Following fifth-seeded Texas’ 38-24 victory over twelve-seed Clemson in the first round of the College football playoffs Saturday, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham and his program’s opponent for its New Year’s Day Peach Bowl clash had now been decided.
Now sitting across the table from the second-year coach in Dillingham is fourth-year Longhorns’ head coach Steve Sarkisian, who’s coached between the collegiate and NFL levels for nearly 25 years. For Sarkisian, achieving this quarterfinal matchup was the baseline of success in 2024, coming into the season placing No.4 in the preseason AP top 25 poll, a sharp contrast from the Sun Devils who following a last-place prediction in the Big 12 media preseason poll, were hardly expected to achieve the heights its already accomplished winning conference title.
The same narratives remain true in the latter stages of the season. Despite being the higher-seeded team, the Sun Devils find themselves a two-touchdown underdog for the January 1st contest in Atlanta.
“I'm excited to see our guys get out there; we're 14-point underdogs, and rightfully so,” Dillingham said. “We're playing a really good football team … one of the bluebloods and competing versus one of the best teams in the country. You turn on the tape, and the way they've recruited, the way they've coached this football team, it's a team that preseason can win a National Championship, last year could have won a National Championship, this year can win a National Championship. All you want is the opportunity to compete versus the best.”
The Longhorns feel well-equipped for the bright lights of the College football playoff. In 2023, they competed in the Sugar Bowl following a 12-1 regular season that culminated in a Big 12 championship title. However, they fell short to Washington in a 37-31 blockbuster showdown.
“Going into last year and not finishing it the way we would have liked and then to get back again this year, I just think, it's a credit to the leadership on our team,” Sarkisian said. “It's been a long season, and having gone to the College Football Playoff a year ago and literally being inches away from playing for a National Championship and knowing what the goals were coming into this season, and to be back in the College Football Playoff, when four of us were in the CFP a year ago but we were the only team that made it back into the College Football Playoff in an expanded version of 12 teams, there's a lot to be proud of.”
Despite entering the game with altering circumstances, both head coaches have dealt with familiar experiences in their current roles. As the Sun Devils have improved leaps and bounds from their 3-9 2023 season, when Sarkisian took over as Texas head coach in 2021, the team was performing far from its current. Providing exponential growth each year, the Longhorns finished under 500 in 2021 before three consecutive winning seasons in four years. A testament to both coaches who’ve proven they can grow programs. With 2024 also posing the same challenge of moving conferences, Sarkisian gave props to ASU for improving and achieving the mountain top of the Big 12 in year one.
“I want to remind everybody, we were in that Big 12 for 27 years, We won four [Big 12 Championships.],” Sarkisian said. “This is their first year in and they won a Big 12 Championship. It's a really hard thing to do. They're playing with a ton of confidence right now. The last two months, I think they're playing as good a football as anybody in the country, and that's a credit to Coach Dillingham and their staff and building their team as they've gotten better and better as the year has gone on, and it's clear as day to see when you watch the tape. This is a heck of a challenge for us.”
Between the lines, a clash in strengths is prominent as well. ASU prides itself offensively on smart football and has limited itself to just eight turnovers all season. By a clear margin, quarterback Sam Leavitt was the least turnover-prone signal caller in the Big 12. Despite being a redshirt freshman and first-year starter, he’s thrown just five interceptions all season.
On the flip side, the Longhorns have perhaps the most impressive defensive resume of any FBS team, ranking second in points allowed per game and third in yards allowed per game. Most notably, however, they place first in turnovers against with 29 takeaways in 2024. For both coaches, winning the turnover battle is vital to their team's success in the Peach Bowl and something they each stressed the importance of ahead of the matchup, as Sarkisian and Dillingham praised each other for a job well done in the takeaways department.
“It really sounds like a boring answer, but they're good. They're coached well,” Dillingham said in regards to Texas’ defense. “When the ball hits their hands, they catch it. Then, the pass rush, like I said, everything starts with impacting the quarterback. When you talk about turnovers, they impact the quarterback enough and they get enough tipped balls to create some bonus turnovers I would call them, which are tipped-ball turnovers. Those are like additional. Yeah, they're just well-coached. They're where they're supposed to be. They're talented. Then those guys play hard, so they're around the football. That's a good combination to create takeaways.
“On the flip side, when you look at it, when you have a runner carry it as much as Cam [Skattebo] carries it and to think as a team, they only have three fumbles on the year, to me that tells me they practice ball security,” Sarkisian said. “You work at not fumbling the ball. You work on stumblebum. You work on two hands on the ball and contact, not switching the ball. The ball is in their outside arm. That's fundamentally right when they carry the ball.
“I think the quarterback makes good decisions. I think he only has five interceptions on the year, so he's making good decisions. They've got a great plan. Obviously with Kenny's background and Marcus Arroyo, those guys are really good football coaches, so they put together good schemes, and you can tell the quarterback is really well-coached up. He makes good decisions. They're not forcing throws. He trusts his guys to go make their plays, but at the end of the day, if you're holding on to the ball and then your quarterback makes good decisions.”
An additional difference between the programs is all the outlining complications that occur with a hectic and inconsistent college football playoff schedule, with the addition of the 12-team playoff format Texas has continued to play football since its opening day game on August 31 against Colorado State, playing 14-17 weeks across the 2024 season. Comparatively, the Sun Devils were firing on all cylinders, playing six straight weeks from November 2 through December 7, winning all six games. However, with over three weeks in between games, the players have allocated time to spend with their families now back in Tempe for the long haul before heading out to Atlanta. In a sport with so much familiarity with program schedules, this drastically differs from Texas’s approach, as the players are taking time off to spend with family on Christmas Day before reporting back to Austin on December 26.
“Part of that is we're in year four, and this is year two, back-to-back years of being in the College Football Playoff. I think we've got people in our organization and players on our team who came here for reasons,” Sarkisian said. “This is part of the reason why they came was to be in these moments. If I can't trust them now, then when can I trust them? There are eight teams left, and we're one of the eight. If I can't trust our guys for a couple of days to go home and drink eggnog with their mom, then when am I going to trust them? They'll be ready to go on the 26th.”
Both head coaches are meeting up in unique phases of their careers, the programs colliding with vastly different preseason expectations and goals. Now, looking toward New Year’s Day, their goals align with one task at hand.
“I think any competitor regardless of what you do, you want a chance to compete versus the very best, and if you don't want to do that, then you're not a competitor. I think that's what our guys are excited for is that opportunity.”
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