It’s no secret that the running game for No. 25 Arizona State was the strong suit entering the 2021 season, but the question was how strong they would be, come Thursday night’s opener against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.

When the dust settled, and ASU’s long-awaited opener came to an end, as predicted, the three-headed monster of sophomore DeaMonte Trayanum, redshirt freshman Daniyel Ngata and redshirt senior Rachaad White met expectations, cruising, slicing through the Thunderbird defense like a hot knife through butter. The slow, methodical approach was the highlight of ASU’s 41-14 opening night victory, which was shrouded in a cloud of yellow as penalties, blurred the glory of a dominant ASU return with fans to Sun Devil Stadium.

“Tonight, we were not a very good football team; we were too emotional,” Edwards explained after the game. “I thought, for the most part, some things were very good… We knew we could run the football, and we were able to do that.”

It didn’t take long for the rushing attack to establish itself on Thursday night. Following an interception on the third play of the game from graduate student safety DeAndre Pierce and the subsequent return of 34 yards to the three-yard-line, sophomore running back DeaMonte Traynum got his first “Chip shot” of the season, strolling into the endzone for ASU’s first score of the game.

Normally in the world of weather and nature, lightning strikes and thunder follows. On Thursday, in the case of the ASU running backs, the roles were flipped. Following Trayanum’s score on the first offensive play of the game, White flashed his speed on ASU’s second offensive drive, cruising to a 15-yard gain and first down. On 4th and 1 from the SUU 26-yard line, White followed redshirt sophomore left guard LaDarius Henderson and redshirt junior fullback Case Hatch out of the I formation on a power scheme and then cut back to the left side A-gap into daylight, almost floating the rest of the way towards the south endzone. White’s score set the Inferno of 12,114 students alight.

“Obviously, it was fun to come back in the stadium with our fan base,” Edwards said in his opening statement. “The students were outstanding in both endzones, and it was fun to watch them again.”

In the second quarter, Trayanum and White realigned the natural cycle, as lighting struck twice for a quick one-yard touchdown with White bullying his way into the endzone out of the I formation for the second time on a running back toss.

Trayanum’s thunder followed on the subsequent ASU drive, pounding his way through the Thunderbirds defense for consecutive gains of six, 11 and six yards, respectively. Following a quick pass to junior receiver Ricky Pearsall, Trayanum picked up an excellent block from Hatch, who did damage in the run game all night, and caught an edge, thundering into the endzone for a second score, matching his running mate.

In the second half, the third prong of the pitchfork attack, Ngata began to acquire solid reps, acquiring the most carries out of any Sun Devil back on the night with 11 attempts from scrimmage. With eight minutes left on the clock in the fourth, Ngata caught an edge on an outside zone run to the left, picking up crucial blocks from graduate student left tackle Kellen Diesch and Hatch to stroll in for six.

“I thought our running backs dis a really good job,” offensive coordinator Zak Hill said. “They run hard, they’re very active, they do a good job in the run game, and they’re talented. It was good to see Daniyel getting in there a little bit.”

“Hatch does a great job. He’s a warrior. I love that kid… He works his butt off and is a true grinder.”

Dual-threat junior gunslinger Jayden Daniels got in on the running party as well, rushing for 40 yards on six attempts for an average of 6.7 carry average. Daniels’ longest gain came on the first play of ASU’s final drive of the first quarter, a 21-yard gain before sliding out of bounds near midfield. In the third quarter, Daniels made three straight rushing attempts from scrimmage for a total gain of 26 yards across three plays. The star Sun Devil quarterback went down shortly after this and went to the locker room to be treated for cramps.

If you ask Edwards, though, he’ll tell you why Daniels cramped.

“He cramped up,” Edwards said. “I said, ‘That’s what you get for trying to run!’ You said you wanted to run. He’ll be fine, but he played well tonight. He did some really good things. He threw the ball well and used his legs. I told him he has to get four first downs for me with his legs, and he did that tonight.”

Even Pearsall, the wide receiver from Tempe’s Corona Del Sol High School got in on the action, taking a tricky end-around for a 27-yard score, sneaking past defenders as he tiptoed the sideline towards the endzone.

Much of the running success can be attributed to the gritty excellence and effort of the offensive line, who will tell you time and time again that they love to run block and get down to action in the trenches as opposed to sitting back in pass protection.

“They did what we expected them to do,” White mentioned. “Those five are great guys; they come out here every week and compete.”

“I thought they were physical,” Hill added. “I thought they did a good job. They handled the pressure pretty well and did a good job communicating… They did a good job overall, and they played physical. They were in the game the whole time.”

While Hill and Edwards felt pleased with the performance of the offensive line, penalties were a major issue on Thursday night on all sides of the ball. The offensive line was no exception, as redshirt sophomores LaDarius Henderson and Ben Scott garnered holding calls. Graduate student right guard Henry Hattis racked up a false start penalty.

“We have to look at things from a run blocking standpoint and see if those calls were holds or not,” Hill mentioned. “Obviously, a lot of yards were taken back because of the penalties.”

All in all, Arizona State racked up 222 rushing yards on 40 attempts for an average of 5.6 yards per carry. Trayanum and White tallied 58 and 52 yards on seven and six attempts, respectively, each with a pair of touchdowns. That’s good enough for over eight yards per attempt for both backs.

Thursday night proved that the Sun Devil rushing attack certainly could use some polishing, but once the wrinkles are ironed out across the offensive line and running backs plus Daniels and the occasional wild receiver end around, the sky is truly the limit for this group.

“The (running game) was in a good rhythm,” Daniels reflected. “Our run game is so dominant. I think we still played sloppy on offense (overall). We had a whole bunch of penalties, we executed on some things, but we have to limit the penalties and mistakes… We just have to clean things up, but it’s our first game. We got the win under our belt, so we can just move on to next week.”

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