In sports, rivalries are the thing that causes fans the most pain, joy, and hatred, creating the most fascinating traditions in the process. For Arizona State, its in-state rival down in Tucson, has created a disgust for anything to do with Wildcats, so naturally, when a football play is named across the college football world as the ‘Wildcat,’ it just can not stand.
For the last several years in Tempe, the play where the center directly snaps the ball to a player who is not the quarterback has been deemed the ‘Sparky Formation’ so as to not utter the ‘Wildcat’ name.
Head coach Kenny Dillingham has mentioned throughout the offseason that ASU will be an aggressive and creative team on offense. In Saturday’s 27-15 loss to Oklahoma State, he did exactly that and utilized the Sparky formation, specifically in short-yardage situations, to put his team ahead early.
After three straight punts were exchanged by both teams to begin the game, Arizona State began their second drive of the night. Dillingham showed that ingenuity on the first play, putting redshirt junior wide receiver Elijah Badger in motion before handing it off on the jet sweep. Badger broke free for a 17-yard gain, and ASU kept moving.
Nine plays later, ASU was in the red zone on 2nd-and-2 at the 19-yard line, and redshirt junior running back Cameron Skattebo was in shotgun formation, ready to take the snap. Skattebo proceeded to run right for a gain of six yards and the first down. Dillingham, liking what he saw on the first play, called it again, and Skattebo ran left this time and punched it in, scoring the first points of the game and giving ASU an early 7-0 lead.
“I thought it started off and worked really well early,” Dillingham said. “We were in 14 personnel (one running back and four tight ends), and they showed the match 14 personnel. They did that early, so we took advantage of some things.”
After ASU scored their second touchdown of the game on a deep ball from true freshman quarterback Jaden Rashada to Badger, Oklahoma State jumped offsides on the extra point attempt, putting the ball on the one-and-a-half-yard line. Dillingham pounced on the opportunity to run the Sparky Formation back on the field. Skattebo lined up in the shotgun formation, caught the snap, and burst into the endzone, putting ASU up 15-7 midway through the second quarter.
“In today’s game of kickoffs, five yards in addition to kicking off doesn’t really give you an advantage because kickball at the end zone anyways, so there’s no advantage,” Dillingham commented. “But gaining a point, going from the one-and-a-half [yard line]. You should take advantage of that, especially when you feel like you have a good plan, and obviously, it worked there.”
Whenever ASU was in a short-yardage situation for the rest of the first half, ASU would lean on the direct snap to give them an advantage. On their fifth drive of the game, ASU faced two separate third-and-short situations, and both times, they directly snapped it to someone not named Jaden Rashada. First, on 3rd-and-2, they ran the Skattebo play and once again converted the first down. Three plays later, they faced 3rd-and-1, but instead of snapping it to Skattebo, Dillingham called upon redshirt junior tight end Jalin Conyers to run a traditional quarterback Sneak, converting that one as well.
At the end of the first half, ASU had run the Sparky Formation to great success, tallying five plays for 26 yards, one touchdown, one two-point conversion, and three first downs. The Sun Devils had put themselves in a good position at the half for the second straight week, leading by five points. However, just like last week, the second half turned into an offensive struggle that didn’t spare the direct snap play calling.
After running it five times in the first half, Dillingham decided to run the direct snap just three times in the second half and got much worse results. Oklahoma State came out and adjusted to the play call, bringing extreme pressure against a porous ASU offensive line whenever Skattebo or Conyers were under center. The running game, in general, also disappeared for ASU down the stretch.
The Sun Devils converted ten first downs in the first half but just five in the second half, with just one taking place in the fourth quarter. Over the first two weeks of the season, ASU tallied just three points total in the second half, something that has to be remedied in short order and not turn into a season-long adverse trend.
“They run what they run, they do what they do, he declares what he’s going to be early in terms of what his coverage is going to be, and they stay true to that,” Dillingham explained. “I think we’ve just got to be able to run the ball better in the second half. And that’s, that’s pretty much it. We’re not establishing drives. We got to get in a rhythm and establish some drives.”
The ASU offense didn’t just switch on a dime in the second half and change their entire game plan. The approach remained the same. Oklahoma State excels at playing three-high safety coverages, with Dillingham describing redshirt sophomore safety Kendall Daniels as a ‘monster.’ Playing that style should allow ASU to run the ball with 14 personnel, but in the second half, the Sun Devils struggled to move the chains with their ground attack.
“They kept their 3-3-5 formation on the field versus 14 personnel on fourth-and-ones and were stopping the run,” Dillingham remarked. “That’s something that we can’t have happen. We can’t be in 14 on a team being a 3-3-5 structure and not be able to run the ball on fourth-and-one. I think we have to be more creative offensively as a staff. If we’re not winning, I gotta find out an alternative route to be successful in those situations.”
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