PASADENA, Calif.— Coming off their worst loss of the season in a 55-3 drubbing against Utah, it might have been fair to assume that the Sun Devils would continue to struggle a week later as well. It would be easy for some to check out and start thinking about next year. However, in just his first ten games as head coach, Kenny Dillingham has instilled a culture that is resistant to that type of belief nad one that continues ti show resolve.
Therefore, ASU (3-7, 2-5 Pac-12), in their final trip to the Rose Bowl as a Pac-12 team, returned to Tempe with a gritty 17-7 victory over UCLA (6-4, 3-4 Pac-12).
In the win, several first-year players made significant plays to lead ASU to their first road win in the Dillingham era.
Offensive Report:
If you go back and look through each one of our Newcomer Reports this year, odds are you are going to see a lot of junior running back Cameron Skattebo. The Sacramento State transfer has been ASU’s most valuable player on offense, combining his skills as a workhorse tailback along with a good punter and a valuable tool out of the direct-snap "Sparky" of "Skatcat" formation.
In the win over UCLA, Skattebo added one more attribute to his diverse set of abilities: quarterback. With under two minutes to go in the third quarter and ASU holding on to a narrow 3-0 lead, Skattebo lined up in the direct-snap formation and fired a strong and accurate throw, hitting junior wide receiver Elijah Badger in stride for the game’s first touchdown. It was a play the two had been working on all week, thanks to the creativity employed by Dillingham.
“That wasn’t the throw I threw all week, but I knew that was an option,” Skattebo remarked. “I knew that we didn’t have very much field. That was supposed to be a lot deeper throw. We had 30 yards to go, so [Badger] improvised, and I saw him. I just got it to him.”
“He threw it in practice before, so he was just telling me all week, ‘I’m coming to you,’” Badger said. “So I had a clue.”
The touchdown was the turning point in the game as it came at the end of a game-changing 14-play, 99-yard drive that churned over seven minutes of playing time. It was the type of drive that ASU has struggled to put together all year. Two drives later, they consumed another good swath of real estate that yielded the desired result.
After UCLA put their first and only score on the board to cut the lead to 10-7, ASU needed a long drive to shave off as much time off of the clock, but five plays in, the Sun Devils were facing a 3rd-and-14 from their own 32-yard line. Junior quarterback Trenton Bourguet slid down before the line of scrimmage, costing ASU a yard, but after the play, Skattebo was pushed by a UCLA defender. The result of the play was 15 yards and a much-needed first down.
A couple more UCLA penalties helped ASU sustain the drive, putting them on the 17-yard line with just over three minutes left in the contest. Boruguet handed the ball to Skattebo, who did the rest, dodging tackles and breaking outside into the endzone to effectively ice the game.
Skattebo finished the night with 12 rushes for 61 yards and a touchdown on the ground, 25 passing yards and a touchdown through the air, and a 50-yard punt that was ASU’s longest of the day. If Skattebo is going to do anything more for the team, he is going to have to switch to defense.
“I hope he doesn’t play defense,” Dillingham noted with a smile. “He’s super important in his versatility, his work ethic, his will to win, his will to compete. That’s really what separates (Skattebo) from most people. He’s an ultimate competitor.”
It was a limited offensive performance outside of Skattebo for ASU newcomers. Texas transfer wide receiver Troy Omeire was the target of a lot of Dillingham’s deep shots Saturday, but ASU was unable to connect on any of them. Omeire finished with two catches for 18 yards and was targeted seven times.
Freshman running back Kyson Brown also saw some opportunities with junior Cal transfer running back DeCarlos Brooks out again with an injury this week. Brown had four carries for 17 yards.
Defensive Report:
Through ten games this season, the ASU defense has clearly been the heart and soul of the team. They are a much better unit than their 3-7 record shows and are definitely a much better group than the loss to Utah made them look like. With that notion fresh on their minds, the defense came out and delivered one of their best performances of the year, limiting the Bruins to just seven points.
When asked what he thought was the key to his defense’s success, Dillingham responded with two simple things.
