An ASU off-season that was defined by dramatic developments off the field is finally coming to an end tomorrow with the Sun Devils kicking off the 2021 season at home versus Southern Utah. Here’s our breakdown of this matchup which naturally favors Arizona State, yet still a contest where the hosts do need to show early and encouraging signs in specific team aspects.

Southern Utah Offense

Southern Utah, guided by quarterback Justin Miller, heads to Tempe for its second game of the traditional 2021 season after having played six games across the months of February, March, and April 2021 due to the postponement enacted by the Big Sky Conference last August.

Miller enjoyed an excellent six-game FCS spring season for Southern Utah as he averaged 285.5 passing yards per game with 15 touchdowns and four interceptions. He added one rushing touchdown but was not a threat on the ground, as he ended up with minus-26 net rush yards on the year.

This spring, he opened the year with 288 passing yards and five touchdowns with one interception against Northern Arizona and later threw for 422 yards – the sixth-best single-game total in program history – and three touchdowns with two interceptions against Idaho.

He ended the year with his second game with at least 300 passing yards when he notched 342 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in SUU’s second of two games played against NAU.

Though he had some gaudy passing days during the spring season, one thing about Miller’s role in the SUU offense is that the pass game is not generally used for large chunks of yardage.

In the spring, Miller averaged 7.3 passing yards per attempt, and against San Jose State, he averaged a mere 4.03. As a whole against SJSU, SUU only had one completion for more than 14 yards (26) and only three completions for more than 12 yards.

In game one against SJSU, Miller completed 15-of-29 passes for 117 yards with no passing touchdowns or interceptions.

Miller did, however, show some versatility against San Jose State as he caught an eight-yard pass from wide receiver Judd Crockett for SUU’s lone offensive touchdown of the game.

At running back, David Moore III nabbed the start last week against San Jose State, though he generally split time over the course of the game with Karris Davis and Dayne Christiansen.

Last week, Moore had a team-high 10 carries but only managed 32 yards with a long run of nine yards. Davis was the team leader with 36 net rushing yards on five carries, including a 28-yarder, SUU’s longest offensive play of the day. Christiansen added 21 net yards on six carries. Isaiah Williams had a team-best three catches for 27 yards against San Jose State and had three carries for 17 yards.

During the spring season, Christiansen averaged a nice, above average 6.9 yards per carry in his six games for the 2021 spring season, totaling 240 rushing yards on 35 carries with two touchdowns.

Second-leading rusher from the spring, Jay Green, Jr., is no longer listed on the SUU roster. He had 156 yards in five games with one touchdown.

Mesa Red Mountain alum Lance Lawson returns after leading SUU in receptions (36) last season, though he only totaled 275 yards and failed to catch a touchdown pass. In 2019, Lawson was SUU’s leader in all major receiving categories as he had 78 catches for 735 yards with three touchdowns. Entering his fourth season at Southern Utah, Lawson has 129 career receptions for 1,075 yards and three touchdowns and also has 227 career rushing yards with three scores.

Lawson had 15 yards on two receptions last week against San Jose State.

Brandon Schenks, a graduate of Chandler’s Hamilton High School, brings big-play potential to the Thunderbird offense as he had a team-best six touchdowns and also was the team leader in yards-per-catch average (21.6). In all, he had 324 receiving yards on 15 catches in five games.

Schenks had one catch for 14 yards against SJSU last week.

Not only is Schenks the team’s top deep threat; he’s the only proven one as every other returning player on the roster to have caught at least four passes during the spring season averaged under 11 yards per catch – six of which averaged under 10 yards per reception.

Judd Cockett also returns at wide receiver after catching 14 passes for 131 yards with one touchdown in six games. Cockett also had 15 catches for 168 yards in 12 games in 2019. Cockett is also an accomplished returns specialist, as he earned Honorable Mention All-Big Sky recognition for the 2021 spring season at both kick returner and punt returner.

Frank Harris III started against San Jose State along with Miller and Lawson and had two receptions for 11 yards.

Tight end Philip Brown had a team-high 32 receiving yards on two catches, including the team-long 26-yard reception.

Landen Measom, a Second-Team All-Big Sky honoree for the spring 2021 season who caught 30 passes for a team-high 446 yards with five touchdowns is no longer listed on the SUU roster.

