Sun Devils survive Bobcats, start 3-0 for the first time since 2019

(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)

Adversity has been the key topic for Arizona State football this season, not for its presence in the Sun Devils’ locker room, but rather its absence.

Thursday night on the road against Texas State, ASU was finally faced with the adversity head coach Kenny Dillingham had been looking for, and handled it with poise.

In its first road game of the season, ASU (3-0) battled back from a 21-7 deficit to knock off the Bobcats (2-0) — a premier group of 5 team — winning 31-28 and matching its win total from the two previous season and starting the season 3-0 for the first time since 2019.

“That was awesome,” Dillingham said. “I mean it really was. Like for us, like I said, I mean it’s not good for my health, but it’s very, very good for our football team to win that game, to be in a game like that, come out on top, and make the play when it mattered. I think it just gives confidence in those moments for our guys, and I think it’s a good building block for us.”

Similar to its first two contests of the season, the Sun Devils struck first, going 69 yards down the field to score a touchdown on their first offensive drive. While the defense managed to force the Bobcats to punt in their first offensive trip, Texas State responded with three straight touchdown drives. It was the first time ASU had trailed this season.

The orchestrator of Texas State’s dynamic first-half offense was redshirt senior quarterback Jordan McCloud. He completed 17 of 23 pass attempts, totaling 147 yards and each of the Bobcats’ three touchdowns. Several of McCloud’s passes found their way to receivers who were wide open or had gained at least several yards of separation.

“It’s a short week, so we had a few busts that we normally don’t have, that we haven’t had in prior weeks,” Dillingham said. “… So we had a few busts that are uncharacteristic, and then they had a good plan. They had a few good screen calls. They converted a fourth and 2 early. They converted two third and longs early, and that was the difference in the first half versus the second half.”

Despite McCloud’s first-half performance, the Sun Devils found a way to even the score and tie the game before going into the half. Their own signal-caller, redshirt freshman Sam Leavitt, showed off his versatility. He threw a 52-yard deep pass to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jordan Tyson and scrambled for an impressive seven-yard touchdown run just before the halftime break.

Leavitt, who was relegated to a background player in ASU’s win over Mississippi State, moved to the foreground. He finished with 246 passing yards and 40 rushing yards. He also tacked on two touchdowns, one through the air and one on the ground. However, he also threw his first interception as a Sun Devil.

The primary recipient of Leavitt’s heaves was Tyson. He caught six passes for 120 yards and one touchdown.

“We talk about it all the time, the middle eight,” Leavitt said. “It’s definitely a talking point of emphasis, but that doesn’t mean you’re always going to execute. Sometimes things just fall into place, and we’re at the right place at the right time with those drives and called the right calls, so I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s everything that we train on, but sometimes you just get lucky with stuff like that.”

Where the offense shined in the first half, the defense came to play in the second. After ending the third quarter tied 28-28, the Sun Devils kept the Bobcats off the scoreboard for the rest of the game.

This was due in large part to the turnovers ASU forced on back-to-back Bobcat drives. The first was a forced fumble on Texas State’s first drive of the quarter. After ASU’s drive sputtered into a 4th and 20 punt, Bobcat junior running back Ismail Madil coughed up the ball at the tail end of a 12-yard gain. Graduate defensive back Shamari Simmons poked out the ball, allowing redshirt junior defensive lineman Justin Wodtly to scoop it up. ASU capitalized on this exchange, driving into the red zone and sending redshirt sophomore kicker Ian Hershey to kick the 22-yard attempt that ended up being the difference.

After Hershey’s make, Texas State had plenty of time to even the score or take the lead, starting their next drive with 6:29 left in the final quarter. On third and 11, McCloud looked for his receiver downfield, but he tripped. Taking his place was redshirt junior defensive back Xavion Alford, who intercepted the pass.

“Each game’s a new game, 0-0, when it’s 21-21 going into the half, so we made the decision coming out of half, that we were going to play a new game, play every snap snap-by-snap and ultimately in the second half we played our football,” Alford said. “We didn’t get any turnovers in the first half. Our standard is getting turnovers so in the second half, you seen us come out and play our football. Credit to the defensive line. Credit to everybody on defense, and [Simmons and I] just ended up being those two to end up with it, but credit to everybody.”

The Bobcats earned one more chance on offense to cut their deficit, but the Sun Devils’ stout run game defense combined with a pass break up by sophomore defensive back Keith Abney II on fourth and 5 sent McCloud and company to the bench for good.

ASU put the ball in the hand of star senior running back Cam Skattebo to ice the game and that’s just what he did. A nine-yard rush on third and 8 sealed the win, and ASU showed that its week one and two wins weren’t just flukes.

The battle-tested Sun Devils will head back to Texas next weekend for their Big 12 Conference opener against Texas Tech. Now, with a proven win under their belts, ASU can enter next week’s matchup, and the rest of the season with confidence.

“I think these guys put in a lot of work, so I say there’s a difference between confidence and cockiness,” Dillingham said. “If you’re cocky, it means you just think you’re going to win. If you’re confident, you put the work in. You’re prepared that whatever happens, you’re going to be confident, and we want to be a confident football team, and I thought today we played confident.

“When the game mattered the most, (Skattebo) who didn’t get loose all game, got loose,” Dillingham said. “When the game mattered the most, Alford intercepted the ball. When the game mattered the most, the best players on our football team made plays, and that’s a sign of good football.”