The Sun Devils are a win away from bowl eligibility as a road game in Stillwater against Oklahoma State is standing in the way of their sixth win. Senior running back Cam Skattebo experienced the 2023 3-9 campaign, which naturally made him appreciative of the success he and his team are enjoying this year. Although the team has already surpassed its odds makers’ projected win total of 4.5, a projection that was coupled with a last-place prediction by the media's Big 12 preseason poll, Skattebo feels as if the team isn’t solely focused on just bowl eligibility.
“That was the base goal,” Skattebo said of surpassing that projection. “We have bigger things now. A couple of teams lose, and we win out; you never know what could happen. Obviously, we’re happy we’re almost bowl eligible, but we’re looking further past that now.”
Oklahoma State and ASU faced off last year, and the Cowboys walked away with a 27-15 comeback win, a contest where Arizona State relinquished a 15-7 halftime lead. It’s been a game Skattebo has looked forward to all year, as the two teams are now conference opponents. With a high chance of rain on Saturday, Skattebo could also see an increased role.
“It’d be huge," Skattebo remarked. “People have asked what I’ve circled on the schedule the whole year, and this is the one. It’s a good team with a good environment, and to come out with this one 6-2 would be awesome. We should have had this one last year. Now it’s a conference game, and we weren’t as good as we were this year. Hopefully, this year, it’s a different story.”
Sophomore running back Kyson Brown has displayed an immense amount of growth from his freshman year, and Skattebo has a front-row seat to that. Head coach Kenny Dillingham’s announcement today on running back Raleek Brown’s medical redshirt due to a hamstring injury will only aid Kyson’s Brown bid for heavier game day workloads. Skattebo also praised Kyson’s Brown loyalty and buy-in for the team, as he could have easily entered the transfer portal in search of a heightened role. In a deep running back room, Kyson’s Brown has proven that he stays ready for his number is called.
“He’s a completely different player,” Skattebo mentioned. “He’s still sitting there waiting for his time, and we talk every day. His head is screwed on straight, and he’s ready to go whenever his name gets called. I have the utmost respect for that kid. He could have gotten up and left if he wanted to, but he’s sticking to the grind.”
Skattebo took on a heavy workload last year and was expected to have more breaks throughout the game with the Sun Devils' depth at running back. Yet, Skattebo kept around the same workload but listened to his body instead of pushing it past its limits. Skattebo credits many factors to his health and also recognizes the people who help him stay fully healthy.
“Coaches take care of me week in and week out,” Skattebo commented. “It’s just being in the treatment room with ice baths and stretching, making sure I’m keeping my body moving. The worst thing you could do is sit there and let it all build up instead of getting out there and moving around.”
The Cowboys have struggled on defense and are last in the conference in run defense, allowing an average of 251 yards. Conversely, ASU is fourth in the Big 12, averaging 208 rushing yards a game and, on paper, poised to successfully exploit that Oklahoma State weakness. Skattebo feels that although running the ball is ASU's obvious offensive strength, their identity doesn’t change depending on the opponent.
“We just have to keep pushing,” Skattebo noted. “We obviously want to run the ball but we have to be able to throw the ball too. With their defense, we’re going to do what we can and what we do best. We’re not going to try to change anything up for anybody. The best teams in the country are the people who do what they do best no matter who they play.”
With Halloween coming up this Thursday, kids around Tempe have talked about dressing up as Skattebo, emphasizing the “boo” in the pronunciation. For Skattebo, his costumes growing up rarely changed. Growing up in Rio Linda, California, it was common for him and his friends to dress up as themselves.
“I was always myself or my older brother,” Skattebo reminisced. “I just wore my pads and threw my helmet on and walked around. Everybody kind of knew me and knew who I was growing up in a small town, and we all dressed up as football players together.”
Sophomore defensive lineman C.J. Fite and the rest of the line have played a major role in the success of defending the run. Holding the ball carrier to short gains on early downs allows the defense to amp up the pressure on third downs, forcing the quarterback to make less-than-ideal throws at times.
“It’s just doing what our defense does,” Fite stated. “We pride ourselves in how we stop the run on first and second down and have the ability to rush on third down. So we just have to continue to do what we do, work as hard as we can, and just get better each day. You always can get better at something.”
The defense will be faced with the difficult task of stopping senior running back Ollie Gordon II. The 2023 Doak Walker Award winner followed up his campaign of 1,700 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns, posting just 568 yards and eight touchdowns through eight games. He’s eclipsed 100 yards just once this year but is coming off back-to-back games with multiple touchdowns.
“We just have to make sure he doesn’t get downhill,” Fite recognized. “As long as we dominate up front and he has to bounce it outside, we’ll be fine. He doesn’t want to do that because he wants to go straight and be able to get some steam behind him. Really, it’s just us clogging the hole up and dominating up front, so we don’t give him that chance.”
Head coach Kenny Dillingham said previously in both bye weeks the team self-scouted itself. For the defensive line, this bye week was no different. After starting the season hot on defense, teams have rushed for over 120 yards in five straight games against the Sun Devils. Fite and the rest of the line went to work trying to polish their games, focusing on not letting their minds cheat into the backfield.
“The biggest thing was our eyes,” Fite mentioned. “Sometimes we catch ourselves playing the block and looking in the backfield, so our biggest thing was if you defeat the man in front of you, you’ll make the plays. So we had to focus on keeping our eyes on the man in front of us before we tried to make a play.”
This year, the defense has played more as a collective unit compared to last year. As a returner from 2023, Fite has seen both sides of that and how much it has contributed to winning football. Especially on the defensive line, the belief in each other has catapulted their confidence levels through the roof.
“Our biggest thing is doing our job,” Fite said. “You don’t have to do anything special. As long as you do your part, everybody will do their part. That’s why everybody trusts each other around here; they know the person next to them is going to do their job."
Fellow sophomore and cornerback Keith Abney II has progressed magnificently for the secondary. He is coming off back-to-back games where he recorded an interception, a trend he’ll look to continue this weekend. Fite noticed that teams continue to challenge him in one-on-one coverages but invites the challenge based on recent success.
“He has that steady mindset,” Fite commented on Abney. “He does get too low or high; he just works each day and continues to get better. He likes the challenge, so if they want to keep trying him, I’m down for it.”
Abney agrees with Fite’s assessment of the team's chemistry and feels it has turned into wins. He also credits the defensive line for pressuring the quarterback, allowing him to make plays on the ball that have turned into interceptions. The battle in the trenches will be fierce on Saturday, as it has been all season.
“We have a really tight team,” Abney remarked. “It’s good when you actually have real bonds with people on and off the field because then you take the field with real chemistry and play better off each other. It’s a lot easier when the defensive line is getting in the face of the quarterback and forcing bad throws, so shoutout to the defensive linemen.”
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