The offensive line featured Canaan Yarro, Noel Unufe, Austin Leausa, Lyle Santos and Braxton Jones as starters against San Jose State.

Jones was the only Southern Utah offensive player to earn First-Team All-Big Sky honors for the spring 2021 season.

Southern Utah Offense Summary

The early returns for the fall 2021 edition of the Thunderbird offense left quite a bit to be desired as SUU managed just 250 yards of total offense on 62 plays. As a team, Southern Utah averaged 3.6 yards per rush attempt and 4.5 yards per pass attempt.

The Thunderbirds are hoping that a pair of Phoenix-area natives will make an impact in the pass game, with Mesa Red Mountain alum Lance Lawson as a short-range target and Chandler Hamilton graduate Brandon Schenks as the team’s top deep threat – though that skill was not on display much against San Jose State.

Against San Jose State, SUU was unable to generate any sort of offensive momentum or explosiveness, as the Thunderbirds managed just two offensive plays of more than 20 yards (28-yard rush, 26-yard pass) and only three total plays of more than 14 yards.

Southern Utah already has proven to lack the ability to eat up significant yardage in the pass game – an element that must widen the eyes of Arizona State’s defensive backs. ASU should be able to eat up its share of coverage sacks and force Miller to check down more than he’d like with a high level of discomfort in the pocket.

Last week illustrated the woes in the pass game as SUU’s team leader in receptions was a running back and its team leader in receiving yards was a tight end.

It wouldn’t come as a shock if SUU approaches Thursday’s game with a go-for-broke mentality and attempts trick plays as it did against SJSU.

Ultimately, ASU should have too much experience and talent to let much get behind them in this matchup, and it would take a combination of sloppy, half-speed execution and mindless lapses that result in numerous defensive breakdowns to allow SUU to generate much offensive momentum.

Southern Utah Defense

Against San Jose State, Southern Utah opened in a 3-3-5 type of look, with Mesa Skyline High School product Aaron Romero, Francis Bemly, and Mykeal White are on the defensive line. During the spring, Bemiy had an excellent showing with 25 total tackles, including 5.5 for loss with 4.0 sacks in just six games.

Bemly had three tackles, including one for loss, but neither of the other two starters entered the stat books.

La’akea Kaho’ohanohano-Davis, SUU’s clear leader in tackles during the spring with 57 including 9.0 for loss with 7.0 sacks in just six games, along with Jayden Clark and Quaid Murray started at linebacker last week. Murray ranked second on the team during the spring with his 37 tackles in six games.

Clark was second on the team last week with six tackles, while Kaho’ohanohano-Davis had five tackles, and Murray had three.

Aubrey Tellems added three tackles off the bench at linebacker.

In the secondary, cornerbacks Kobe Singleton and Alonzo Davis were joined by safeties Akili Gray, AJ Stanley, and Jason Thomas.

Stanley, who ranked third on the team this past spring with 34 total stops, had a game-high seven tackles, while Singleton had three tackles and an 18-yard pick-six for the second of SUU’s two touchdowns on the day. Neither Davis nor Gray recorded any statistics against SJSU.

Reserve cornerback Jake Narayan had three total tackles last Saturday.

Southern Utah Defense Summary

The debut performance for Southern Utah’s defense for the 2021 fall season certainly was less than exquisite, as SUU allowed 410 total passing yards on just 18 completions with five pass plays allowed for more than 38 yards each, including one for 65 yards and one for 70.

San Jose State ran the ball just 23 times but netted 133 yards for a well above average 5.8 yards per carry with two rushing touchdowns.

Southern Utah did not manage a sack and had only two tackles-for-loss on the day and the six touchdowns scored by San Jose State were done by six different players.

Maintaining as much modesty as possible, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which ASU’s run game in every facet doesn’t have a dominating effort against Southern Utah. The output might be somewhat reversed compared to San Jose State, as it shouldn’t come as a major shock if ASU flirts with a 400-yard rushing day and keeps its pass productivity under 200 yards.

Southern Utah Special Teams

As can be expected in a 31-point loss, Southern Utah’s punter, Jake Gerardi, saw his fair share of work against San Jose State, Gerardi had an outstanding day – likely the best individual performance of any Thunderbird last week – as he averaged 47.2 yards on five punts, including a 70-yarder. During the spring season, Gerardi averaged 40.0 yards on 22 punts.

