The blowout win over Wyoming last week left Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham yet to see his team face any formidable in-game challenges, a concern that he voiced in the preseason. The first half of tonight’s game vs. Mississippi State (1-1) seemed to be headed in the direction of two consecutive lopsided victories for ASU (2-0). Ultimately, Arizona State survived a 20-3 second-half burst by the Bulldogs as Dillingham saw firsthand how his team displayed the resiliency he was hoping to witness.
“Even though it took three months off my life, our team needed that,” Dillingham said. “We needed to have to get hit in the face and get back up. We got comfortable and drove the ball eight minutes in the first drive of the second half. For us to get hit and get back up, that’s what I was proud of. We got up with a vengeance, and we needed that because we’re not going to have big leads every halftime. We’re going to be in some dogfights, and we’re going to have to be able to go back and forth, and today, we finally had to punch back.”
In its first-ever win over an SEC opponent, senior running back Cam Skattebo headlined the offense with a career-high 262 rushing yards, the second-best all-time for ASU behind Eno Benjamin’s 312-yard game on September 29, 2018, vs. Oregon State. During a night of a heavy workload that amounted to 33 carries, Skattebo still averaged a staggering 7.9 yards average, ironically not scoring a touchdown.
As a team, the Sun Devils pounded the visitors on the ground to the tune of 346 yards, with redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt contributing 68 yards rushing, recording touchdown runs of 17 yards and one yard. Skattebo emptied the tank on the final drive with seven consecutive rushes, including a 5-yard gain on 4th-and-1 as well as a 39-yard run just a few plays later to ice the game. Last year’s Sacramento State transfer exhibited the type of control that wasn’t apparent during the 2023 campaign, and his maturity over the course of his time in Tempe has his head coach once again mentioning him as a legitimate NFL prospect.
“He ran as far as he could and slid, and that’s the growth he’s had,” Dillingham admired. “Skattebo of last year goes and scores. That gives them a chance to score, kick an onside kick, and have a shot at winning the game. I challenged him after last year, and he’s done everything I asked him to do. So right now, he looks like a Sunday player.”
One of the moments that fans will look back as the turning point of the game was the two scoring drives ASU had in the waning minutes of the second quarter and the eight-minute drive to open the third quarter. Dillingham harped his team in situations where they had the ball to end the first half and begin the second half and the importance of it. In hindsight, the game could have looked much differently if not for the clock management Dillingham and the Sun Devils have.
“I told the guys in our Friday meeting we’re going to get the ball with under six minutes and score with less than 25 seconds on the board,” Dillingham described. “We then get the ball in the second half and score again. The fact that we got it somewhere in that time frame with no timeouts was an unbelievable job. That’s 14 minutes straight of our offense on the field is the difference of the football game. You take away that 10-point swing; we don’t go into the half with a 24-point lead.”
The second half saw the Sun Devils seemingly have the same problem that they had in the first 14 periods of Tuesday’s practice. The team waltzed into practice on Tuesday, “acting like they won the Super Bowl,” according to Dillingham, and didn’t have the energy he expected. The only positive was early in this period was the fact that ASU’s only three points scored in the second half did consume 8:27 minutes and kept an explosive Mississippi State offense off the field. Yet, both sides of the ball for ASU took their foot off the gas pedal and allowed the Bulldogs to force their way back into the game. While they escaped with a win this time, that is far from being a guarantee in other contests this year.
“It’s the same thing we keep preaching,” Dillingham expressed. “We’re going to play hard and passionate, and I think we did that for 35 minutes of the game. I think there was a lull at a point in the game where we got comfortable, the same lull we saw in practice on Tuesday. That dog wasn’t there, and it was a great learning lesson for us. Until the whistle blows that the game is over, you can’t get comfortable.”
Special teams tonight was one of the team aspects that were flawless in Dillingham’s eyes, a development that pleases the coach for a team that lost a couple of games last year due to special teams shortcomings. There were moments in fall camp where punting drills were lackluster, and Dillingham was relentless, running drills over and over until they were done right. If everyone moves as a collective unit, Dillingham believes not a single punt should be blocked this year. Placekicker Ian Hershey drew considerable criticism last week, missing a 38-yard attempt. Tonight, though he weas a perfect 3-3 successfully converting from 27, 46, and 47 yards, a crucial factor in a one-score victory.
Dillingham preaches constantly to the team about practicing harder than they play, and that came to fruition tonight.
“They didn’t return a single kick,” Dillingham noted. “Our punts were clean and fast, and they were coming at us. They went all out under pressure and knew we weren’t going to fake a punt with our lead. It was great for our guys to see we can still get it off with maximum pressure. It doesn’t matter what they bring; as long as we do it right and do our job, we’ll never get a punt blocked. No scheme can block it.”
The aggressive defense paid off more times than not tonight, and Dillingham has experienced what that can look like. Three sacks and seven overall tackles for loss, let alone another defensive touchdown, and a one-yard fumble return by sophomore defensive tackle CJ Fite showcased the prowess of this unit.
His experience coaching in the SEC reminded him of the significance of holding an offense like Mississippi State’s to three points and 85 yards of total offense in the first half, but he is also aware of the risks involved when using that style of play.
“I coach offense, and I don’t like people blitzing me every other play,” Dillingham identified. “We want to be the pitcher on defense. We don’t want to be the batter reacting to curveballs and knuckleballs; we want to be the aggressor. Are they going to get us sometimes, yeah they are. I want to be an aggressive defense, and I think we showed that tonight early. To hold that team and a Jeff Levy offense to that many points and yards in a half is pretty good football.”
One thing that won’t show up in the stat sheet but played a major role in slowing down the offense of Mississippi State was ASU’s substitution approach. The Bulldogs desire to run a no-huddle, fast-paced offense that can be hard to keep up with, but substituting players in and out at a high rate doesn’t allow the offense to snap the ball before both opponents’’ lineups can be set. Factor that in along with the helmet communication between the defensive coordinator and the middle linebacker before plays, and the Sun Devils for long stretches had an effective recipe to slow down the Bulldogs.
“I thought they did a phenomenal job with that,” Dillingham remarked. “Vince Amy, one of our defensive line coaches who played here in 1996, did a great job with substitution patterns. He did amazing at subbing in our defensive line to slow down their tempo. I think that’s one of the little things in the game that nobody notices, but that’s also one of the things that good teams do.”
As it’s not as if the defensive line’s depth was greatly tested tonight. Graduate defensive tackle Jeff Clark was absent in this game, along with redshirt senior defensive end Prince Dorbah, who was injured on fall camp. The tandem of defensive tackles junior Jacob Kongaika and sophomore Zac Swanson suffered in-game injuries and missed large portions of the contest. Dillingham’s confidence in his depth this year allowed him not to play like the team was missing players, but he is hopeful to have those players back sooner rather than later.
“We have the next man up mentality,” Dillingham perceived. “Our practices aren’t like cupcakes and rainbows; we get after it in practice. When you have that mindset, and your guys do that, the fact that those guys performed the way they did, I’m excited. Some of the guys mentioned will be back next week, some will be back against Texas Tech, but all of them are expected to be back by the bye week.”
Join your fellow Sun Devil fans on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle, run by the longest-tenured Sun Devil sports beat writer, to discuss this article and other ASU football, basketball, and recruiting topics. Not a member yet? Sign up today and get your daily fix of Sun Devil news!
