It was a rainy, cold disaster on Saturday as the Arizona State football team lost to Utah 21-3 for its second loss of the season, that could end the Sun Devils’ chances at playing for the Pac-12 championship.

Here is the full report on the first-year players in this contest:

Offense

True freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels had easily his worst performance of his young career but it was not entirely his fault. He was let down by his offensive line’s poor play and was under duress from the excellent Ute pass rush the entire game. That being said, Daniels had his fair share of moments he could have been a lot better.

Daniels made numerous overthrows and bad reads in the game. Maybe his worst misread of the night was on the third drive of the game for the Sun Devils as he decided to tuck and run instead of handing off to Eno Benjamin who had a wide-open running lane.

Another terrible read Daniels made was when he almost threw a pick-six to Utah linebacker Devin Lloyd on ASU’s second drive of the day. Daniels looked as though he had no idea Lloyd was coming across the middle. Luckily for the Sun Devils, Lloyd dropped the ball. If he had not, it could have been a potential Ute score.

Late in the first half, Daniels did throw his second interception of the season on a deep throw. It did not hurt ASU as the clock ran down to zero in the second quarter and the teams went into the locker room for halftime.

Early in the second half, Daniels showed his age as he decided to throw into triple coverage instead of throwing it away and was nearly intercepted again.

Daniels was not able to find success running the ball either as the lineman and linebackers for Utah were mostly able to catch the speedy quarterback as soon as he turned the corner and tried to run upfield.

Another glaring statistic was the amount of times Daniels’ targeted his usual favorite receiver, Brandon Aiyuk. Coming off of a nearly 200-yard performance against Washington State, Aiyuk was targeted just four times, catching one pass for seven yards.

The final statistical numbers through the air for Daniels were a horrific 4-18 with 25 yards and the interception. His passer rating was 22.8. On the ground, he ran for his life all game and had to carry the ball 16 times, only equating to eight yards. He was sacked three times, all by Utah defensive end Bradley Anae. To Daniels’ credit, he would have been sacked even more times if he did not use his athleticism to get away from pressuring Ute defenders multiple times.

Other than Daniels, the fresh face with the biggest impact, or lack thereof, on the offense was 17-year-old true freshman left tackle Ladarius Henderson. Henderson had his toughest game of his career so far and was even taken out of the game at times due to his struggles.

The usual group of young receivers was extremely quiet, as the rest of their teammates. Receiver Ricky Pearsall and tight end Nolan Matthews were the only freshman targeted, each with one target in the game.

Defense

On the defensive side of the ball, USC transfer Jack Jones had the best performance of any newcomer to see the field for ASU. The cornerback played great coming off a shaky performance against Washington State last week.

Jones had three total tackles (two solo) on Saturday and had two great pass breakups, one of which saved a touchdown.

Redshirt-freshman safety Cam Phillips was a newcomer who was unable to go in the game as he has been dealing with a knee injury. In his place was true freshman Willie Harts.

Harts played a mostly clean game, recording six tackles (four solo). He also had a nice block to give Chase Lucas a little more yardage on his interception return but was not perfect as he was whistled for a facemask late in the fourth quarter.

A true freshman seeing playing time only for the second time all season was defensive end Amiri Johnson. Johnson, who saw time against Michigan State, almost recorded a sack but Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley was able to get away from him.

Special Teams

The big story on special teams was the kickoff unit. Kickoff specialist Josh Plaster was injured pregame and was unable to go so placekicker Cristian Zendejas handled the first Sun Devil kickoff of the game before being replaced by newcomer junior college transfer Kevin Macias.

Macias saw his first action kicking the ball after being the team’s holder in the first six games. Macias did a solid job kicking it 65 yards and into the endzone for a touchback.

An even bigger story on special teams was the punt return unit. The Utes did a great job of kicking it away from the ever-dangerous Brandon Aiyuk, leaving Jack Jones to return two punts. On Jones’ second punt return late in the game, he fumbled the ball away into the hands of Utah and on the next play, Zack Moss ran for a touchdown to seal the win for the Utes.

The kicking unit performed to its standards as Zendejas made his kick from 40 yards out but missed from 43 yards out. Punter Michael Turk had a great day averaging 48 yards on eight punts with three of his punts going over 50 yards and three of his punts falling inside the 20-yard line.

Other newcomers seeing playing time were transfer defensive back from Baylor Timarcus Davis (one solo tackle), redshirt-freshman wide receiver Geordon Porter, redshirt-freshman running back A.J. Carter (one carry, three yards), linebacker Elijah Juarez, true freshman linebacker Case Hatch(one total tackle), redshirt-freshman offensive lineman Spencer Lovell, redshirt-freshman offensive lineman Ralph Frias, redshirt-freshman defensive end Michael Matus and junior college transfer long snapper Erik Dickerson.

True freshmen who played in all 7 games

QB Jayden Daniels

OL Dohnovan West

WR Jordan Kerley

WR Ricky Pearsall

LB Case Hatch

LB Elijah Juarez

ATH Ethan Long

S Willie Harts

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Freshmen who played their fifth game Saturday and thus cannot redshirt this year

OL Ladarius Henderson

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Freshmen who did not play Saturday but won’t be redshirting

DB Kejuan Markham Played five games

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Freshmen who played in less than 6 games but are expected to redshirt

RB Demetrious Flowers Played in two games

DL Stephon Wright Played in one game

DL Amiri Johnson Played in two games

LB Fritzny Niclasse Played in one game

S Connor Soelle Played in one game

CB Jordan Clark Played in one game (recovering from sports hernia injury)

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Freshmen who have yet to play this year

QB Joey Yellen (decent chance he will play in a game or two this year)

WR Andre Johnson

OL Ben Scott (decent chance he will play in a game or two this year)

OL Roman DeWys

OL Alijah Bates

DL Anthonie Cooper

CB Keon Markham

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