tackles for loss, and has sacked the quarterback a total of 11 times. Behind Siders and Harris are depth options in juniors Sebastian Harsh and Tyce Westland who combined for 13.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in 2023.

The Cowboys defense has historically been built on stopping the run, but Sun Devil head coach Kenny Dillingham is preparing for the Cowboys to bring the pressure up front.

“I know they’re going to blitz more,” Dillingham said. “I mean you just look at their success rate, they were 15 out of 19 on wins on third and five or plus. They only blitzed 19 times on third downs last year; they won 15 times. Which means anybody who self scouts themselves and say we were one of the worst teams in the country on third down last year, but we were 75-80% win rate when we blitzed. What are you gonna do? You’re gonna blitz.”

The depth and experience of the defensive line is mirrored in the back of seven of a defense that was excellent at forcing turnovers last season. In 2024, the Cowboys forced 22 turnovers, splitting them evenly between 11 interceptions and 11 fumbles good for No. 26 in the country.

The Cowboys’ back seven is built on their strength in the middle of the defense. In the middle of all of it is graduate linebacker Shae Suiaunoa. Prior to the season Suiaunoa was one of 51 linebackers selected to the Butkus Award watch list which is given to the best linebacker in the country. Last season, the Houston native recorded 93 tackles, including 5.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks as well as adding an interception.

Behind Suiaunoa is a pair of safeties who have played a lot of football together. Senior safeties Wyatt Ekeler and Issac White have played the past three seasons together at Wyoming, amassing 310 total tackles together split nearly evenly between White’s 160 and Ekeler’s 150.

With veterans at all three levels of the field, this Wyoming defense is built through the middle. As the offensive coordinator under Craig, Arroyo should know that Aaron is going to keep the family traditions going, and that starts with the Cowboys’ team identity.

It’s in their DNA.

“It’s been like that for a long time,” Arroyo said. “Coach (Craig) Bohl has kept it rolling and done an amazing job. Now (Sawvel) is there to take over, and I don’t see much of a change in regards to the DNA of that football program. A tough, blue collar group that’s going to be right where they’re going to be. They’re not going to beat themselves.”