“One, we had a good plan. Two, Dashaun Mallory,” he said.
Much like Skattebo on the offensive side of the ball, graduate Michigan State transfer Dashaun Mallory has been one of the main features in the newcomer report. Pro Football Focus has graded him as one of the best defensive tackles in the country, and it was all on display on Saturday.
On back-to-back drives inside their own 10-yard-line, the ASU defense came up with two huge fourth-down stops that prevented UCLA from putting any points on the board in the first half. Both times, the Bruins attempted to run junior running back Carson Steele up the middle, but Mallory was right there to eliminate any gaps as well as the chains moving.
“Great teams win moments, good teams win moments,” Dillingham said about the fourth down stops. “You win plays, you have to win plays, every play matters. But there are going to be moments in a game that separate winners from losers. Fourth downs are those moments.”
Mallory finished the night with nine total tackles, six solo tackles, a half-sack, and two pass breakups. After not playing much at Michigan State, Mallory has become an integral part of the ASU defense and boosted his opportunity to play at the next level.
“That’s a kid who coming to Arizona State has changed his life,” Dillingham said about Mallory. “No, it really has. He didn’t play at Michigan State. They didn’t really want him. He transfers to Arizona State. Nobody knows who he is. And literally, he’s going to get probably drafted now. He came here as the most quiet kid you could ever imagine. He didn’t really know who he was. Now he’s out there smiling. He found himself. Literally, him coming here changed his life.”
Mallory wasn’t the only newcomer who delivered for the defense against the Bruins. On UCLA’s second drive of the game, they were in the middle of a 10-play drive that lasted over six minutes, and it looked like the Bruins would open up the scoring.
However, UCLA junior runningback Anthony Adkins had the ball dislodged, and Austin Peay transfer safety Shamari Simmons wrestled it away from an offensive lineman to recover the fumble.
Simmons finished the night with another great game. He had five tackles, all of them solo, as well as the recovered fumble and three pass breakups, the most on the team.
With ASU holding just a 3-0 lead coming out of the half, UCLA was looking to start the second half off with a good drive that could put them in position to tie the game or take the lead. On 3rd-and-6, sophomore Oklahoma transfer Clayton Smith flew off of the edge and got to UCLA junior quarterback Collin Schlee, sacking him for a loss of two yards and forcing a Bruins punt.
“We practice so hard every single day, and it was kind of almost starting to get to it’s almost a matter of time,” Mallory said about the team putting it together. “We had plenty of games where we stuck in it. We’ve been close in it, and we just haven’t been able to finish. I think just for this week, everyone had the same model, everyone had the same drive we just all wanted to get the job done. And that was the result tonight.”
Special Teams Report:
Graduate Cal transfer Dario Longehtto was perfect on the day. He got the scoring started with a 29-yard field goal halfway through the second quarter and made good on his pair of extra points attempts.
Graduate New Mexico State transfer punter Josh Carlson made his return from injury on Saturday. He struggled earlier in the year and today continued those struggles. Carlson punted five times for an average of 38.4 yards per punt, and his longest punt was 48 yards, two shorter than Skattebo.
Number of games played by ASU's first-year players:
DB Demetries Ford (10)
DB Shamari Simmons (10)
DT Tristan Monday (10)
DT Dashaun Mallory (10)
DT CJ Fite (9)
DL John Butler (7)
DL Sam Benjamin (8)
LB Tate Romney (10)
LB Tre Brown (8)
RB Cam Skattebo (10)
RB Kyson Brown (10)
WR Melquan Stovall (10)
WR Troy Omeire (7)
K Dario Longhetto (10)
P Josh Carlson (6)
LS Slater Zellers (10)
EDGE Elijah O’Neal (10)
EDGE Clayton Smith (9)
DB Josiah Cox (9)
DB Keith Abney II (6)
OL Cade Briggs (8)
OL Aaron Frost (6)
OL Sean Na’a (7)
OL Leif Fautanu (10)
DB Keontez Bradley (3)
WR Jordan Tyson (2)
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