By Jacob Seliga
College Football Writer
For the first time in five years, the Arizona State Sun Devils have started a season 3-0. This comes on the heels of a hard fought 31-28 victory on the road at Texas State in what many considered one of the best matchups in the early season so far.
With four minutes remaining in the first half, the Sun Devils found themselves trailing the Bobcats 21-7 with a defense that was struggling to get off the field and an offense that couldn’t get anything going. It looked as if Arizona State would revert to its problems from previous seasons and make it an insurmountable deficit.
This team isn’t the Arizona State of the last couple of seasons however, not with this defense and not with their new quarterback.
Enter Sam Leavitt, unlike previous Sun Devil quarterbacks, the young transfer buckled down under the pressure. His first pass to start the new drive was a 24-yard connection with Jordyn Tyson that set Arizona State up with first and ten near midfield. Immediately on the next play, Leavitt uncorked a 52-yard touchdown pass to Tyson that cut the Sun Devils deficit to 21-14 with under four minutes to go in the half.
With the momentum on their side, the defense did their job as Clayton Smith disrupted passes at the line of scrimmage and the pressure generated by a defensive line without multiple key starters was enough to allow Keith Abney to break up a pass and set up a Bobcat punt.
That pressure and disruption would become a common feeling for the Bobcats and quarterback Jordan McCloud the rest of night. In total, the Sun Devils generated eight quarterback pressures, four of which came from Elijah O’Neal and six tackles from loss.
Last night, the Sun Devils were missing cornerback LT Welch, defensive tackles Jacob Kongaika and Zac Swanson, as well as running back DeCarlos Brooks, amongst other injuries that occurred in the preseason. If this was the 2023 team, the Sun Devils wouldn’t have been able to handle the persistent attack of the Bobcats, but as this team has proven time and time again, this is a new era of Sun Devil football.
Looking Ahead:
Now with the non-conference schedule wrapped up, the Sun Devils will stay in the state of Texas for week four and will open up the Big-12 era of Arizona State football against Texas Tech in Lubbock.
This is a somewhat familiar foe for ASU as the two teams faced off in a home and home series in 2016 and 2017 that included an all-time shootout between Red Raider quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Sun Devil running back Kalen Ballage. The Red Raiders have not had a strong start to 2024 as in week one former Sun Devil Will Shaffer’s Abilene Christian Wildcats came one point short of upsetting Texas Tech at home.
In Week 2, Washington State dominated the Red Raiders with a 37-16 victory sending Tech limping into a showdown with in-state rival North Texas. This seems to be a much more winnable game than it first appeared in the preseason and could put the Sun Devils in top 25 contention before their bye week.
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