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Following a potential victory in the first round of the College Football Playoffs against the Clemson Tigers, the No. 3 Texas Longhorns will meet their Big-12 Conference title successor, the No. 12 Arizona State Sun Devils, in the quarterfinals. The teams have not played each other since 2007, as ASU just missed Texas in the Big 12, joining the season that Texas departed.
Arizona State is currently slated as the No. 4 seed and received a bye from the first round after defeating the Iowa State Cyclones 45-19 in the Big 12 Championship game. Entering the matchup, both teams sat at a 10-2 record, with the Sun Devils ranked as No. 15 in the AP Poll and the Cyclones standing just one position below. However, ASU hit the ground running and dominated the scoreboard early, backed by redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt’s 70.6% pass completion percentage and four touchdowns.
The win secured ASU’s first conference title since 1996, shocking the Big 12 as the team was slated to finish last in its first year in the conference. Now, the Sun Devils hope to accomplish a bigger and even more historic task as they begin their journey to the national championship.
34-year-old head coach Kenny Dillingham has made an impressive turnaround in just his second year with the Sun Devils, leading them to their best season in the past decade. His first year ended with a 3–9 overall record and a ninth-place finish in the Pac-12 highlighted by an interchanging quarterback situation that saw three separate athletes take on the starting role at least once.
Bringing in Leavitt, a Michigan State transfer, immediately shifted the momentum, taking an averaging program of 18 points per game in 2023 to nearly double that amount in 2024. The dual-threat quarterback has thrown for 2,663 yards and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for 383 yards and five touchdowns.
Leavitt is not the only team member that possesses dangerous duality. Senior running back Cam Skattebo currently leads the team in total rushing yards and is second in total receiving yards. He has racked up over 1,500 rushing yards and almost 20 touchdowns, averaging six yards per carry and over 130 yards per game. Additionally, he has recorded 506 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 37 catches. Skattebo’s combined offensive yards are a single-season school record for the Sun Devils.
Coming into the playoffs, ASU has just two losses, one to Texas Tech and another to Cincinnati. The Sun Devils dropped their Big 12 opener to the Red Raiders on the road due to self-inflicted wounds despite outplaying them offensively, converting just 35.7% on third downs and no fourth downs.
While ASU has four convincing wins against Wyoming, Oklahoma State, Arizona and Iowa State, the other seven have had a score margin of 10 points or less. This may or may not have been a contributing factor in what recently made ESPN name ASU as the worst team to ever make the College Football Playoff out of 52 total contenders across 11 seasons. ESPN sports writer Bill Connelly specifically wrote that the Sun Devils would be the underdogs from here on out, but it’s all fuel to the fire.
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