With an explosive passing offense, somewhat of an anamoly in the Big 12 and a classic bend-not-break defense, ASU's upcoming road opponent if quite the formidable foe. Let's take a deep dive at what the Sun Devils can expect on Saturday.
With an explosive passing offense, somewhat of an anomaly in the Big 12, and a classic bend-not-break defense, ASU's upcoming road opponent is quite the formidable foe. Let's take a deep dive at what the Sun Devils can expect on Saturday.
Cincinnati Offense
After the graduation of last year’s starting quarterback – and one-time Sun Devil – Emory Jones, Cincinnati sought a new QB1 and found an excellent one in Indiana transfer Brendan Sorsby.
Last year for the Hoosiers, Sorsby threw for 1,587 yards with 15 passing touchdowns, four rushing touchdowns, and five interceptions in 10 game appearances.
So far through six games, Sorsby has advanced his game remarkably. He averages 287 passing yards per game with 13 touchdowns and a team-high four rushing touchdowns, which contributes to his 70 net rushing yards. He has also been a highly efficient passer, having thrown just three interceptions and completed over 66% of his passes on the year.
On a national scale, Sorsby ranks 13th in passing yards per game and is tied for 21st in total touchdown passes. His best game of the year came against Texas Tech when he tossed for a career-high 426 yards against the Red Raiders.
The Bearcats boast a talented runner in Corey Kiner, who so far has 496 rushing yards with two touchdowns while averaging 5.9 yards per carry. The former LSU transfer also has five receptions on the year and had a pair of 100-yard rushing games in back-to-back weeks earlier in the season.
Kiner is trending toward his second straight 1,000-yard rushing season, as he accumulated 1,047 rushing yards in 2023.
Behind Kiner, former Ohio State transfer Evan Pryor also provides a punch. He averages 8.9 yards per carry and has three rushing touchdowns, totaling 240 yards on 27 carries in six games.
At wide receiver, Xzavier Henderson, Tony Johnson, and Jamoi Mayes are slated as the starting trio for Saturday.
Henderson came to Cincinnati from Florida prior to last season and was named Honorable Mention All-Big 12 in his first year with the Bearcats. This season, he leads the team in all major receiving categories, with 34 receptions for 474 yards and four touchdowns.
Johnson, a former Florida Atlantic transfer, ranks third on the team with 20 catches for 203 yards and is second on the squad with three touchdown receptions.
Mayes came to the Bearcats from the FCS lever after spending 2020-23 at Chattanooga. This season he has 16 receptions for 197 yards with a touchdown in six games.
Though many Sun Devil fans are likely familiar with the credentials of last week’s opposing starting tight end, Brant Kuithe of Utah, Cincinnati’s Joe Royer is statistically the top tight end in the conference and one of the best in the nation at the season’s midway point.
A former Ohio State transfer, Royer has 28 receptions for 346 yards with two touchdowns, leading all Big 12 tight ends in receptions and receiving yards and placing seventh nationally among tight ends in receptions and eighth in receiving yards.
Royer enters this game on a hot streak. In the past two games, he has collected 15 receptions for 150 yards.
Cincinnati’s offensive line figures to start left tackle John Williams, either Deondre Buford or Dartanyan Tinsley at left guard, Gavin Gerhardt at center, Luke Kandra at right guard, and either Buford or Phillip Wilder at right tackle. Of the aforementioned six linemen, five are seniors, and Buford is a redshirt junior.
Kandra was a Second-Team All-Big 12 honoree in 2023, while Gerhardt was an honorable mention all-conference selection last season.
Cincinnati Offense Summary
Statistically, Cincinnati ranks among the upper tier of the nation’s teams in passing offense (22nd, 291.2) and total offense (tied for 23rd, 460.5) while also ranking 14th nationally in third-down offense, an area that has given the Sun Devil defense substantial struggles, especially in recent games.
Now, the Bearcats have shown struggles in the red zone (tied for 113th nationally) and tied for 82nd in the country with nine lost turnovers.
Ultimately, the Bearcat pass game, guided by Sorsby and highlighted by Henderson and Royer, will likely determine how potent Cincinnati will be against ASU on Saturday.
Cincinnati Defense
The Bearcats show a three-man defensive front with standout nose tackle Dontay Corleone flanked by ends Rob Jackson and Eric Phillips.
Corleone, a Second-Team All-Big 12 pick last year, is an extremely talented lineman. The 320-pounder has posted 17 tackles, including 4.0 for loss with 3.0 sacks and four quarterback hurries, despite missing a game earlier this season.
Phillips leads Cincinnati with four sacks and has 11 total tackles, including 4.5 for loss, along with three quarterback hurries and a forced fumble. Jackson has posted six tackles in four games so far this season.
Jared Bartlett starts at Mike linebacker, Jack Dingle and Will linebacker, with either Jake Golday or Jonathan Thompson at Sam.
