For better or worse, Arizona State has often gone how redshirt sophomore quarterback Manny Wilkins has gone through this young season.
Despite the flaws, the inconsistencies, the unforgivable lapses, the team is in a place that few remain through four games – undefeated.
The familiar pattern for the Sun Devils of struggling early and thriving late continued again behind Wilkins on Saturday has he and the defense engineered a 31-point fourth quarter to seal a 51-41 comeback win in its Pac-12 opener against Cal.
“These guys they just played their heart out and one thing I think we have been preaching since the beginning is no matter what the outcome, what the issue is at the time,” Wilkins said. “That is something this team, this team is built of warriors. Defense played a very good game. First half, that’s on me, I just have to get things rolling a bit quicker, but we’ll be good 4-0.”
Added head coach Todd Graham: “What a football game. That was a great football game. Man, that was really a special game. Hats off to [Cal] for the effort they gave. They’ve got a heck of a football team. That was a heck of a game tonight…. I think our character shows up, especially when it counts.”
Through two quarters, the Sun Devils played the caliber of football that could have left themselves feeling lucky to only be trailing 24-10. After all, the offense – led by Wilkins’ five completions for 62 yards – only ran 30 plays and the defense received some good fortune in the form of some untimely Cal drops.
The trailed the turnover battle, something Graham said much change in coming weeks, by one after Wilkins threw an inexplicable interception trying to find Tim White on a comeback route. Wilkins found some success on the ground with 11 carries for 51 yards and a late score, but repeatedly found himself taking unnecessary shots.
“I just play ball,” Wilkins said of the repeated shots. “It’s just football, at the end of the day, some of those hits I can’t take but I tell these guys every day, I’m going to give it my all and I’m never going to give up and so when I get to the ground I’m never going to stay on the ground, I’m going to get back up and keep fighting.”
As has been the common, albeit dangerous trend for the Sun Devils this season, it took until the second half for the team’s best play to take form. Wilkins settled down, completing 16 of 20 passes in the second half for 228 yards and three total touchdowns (one passing, two rushing). The lone passing touchdown, a naked bootleg 30-yard score to Jay Jay Wilson, knotted the game with just over six minutes remaining.
“It’s just that ‘it’ factor that you have as a quarterback,” ASU offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey said of his quarterback’s guile. “You’re going to get too much credit, too much blame and you have to be able to play the next play. I think he does a really nice job for a guy at a young age with not a lot of experience in doing that. He believes in himself, he believes in our team and his mind is, ‘Hey, let’s just keep playing.’”
Graham agreed, signaling that Wilkins’ presence is a major factor in him winning the starting job this fall.
“[Manny is] very level-headed,” Graham said. “He’s very poised… The way we operate and the way we train our guys, I think people would look at him funny if he weren’t calm. The guys we’ve had here and how we go about doing, I like the way Manny plays. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I tell him before every game, ‘Be you.’”
The rest of the team followed. The defense continued to give up chunk yardage and finished with 637 yards allowed (6.8 yards per play), but forced three turnovers – a Salamo Fiso interception, a Laiu Moeakiola pick-six, and a Koron Crump fumble recovery – to turn the game on its head. To seal it, junior linebacker DJ Calhoun took an onside kick 42 yards untouched for a return touchdown.
The roaring comeback produced 31 points in the final quarter, making them just the second FBS team to score 30+ points in a fourth-quarter comeback in the last five years. It bumped their fourth-quarter average scoring output to 22.3 for the season – a number that exceeds the overall points per game total of 25 FBS programs this season.
So, for the fourth week in a row, the Sun Devils demonstrated themselves to be the young, inconsistent, flawed football program many pundits projected them to be before the season began. Again, a part of their game that was expected to thrive for them failed, with Saturday’s victim being 164 rushing yards against a defense that typically gave up near 300.
But when the games have all finished Saturday night and Graham’s game planning begins to shift towards USC, the Sun Devils find themselves in a spot that hasn’t been seen in Tempe since 2007.
“4-0.”
