Patience is a virtue, and ASU senior linebacker Caleb McCullough can certainly attest to that. He rarely saw the field as an underclassman but played more and more each season as the proverbial door-to-door Sun Devil, proving his value as time went on and proving to himself that staying with the team would benefit him the most.
Last Friday, he reached the pinnacle of his college career thus far, catching two interceptions against Utah and earning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors for the first time. His impact wasn’t limited to the two critical plays; however, he led ASU in tackles with 12 total, showing his all-around game and dynamic skill set. He credits the performance to his mindset of having belief in himself and his teammates.
“I actually have a recording of me telling one of my homies I was going to win the [Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week] just talking crazy to him. I was like I'm going to win defensive player week this week and you know I actually did it so it just shows the work you put in anything's possible.”
After playing nine games in his first two seasons in Tempe and two consecutive three-win seasons, many asked McCullough what prompted him to stick around at ASU. He was the longest-tenured defensive player on the team and one of a handful to be a Sun Devil before coach Kenny Dillingham. McCullough noted the lessons he’s learned on his collaborative journey.
“It showed me a lot, McCullough said. “This is why you wait and just be patient. You know, everybody talks about being patient and stuff like that, but it actually showed me that sometimes, when you are patient and you wait, good things happen. So I'm just glad I was able to be patient, never got impatient, and just waited, and uh, good results are happening now.
“To be honest, even the years we did bad before coach Dillingham got here, I would always think we were a winning team,” he claimed. “I never went into a season not thinking we were going to win a lot of the times. I go into the season thinking we're going to win, and the results are just the results, so the past three years, I've been coming into the season thinking we're going to win, and this year, we’re actually doing it, so you know I'm very happy with that.”
For McCullough, the program's four pillars to success have been integral to how he views the program and its path. Inaugurated during the Todd Graham era from 2011-2017, the four pillars act as a staple for the team's characteristics on and off the field. The four pillars read as follows: Smart, Tough, The Ball, and The Team.
“I mean, they mean everything if you want to win uh football games,” McCullough said. “ You have to be smart, you have to be tough, and you got to think about the ball. Turnovers and things like that on our defense is what we strive on defense are turnovers and the ball, and we always talk about the ball and then toughness; that's just something that has to come, and so I think coach Dillingham does a good job with those four pillars and I think if we uh if we work and really uh appreciate those values we'll do good during the season.”
Praising his coach, McCullough has a unique perspective on ASU and the different regimes he’s endured; Dillingham is his second official head coach following Shaun Aguano’s short time as an interim in 2022, and his experience with Dillingham he’s seen a devoted duty of mentorship and development of his players that is different to anything else, something McCullough believes has positively impacted the program thus far.
“I've been around many coaches, a lot of coaches they care, but you could tell they kind of care, and with him, you could tell he really cares about us, and he really cares about me, and he's shown that each and every day, so I'm I really appreciate that,” McCullough said.
The hot start in Tempe has been electric as the team picked to finish dead last in the Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll; however, the goals don’t alter with Cincinnati (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) on the schedule for the upcoming weekend, McCullough had a weekend he won’t soon forget, but the memories will be put to the side as the team reloads for the upcoming task at hand.
“I told myself like, ‘yeah, you played good against Utah, but you got to do it again next week,’” McCullough said. “If you do things one week next week when we play Cincinnati, people are going to forget about what we did against Utah, so you just have to come with the mindset that every week you have to do something.”
An ASU player who is more than accustomed to repeating successful performances is running back Cam Skattebo, who doubled up with McCullough, winning his third Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week award, more than any other player in the conference after rushing for 157 yards and scoring two touchdowns over 45-yards in distance each. Getting used to the limelight, Skattebos stock across the social media realm has been exponentially growing game by game with his game-breaking performances.
"It's awesome seeing 3,000 more people follow me after a game," Skattebo said. "I just see the support pouring in. I think the biggest thing is I'm not seeing a lot of negativity, and I love that. I love it when people aren't being negative towards me or towards our team, like everyone's in for support, you got BYU fans, Utah fans you got people we play in the future saying that we're a good football team so they're seeing it where we're proving ourselves and we're going to keep playing as hard as we can and hopefully keep winning games."
ASU is putting itself on the map of the college football world, receiving 39 AP Top 25 votes in the latest week eight poll; Skattebo's mantra to the team is centered around staying focused, as the players know who they are and what they've needed to achieve to be successful, without swaying with newfound appraisal from across the country.
"I mean, we knew we were going to win the football game," Skattebo said on the Utah performance. "We said all week we're we just got to trust ourselves if we play our football we're going to win there are not many teams that can beat us if we play our football and people come and go with wins and losses; we're still us so we just got to make sure we play our brand of football and we'll be just fine.
"We do our best to just stay focused on the same task each week and every day, this week at Cincinnati, so we just got to make sure we're staying focused on one thing, and it's getting better, um, as a team."
The Bearcats are a hungry squad. After taking down Central Florida in Orlando, they'll be feeling confident as well, climbing the ranks comparatively to the Sun Devils. Cincinnati was projected to finish 14th in the Big 12 standings, now sitting comfortably in the top half of the standings. Skattebo understands the task at hand because, in many ways, it's looking in the mirror.
"I mean, they're playing just like we are," Skattebo said. "Hard with a chip on their shoulder and they want to prove people wrong, they're 4-2 so they have they have something to fight for the rest of the season."
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