So far on the season, Bartlett leads Cincinnati with 30 tackles and 5.5 TFLs while placing second on the team with 3.5 sacks. He also adds two pass breakups and two quarterback hurries.
Golday is tied for second on the team with 28 tackles, including 4.5 for loss with 1.5 sacks, along with one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
Dingle has accumulated 23 tackles in six games, while Thompson has 13 tackles, including 2.0 for loss with 1.0 sacks, along with one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry.
Either Antwan Peek, Jr., or Jiquan Sanks starts at the team’s Star position. Peek is tied for third on the team with 28 tackles, including one for loss along with one pass breakup. Also, only one player in the nation has forced more fumbles than the three registered by Peek. Sanks has 19 tackles in six games as well.
In the secondary, starting cornerbacks Kalen Carroll and Jordan Young are set to be joined in the first team by free safety Josh Minkins, Jr. and strong safety Derrick Canteen.
Canteen has 26 tackles, including 1.5 for loss with three pass breakups, one interception, and one forced fumble, while Minkins leads the team with two interceptions and also has 24 tackles, including one for loss with three pass breakups.
Young has 14 tackles, including one for loss with a team-best four pass breakups, while Carroll has ten tackles, including one for loss with a pass breakup so far.
Former Sun Devil D.J. Taylor now plays safety for Cincinnati and has appeared in two games this season for the Bearcats but has not accumulated any statistics. In 2023, he appeared in 12 games with two defensive starts for Cincinnati and posted 16 tackles on the year.
Cincinnati Defense Summary
Statistically, Cincinnati is the very definition of a “bend but don’t break defense” as the Bearcats rank 106th nationally in total defense, 98th in passing defense, 91st in rush defense, and 82nd in third-down defense, but they’re tied for 35th nationally in scoring defense, and they’re in the top-30 nationally in team sacks and forced turnovers. Additionally, only three teams in the country have allowed fewer than the two rushing touchdowns Cincinnati has allowed through six games.
With its backup quarterback starting, Arizona State will almost certainly have not only to bend but break the Bearcat defense on more than a few occasions to leave with a win Saturday.
Especially with the news of Jeff Sims starting in place of the injured Sam Leavitt – but honestly, even if Leavitt were fully healthy – the game figures to greatly hinge on what collectively happens when ASU runs the ball against Cincinnati.
In Cincinnati’s four games against power conference programs this year, the Bearcats have allowed an average of 192.3 rushing yards per game on an average of 5.4 yards per carry, a combination of statistics that could be highly favorable to not only star running back Cam Skattebo but also Sims.
Cincinnati Special Teams
At placekicker, former Sun Devil Carter Brown began as the primary kicker but was replaced after connecting on 3-of-5 field goal attempts to start the year. His replacement, Nathan Hawks, has since made 8-of-11 field goals with an impressive long kick of 55 yards.
Punter Mason Fletcher has performed outstandingly with a 46.06-yard average in 17 punts. He does not have enough punts to qualify for national rankings, but his average would rank seventh in the country.
In the return game, three players have split reps at punt returner, and as a team, Cincinnati averages 5.17 yards on six punt returns. Receiver Jamoi Mayes is listed as the primary return man for this week’s game and on the year, he has one punt return for 11 yards.
At kickoff returns, Logan Wilson averages 19.86 yards on seven returns.
Former Sun Devil D.J. Taylor, previously an all-conference returns specialist for ASU, has not returned a punt or kickoff this year for Cincinnati. Last year, he only returned one kickoff for 16 yards for the Bearcats.
Overall Summary
Under Luke Fickell, Cincinnati is an extremely elite Group of Five program. Cincinnati won 11 games in back-to-back seasons in 2018-19 and finished 9-1 in a COVID-shortened 2020 campaign before a 13-1 finish in 2021 that included a trip to the College Football Playoff.
In all, across the 2018-21 seasons, Cincinnati compiled an astonishing combined record of 44-7 or a winning percentage of .863.
After 2022, though the Bearcats were set to leap into a power conference as a member of the Big 12, Fickell left for Wisconsin. To replace him, Cincinnati hired Scott Satterfield of Louisville and, before that, Appalachian State.
Similar to ASU, Cincinnati struggled to a 3-9 finish in 2023, but like the Sun Devils, the Bearcats enjoyed a much-improved 2024 season with a 4-2 record.
A point that can’t be dismissed is Saturday’s early kickoff, which will be right around 9 a.m. Arizona time. This is just the 10th time in the last 30 years that ASU has kicked a game off before noon Arizona time, and in total, this will be the earliest kickoff since a 9:00 a.m. start at Northwestern in 2004.
Overall, the single most definitive quality about Sun Devil football’s first-half resurgence in 2024 has been its resilience, which will undoubtedly be tested on the road in a challenging environment with a quarterback starting his first game since Sept. 9, 2023.
So then, the question on the minds of Sun Devil fans this weekend is, will ASU’s much improved 2024 season continue with another gritty, against-the-odds victory, or will ASU’s quest for bowl eligibility extend into the month of November?
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