The only way you can describe the Arizona State Football team’s offseason is chaotic. In one offseason, ASU hired a new head coach, committed one of their highest-rated recruits, announced a new stadium name, and, to cap it all off, enacted a self-imposed postseason ban.
It was only apt that Mother Nature decided that the chaos would continue in the first game of the season. The game was a story of two halves, with a Haboob and a two-hour weather delay sandwiched in between. The Sun Devils’ play in the first half was good enough to come away with a close 24-21 win over Southern Utah.
The nearly two-and-a-half-hour lightning delay offered a unique challenge for first-year head coach Kenny Dillingham and his players, but despite the intermission, Dillingham believed that the circumstances shouldn’t have stopped his team from continuing what was a great first half.
“We played really, really, really clean in the first half, and then you come out in the second half, and you play the exact opposite,” Dillingham said. “The question is, why? How do you let a circumstance affect us like that? That’s something that I gotta find a resolution to that something that I, myself, and our staff have to find a way for that not to happen because rain delays are very, very easy pieces of adversity to overcome.”
Out of the gates, all eyes were on Dillingham and his true freshman quarterback, Jaden Rashada, as they took the field together for the first time. Dillingham has staked a lot on his freshman quarterback, and that trust was rewarded almost straight away.
After the ASU defense got the Southern Utah offense off of the field, Rashada quickly got into a rhythm, completing two passes within the first three plays of the game. Then, showing off the arm for the packed student section eager to watch him, the Pittsburg, CA native unleashed a ball 33 yards down the field to graduate wide receiver Melquan Stovall, adding 15 more yards thanks to a roughing of the passing penalty.
One play later, junior running back Cam Skattebo punched it into the endzone for the first touchdown of the 2023 season.
“I’ve been through bigger things in my life,” Rashada said regarding the pressure facing him as the starting quarterback at such a young age. “Football is something that I find that I have fun with and enjoy, so really, pressure is a blessing.”
Near the end of the first quarter, redshirt sophomore EDGE Clayton Smith was ejected for a targeting call when hitting Southern Utah senior quarterback Justin Miller. Already short redshirt senior defensive tackle Anthonie Cooper and freshman defensive tackle CJ Fite due to injury, losing Smith on the edge pushed the ASU defensive line to their limits.
Aided by the personal foul, Miller led the Thunderbirds on an 11-play drive that took nearly seven minutes off of the clock and ended with junior running back Targhee Lambson scoring from one yard out.
The two teams traded punts following the score from Lambson, and it appeared that ASU was going down that road once again with 4th and 8 from Southern Utah’s 47-yard line. However, Dillingham once again showed his faith in his freshman quarterback, dialing up redshirt junior Xavier Guillory in one-on-one coverage. Rashada found him and unleashed a beautiful ball, hitting Guillory in stride for the first touchdown pass of his young career.
4th-and-8 is an automatic punt situation for most college coaches, especially ones with such a young player at quarterback, but Dillingham wants to be as aggressive as he can be.
“You have to be aggressive to win in college football,” he remarked. “I firmly believe that, and we’re going to be aggressive. We’re not going to play the game scared. Does that mean everything’s always going to work in our favor? No. But we’re not going to play the game scared. We’re going to play to win the football game.”
The aggressiveness that Dillingham showed on that 4th-and-8 showed itself once again as the clock was ticking down in the first half. Up just 14-7 with just five seconds left in the second quarter, settling for a field goal to take a two-possession lead into the break was never really a consideration. Dillingham called a fade route that could have cost sucked all five seconds off the clock if dropped. Instead, Rashada floated another beautiful ball into the hands of the six-foot-four Troy Omeire, putting the Sun Devils up 21-7 at the half.
“No risk and no biscuit, right? Isn’t that Bruce Arians saying you gotta play to win the game,” Dillingham commented. “If you look back at the game, thank God we did. Thank God, we threw a fade with five seconds left, right. We trusted our freshman quarterback to make sure he catches and throws. If the ball is incomplete, we have one second left to kick a field goal. Those two plays are the difference in the football game when you look back on it.”
Omeire’s catch was shrouded in a cloud of dust as the first signs of a storm began to berate Mountain America Stadium. As halftime began, the Haboob quickly turned into a monsoon that covered the field in the rain and revealed lightning in the immediate vicinity. The game was delayed with no timetable for return.
Two and a half hours later, nearly every fan had left the stadium, seeking shelter, and as the fans left, it appeared that ASU’s offense had disappeared with them. After an overall clean first half that saw the team commit just one penalty and score 21 points, ASU fell apart in the second half, committing eight penalties for 85 yards and scoring just three points.
The penalties were sloppy. Junior offensive tackle Isaia Glass committed two holding penalties, including one that brought a touchdown back. The multitude of penalties prevented Rashada from getting back into the rhythm he found in the first half nearly three hours earlier, and ASU opened up the half with three straight punts.
ASU did score a field goal to extend their lead, but even that was ugly. After redshirt junior Elijah Badger returned a kick 81 yards, aided by a 15-yard penalty from Southern Utah, the Sun Devils were at the six-yard line and in prime position to ice the game away. However, back-to-back holding penalties resulted in ASU settling for a field goal on a drive that tallied negative 14 yards.
“Just trying to stay positive guys getting frustrated or penalties but frustration when you play a team like that,” Skattebo said. “No disrespect to them, but you don’t expect the game to be 24-21. When it’s like that, with two minutes left in the game, people start getting frustrated, nervous, and anxious. We handle that well. Everybody’s just trying to stay positive.”
One positive all night was the performance of the defense. With the aforementioned lack of depth up front, the ASU defense held the Thunderbird to just 14 points, with the final Southern Utah touchdown coming on a blocked punt returned for a score. Despite no turnovers or sacks, the defense was able to limit them to just 226 total yards and 2.8 yards per rush on the ground. The Thunderbirds ended the game with just 11 first downs.
“I thought they played really well,” Dillingham said. “They were the ones who won us the football game, just to be brutally honest. They won the football game, but that’s going to happen. It’s a team for a reason. Both sides of the ball come together in all three phases to win the football game. Our defense got us off the field, and our defense got the ball back.”
Thursday night and into Friday morning, I saw a lot of firsts on the field. First games, first touchdowns, first Haboobs, and first two-hour lightning delays. Despite all of the distractions of Game 1, did Dillingham find time to take a moment and enjoy it?
“No. Sorry,” he said with a straight face. “I know it’s not the answer everybody wanted, but it’s football. Get out there and let’s play the game. I wish, but that is not how I’m wired.”
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