Kicker Carson Reed missed both his field goal attempts (34, 53) against San Jose State.

In the return game, Ethan Bollingbroke is credited with one punt return for no yards, while Judd Cockett had three kickoff returns for 41 total yards. During the spring season, Cockett averaged 24.4 yards on 14 kickoff returns on his way to postseason recognition.

Overall Summary

Southern Utah enters Thursday’s matchup with an 0-1 record, having dropped a 45-14 matchup with San Jose State last Saturday. The Thunderbirds enter the fall on the heels of a 1-5 finish in their six-game FCS spring schedule that ran from Feb. 27 to April 10, 2021.

The first ever matchup between Arizona State and Southern Utah, Thursday’s game is the final piece of a random trivia puzzle as ASU will now have played at least one game against all 13 current FBS and FCS programs out of the other three Four Corners states.

It’s kind of odd, to be honest, that these two programs have never met, as it’s only a little over a seven-hour drive from Tempe to Southern Utah’s home, Cedar City. Southern Utah had its inaugural football in 1963, ASU’s second season as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), so one would have thought they’d have crossed paths at some point. Nope!

The proximity resonates at least a bit in recruiting for Southern Utah, as 10 Arizona natives are listed on the 2021 Thunderbird roster.

In 14 games played from 2002-19 against FCS opponents, ASU is, as expected, undefeated while winning by an average margin of 31.5 points per game. Only twice in that span has an ASU team allowed more than 14 points (21 by Northern Arizona in 2003, 20 by NAU in 2010).

However, for what it’s worth, ASU’s most recent game against an FCS opponent, its 19-7 win over Sacramento State in 2019 was the lowest scoring output and the smallest margin of victory for ASU in that span. That also was the debut game for true freshman starting quarterback Jayden Daniels, so several factors were at play in that game.

In those 14 games, ASU has scored 40 or more points on eight occasions while topping 50 four times and scoring 63 against Northern Arizona in 2012.

The last time an Arizona State football team lost to what is now an FCS opponent was a 13-7 loss to Abilene Christian in 1947. Full disclosure, there were several losses beyond that game into the 1950s and ‘60s against programs that are either now defunct or reside at the Division II or III levels, but no other current FCS losses since that game in 1947.

As is typically the case against an FCS opponent, anything beyond at least a four to five-touchdown margin of victory and a defensive effort that allows well below 20 points will be cause for at least some measure of uproar. By the general feel of things – and understandably so – most fans expect ASU to exceed 50 points with ease and hold Southern Utah to 14 or less.

Given ASU’s experience and very little need – perhaps, outside the wide receiver position – to use this game as the proverbial “tune-up,” the Sun Devils should be able to click from kickoff, especially in the run game and across the entire defense. Even in being as diplomatic and philanthropic as possible, it is virtually impossible to believe SUU will have an answer to Rachaad White and DeaMonte Trayanum – individually, as well as the one-two punch in the Arizona State ground game.

It seems logical to expect that ASU will pound the ground early and often and use that to create advantageous matchups in the pass game. The Sun Devil offense on Thursday may be a “no-frills” type of situation, but that still could result in a large figure on the scoreboard.

ASU should be able to dominate time of possession, especially in the first half, and hopefully, open the opportunity in the final quarter or more for reserves to see action.

Familiar Faces

· Southern Utah CB Bujon Boyd (Queen Creek American Leadership Academy), QB Rand Jensen (Queen Creek American Leadership Academy), WR Lance Lawson (Mesa Red Mountain HS), WR Zach Molina (Mesa Red Mountain HS), DB George Ramirez (Mesa Red Mountain HS), DL Aaron Romero (Mesa Skyline HS), WR Brandon Schenks (Chandler Hamilton HS), OL Kyle Sfarcioc (Peoria Liberty HS), QB Zack Shepherd (Gilbert Williams Field HS) and TE Mata’ava Ta’ase (Mesa Mountain View HS) are all Arizona natives.

· Southern Utah DB Jalen Russell spent a spring with the ASU football program prior to joining Southern Utah for the 2017 season.

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