One’s perception of a bye week depends on the team that’s getting the week off. When a red-hot team goes into its rest period, some fans get fearful that their mojo goes away without a live game. And then, when you’re referencing a struggling team, though, most people would tell you that rest and recovery are needed to turn a season around.

For Arizona State, needed would be an understatement. Having been battered by injuries and quality opponents, ASU entered its bye week at a 1-5 mark, without a conference win, and is just one of seven Power Five teams that have yet to beat another Power Five school. While nobody would criticize Kenny Dillingham for pointing the finger at the staggering injury total or the challenge of a quality opponent, the first-year head coach isn’t making any excuses.

“We gained some, and we lost some,” Dillingham noted of the injury stockpile at the offensive line. “We were out two other guys today. We got two guys back, and we lost two guys. It is what it is. Adapt and adjust. It’s the situation we’re in. It’s not that kind of year; it’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. So, find a way.”

Well, the Sun Devils have had trouble finding that way with all of their issues in terms of personnel availability. Their hampered roster did take advantage of the bye week, as Dillingham said, but also held back others. One position in particular, the offensive line, has significantly held the Sun Devils back with the amount of injuries there. Dillingham gave an update on the status of the line today in reference to their readiness to play this Saturday:

“Isaia Glass is back,” Dillingham stated. “Bram’s (Walden) gonna be out this week. Joey (Ramos) is going to be questionable this week; he obviously didn’t practice today. Cade Briggs will be questionable. Sione (Finau) will be questionable.”

Regardless of who is going to be taking the field, Dillingham continues to reiterate how these circumstances are inconsequential to anyone outside of the program.

“I keep saying it, and it’s cliché, but nobody cares,” Dillingham noted. “Take the field, we gotta find a way to run the ball better, we gotta find a way to be more explosive.”

Regardless of who will suit up on Saturday, improving the team’s ability to make the big play is of paramount importance for the Sun Devils this week. The Huskies have left utter carnage in their path to their no. 5 ranking in this week’s AP Poll, scoring 44.3 points per game through their six contests this year, ironically good enough for only sixth in the NCAA standings.

How they reach the end zone so often is through the air, as quarterback Michael Penix Jr. has linked up with NFL-level talents at receiver for a national-best 425 passing yards per game, the only FBS squad to eclipse 400 yards through the air to this point in the season. On paper, the task of trying to overcome this caliber of opponent looks daunting, to say the least. However, it’s not a foreign one to the Sun Devils.

Going back to last season, Washington is currently riding a 13-game win streak, tied for the second-longest among FBS teams. The last team to take down the Huskies was none other than Arizona State when then-sophomore quarterback Trenton Bourguet stepped in for an injured starter, Emory Jones, and led the Sun Devils to a 45-38 upset win in Tempe. While plenty has changed at Mountain America Stadium since that game, then-interim head coach Shaun Aguano remembers his first win like it was yesterday.

“It was an exciting time,” Aguano recalled. “Especially for the kids, going through all of that adversity, coming up with some big plays. Just playing hard and playing with each other. I thought they did a good job last year.”

“It was a super fun day, super exciting,” Bourguet reflected. “Coach Aguano getting his first win as a head coach in beating a ranked Washington team that was super explosive offensively, just a great team overall. “I thought it was just a great team win. Special teams, offense, defense, all contributed to the big win.”

While the memories are great for Aguano, he knows reminiscing on last year won’t do the team much good in their 2023 bid to upend Washington, this time trying to do so in Seattle. As the only member of the coaching staff who was carried from the 2022 season, the current Sun Devils’ running backs coach has seen firsthand what it takes to beat Washington, which is a virtually flawless performance on both sides of the ball.

“We’re gonna have to play a nearly perfect game,” Aguano said. “We’re gonna have to control the football, lessen their ability to be on offense. We’re gonna have to make sure that we take care of the football, and then we’re gonna have to make plays in situational moments. Couple stops on fourth-and-1, flip the field a couple of times on special teams, and hopefully make some defensive stops or turn over the ball.”

With a great deal of staff and roster turnover, not many left in the facility were actually there to experience last year’s upset. As the individual at the helm during that contest, Aguano admitted that multiple people have picked his brain on what it will take this time around.

“A lot of the coaches, they’ve seen it on film,” Aguano noted. “They’ve asked a couple of things of what they have done. I think Washington is a little bit better this year just because their firepower is there, with one more year under their belt. Their quarterback is tremendous. Their coaching staff is tremendous. They have asked a couple of things about what we’ve done. But our coaching staff is very bright, and they’ll figure it out on the ways that we went about it. We played a great game last year, but the ball bounced our way a couple of times, too.”

While the scheme and personnel will be vital to ASU’s chances in the Pacific Northwest, their energy and effort will matter just as much. In their initial practices out of the bye week, Dillingham observed a lack of energy, which ASU cannot afford to carry into Seattle against a team that can exploit those kinds of mistakes at an elite level.

“I thought there was a lull there in the middle of practice during 7 on 7 when we just stopped competing,” Dillingham said. “We were just kinda running the plays. Got the guys up, and I said we’re not just gonna run football plays. That doesn’t win. Plays don’t win. The attitude in which you run them wins. So I stopped them, and I thought the last eight plays that set were a pretty good response.”

Speaking of mistakes, ASU, not unlike every other team in college football, has made plenty of them in their six games. However, Dillingham sees those slip-ups as opportunities to get better, especially for the underclassmen who have had to step in for their injured teammates.

“It’s an unbelievable experience for these guys,” DIllingham described. “Every game, they learn something else. They grow, and they learn. They may fail at another thing, but they continue to learn and grow. Two years from now, three years from now, these guys will still be on our roster.”

While USC and Colorado were tall tasks at home, meeting Washington on the road looks to be ASU’s toughest test yet. Not only are the Huskies playing the part of the best team in the Pac-12, but they’ll certainly be out for blood against the last team to take them down. Yet, that doesn’t cause any apprehension among the team.

“We gotta play perfect,” junior running back Cam Skattebo emphasized. “Number five team in the country for a reason. They’re just getting better and better. It’s a tough opponent, really good on offense, really good on defense. We have to be perfect.”

“Anybody’s beatable, any week,” Bourguet said. “Do what you can, control what you can, gotta be confident, can’t go in with your head down. Just know anything’s possible.”

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