As the final seconds ticked away on Saturday night, fans flooded the gates separating the crowd from the Sun Devil Stadium grass. Security guards lined the field as if to say storming it wouldn’t be allowed, but even they had to have known there was no chance of success.
After the final whistle, a few fans breached security. Then more followed. And finally, a massive wave of others joined them. There was suddenly a huge gathering near the north end zone. Players, coaches and staff members were at the center, and fans and cheerleaders jumped around them.
“It felt fake,” said Arizona State senior Spur linebacker J’Marcus Rhodes of the postgame atmosphere.
At one point, Arizona State wide receivers coach Rob Likens went up to mascot Sparky, shook him and yelled in excitement. Moments later, Sparky was crowd surfing. Nothing was off limits during the celebration.
And why would it be any different? Arizona State defeated No. 5 Washington, 13-7, the program’s first victory over a top-5 opponent since beating No. 1 Nebraska, 19-0, on Sept. 21, 1996.
“It wasn’t no fluke, either,” ASU coach Todd Graham said of Saturday’s victory. “We whipped ‘em. We outplayed ‘em.”
But the magnitude of Saturday’s victory?
That made it even sweeter. In a year where coach Todd Graham is seemingly fighting for his job, he won the biggest game of his tenure in Tempe. That should help his case when judgment day comes following the season, regardless of how his Sun Devils finish it.
That ASU (3-3, 2-1 Pac-12) won Saturday surprised everyone, but the way it did so was perhaps most shocking. Washington (6-1, 3-1) entered the game tied for first in the Pac-12 in scoring offense with 43 points per game.
ASU allowed 230 total yards, 188 in the second half. But it held the Huskies to just 3 of 14 on third down. And it did all of that without Koron Crump, its best pass rusher who is out for the season with a knee injury.
It was a standout performance, even if two missed chip-shot field goals from Washington’s Van Soderberg — one from 27 yards and the other from 21 — helped the cause.
“That’s the best defensive performance since I’ve been here in terms of how we pulled it off, how we did it and the execution that it took,” Graham said. “That was phenomenal.”
The Sun Devils stifled Washington’s offensive weapons. Running back Myles Gaskin, who eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in both of his first two seasons with the Huskies and is on pace to do so again, had just 67 rushing yards. Dante Pettis, the Huskies’ best receiver, and returner, had seven receptions for 56 yards but no explosive plays and totaled just 7 return yards.
Quarterback Jake Browning completed 17 of 30 passes for 139 yards and only scored on a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter. He was sacked five times and had a quarterback rating of 95.6, the second-lowest in his last 28 games.
The Sun Devils got consistent pressure on him all night. Every defensive lineman who played had at least half a sack.
Browning was often running around in his own backfield because of the pressure. He sometimes eluded it and made a play, but ASU noticed the effect of chasing and hitting Browning so many times throughout the course of the game.
“He was shook,” Rhodes said.
And for good reason. ASU junior quarterback Manny Wilkins has been on the other side of that coin during his football career, and even this season because his offensive line had a shaky start to the year.
“They got after him and you could see he was a little flustered from it,” Wilkins said. “He’s a great quarterback, but when you’re getting hit constantly and constantly and constantly, it widens your eyes. Trust me, I’ve been there before.”
As Wilkins entered the postgame interview room, he remarked that the entire defense should be sitting in front of the mic. That’s because the unit picked up for a struggling offense.
ASU had the most promising start imaginable when its first drive went 16 plays and 63 yards in 8:08 and ended with a 1-yard touchdown run from senior running back Kalen Ballage.
Other than that, hardly anything. True freshman receiver Curtis Hodges blocked a punt in the second quarter, setting up the Sun Devils in great field position for a short possession that ended in true freshman kicker Brandon Ruiz nailing a 52-yard field goal. Later in the period, Ruiz hit a 25-yard field goal to give ASU a 13-0 lead.
That score stayed the same until the fourth quarter when Browning put the Huskies on the board a drive after Ruiz missed a 47-yard field goal.
Up six points with about five minutes left, ASU’s job was far from over. Luckily, it finished like it started.
Wilkins and the Sun Devil offense went 14 plays and 71 yards to ice the game. Near the drive’s end, the group faced 4th-and-3 from the Washington 37.
ASU could punt and force the Huskies to go the length of the field with no timeouts. It could attempt another field goal, which if good would put the game out of reach with a nine-point lead. Graham and staff instead chose the gutsiest of calls.
Wilkins took the snap, looked right, and fired the ball through multiple Washington defenders. However, his pass found tight end Ceejhay French-Love for the game-clinching first down.
“Ceejhay made a hell of a play,” Wilkins said. “It was a low ball. And for a tight end, that guy has really good ball skills and he just trusted his training and we executed there to seal the game.
It’s often said that an underdog needs to play to win in these types of games, and ASU did just that.
Following the game, Graham joked that he wishes his headset could’ve been blasted on the stadium sound system. It went something like this:
We’re punting, right?
Graham: Nope. We ain’t punting.
Well, we need to pin ‘em.
Graham: No. We’re not doing that. We’re going for it.
Those decisions are always scrutinized if they fail. But that wasn’t the case on Saturday night.
Graham said he’s a big believer in a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, if you believe you can, then you can.
Washington was favored by almost three touchdowns over his ASU team. The Huskies were undefeated and their smallest margin of victory was a sluggish 16-point win over Rutgers in their season opener.
But that’s why college football is so beloved because all of that goes out the window.
“If you believe, man, you can get it done,” Wilkins said.
Believe, they did. Get it done, they did.
The result stunned everyone in the college football world, the perfect ending to a weekend that saw many upsets — including Syracuse taking down No. 2 Clemson and Cal taking down eighth-ranked Washington State.
Everyone but the Sun Devils.
“We expected to win this game,” Rhodes said. “It’s not a shock to us. This game is what’s going to turn the ship around.”
Graham said he saw ASU President Michael Crow on the field prior to Saturday’s game. As they embraced, Graham told Crow he’d bring him the game ball when his Sun Devils took care of business against the conference’s top team.
After the game, Graham handed Crow the game ball, just as he promised.
“There you go,” he said after the biggest win of his ASU tenure.
How’s that for self-belief?
