Newcomer Report

After missing last week’s matchup against USC with an injury, Jayden Daniels nearly led yet another comeback as the Sun Devils fell 35-34 against Oregon State.

The true freshman marched ASU down the field and was able to find Brandon Aiyuk for a touchdown on 4th and 8 with just over a minute left to bring the game within a point.

Instead of tying the game up and most likely going to overtime, head coach Herm Edwards decided to go for two as the Sun Devils were stopped short on a pitch play to Eno Benjamin.

The matchup between the two teams saw several lineup changes to start the game for ASU as several players were held out of the starting lineup due to being late to a team meeting.

Here’s how the team’s newcomers faired in the matchup alongside the lineup changes to begin the game.

Offense

Quarterback Jayden Daniels was back to his normal self after missing last week’s game with a knee injury. The freshman quarterback was in full control from the get-go as he finished completing 24 of his 36 pass attempts for 334 yards and 3 scores through the air.

Daniels did limited damage on the ground with his legs as the Beavers were able to contain him in the pocket for the majority of the night, but he was able to move around in the pocket a fair amount.

The freshman showed this ability on a 29-yard completion to Aiyuk as Daniels avoided a defender en route to finding his receiver for a reception. Running back Eno Benjamin would profit off the large gain scoring a few plays later.

Daniels' long ball connections were on point all night long as he had completions of 24, 44, and 56 on the night with the first coming to Frank Darby and the last two going to Aiyuk.

The lone mistake on the night for Daniels came on a sack fumble which led to an OSU touchdown.

Freshman Nolan Matthews got the start at tight end as Tommy Hudson was one of the players benched to begin the game due to a violation of team rules.

Matthews ended the game with one catch for seven yards. Fellow freshman Geordon Porter had one catch as well for a gain of 16-yards in the matchup.

Along the line of scrimmage, LaDarius Henderson was hurt late in the game as he headed to the locker room before the conclusion of the game.

Dohnovan West once again held his own throughout the matchup as he was a standout on several ASU scoring drives as he paved the way for Benjamin on the ground.

Defense

The defensive lineup was one that was impacted the most by the benching of several key players. Newcomers Roe Wilkins and Jack Jones were affected the most by the decision as the former started in place of Lole while the latter was benched in favor of sophomore Timarcus Davis who started for the first time in an ASU uniform. He did have one tackle and was beaten on the first touchdown of the game by the Beavers.

Wilkins made his presence known throughout the game as he finished with 5 tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and forcing the only Oregon State fumble in his first-ever start as a Sun Devil.

On the other hand, Jones came into the game after the first drive and struggled throughout the game.

Jones was beaten in 1-on-1 coverage on the second touchdown of the game and was later hurdled by Noah Togiai of Oregon State on his way for a touchdown.

The final chance for Arizona State to get the ball back was also spoiled by Jones as he picked up a pass interference call on 4th and 2 with under a minute remaining. The call let Oregon State run out the remainder of the clock.

Freshman safety Kejuan Markham notched his first start as well due to the fact that sophomore Aashari Crosswell didn't start due to disciplinary reasons. Markham had a pass deflection and also one assisted tackle.

Special Teams

It was a relatively quiet night for the newcomers on the special teams as Cristian Zendejas only had his four extra points on the night to handle with no field goal attempts coming his way.

Punter Michael Turk punted the ball a total of 5 times for an average of 39.6 yards per kick. The sophomore transfer was able to pin the Beavers inside the 20 on three of the kicks including punts downed at the 14- and the 10-yard line of Oregon State.

Kevin Macias once again handled the kickoff duties with the injury to Josh Plaster still holding him out.

Porter has 63 yards of kick return, while Juarez had 7 yards of kick return after a short Oregon State kickoff.

Other players seeing action included freshman linebackers Case Hatch and Fritzny Niclasse. and Michael Matus also saw time on special teams but did not make any contributions to the box score.

True freshmen who played in all 10 games

OL Dohnovan West

WR Jordan Kerley

WR Ricky Pearsall

LB Case Hatch

LB Elijah Juarez

S Willie Harts

True freshmen who have played less than 10 games but will not redshirt

QB Jayden Daniels (9 games)

ATH Ethan Long (9 games)

DB Kejaun Markham (7 games)

TE Nolan Matthews (9 games)

LT LaDarius Henderson (8 games)

True freshmen who played in less than 5 games but are NOT expected to redshirt

DE Amiri Johnson (3)

DL Stephon Wright (3)

True freshmen who played in less than 5 games but are expected to redshirt

QB Joey Yellen (1)

RB Demetrious Flowers (1)

LB Fritzny Niclasse (3)

S Connor Soelle (1)

CB Jordan Clark Played (1) **recovering from sports hernia

WR Andre Johnson (2)

S Ely Doyle (4) **redshirt freshman has left the team

True freshmen who have yet to play this year

OL Ben Scott

OL Roman DeWys

OL Alijah Bates

DL Anthonie Cooper