It’s tough to lose your conference opener, especially at home. The Sun Devils were never in this game, down 14-0 at the end of the 1st Qtr and 24-6 by the break. They didn’t fare any better the 2nd half, even though Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham was substituting lots of backups, only adding seven more points—loosing 34-13 albeit to a really good Utah team. Never-the-less that puts them down in the PAC-12 Conference Standings basement just above Colorado and Stanford. It was the debut of Interim Head Coach Shaun Aguano who has been put in charge after the firing of Herm Edwards.
Max Weisman, Sport’s Writer for the New York Post, explained the Herm Edwards firing like this: “Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson announced on social media a week ago Sunday that Herm Edwards and Arizona State came to a mutual agreement to part ways. ‘We have made the decision to make a change in the leadership of our football program, effective immediately. By mutual agreement, Coach Edwards and I have determined that he will relinquish duties as our head coach. At the core of this is doing what is best for our current team, staff, and university. I understand the frustrations out there. We must do better and that starts with our decision today.’ Edwards, the former head coach of the Jets from 2001-2005, was hired by Arizona State in 2018. He went 26-20 in his tenure in Tempe, winning the Sun Bowl in 2019. The Sun Devils are [currently] under an NCAA investigation for meeting with recruits during the 2020 recruiting pause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” The investigation has led to numerous resignations from Edward’s old coaching staff, five assistants in all including their Defensive Coordinator Antonio Pierce who, according to ABC News; “[was] named in the dossier of documents forwarded to Arizona State and NCAA officials that detail widespread allegations of recruiting violations in the Arizona State program. Pierce is singled out in the dossier for meeting in-person with two high-profile Arizona State recruits on campus on Feb. 7 and March 27, both of which were during NCAA dead periods.”
Back to the game . . . Arizona State’s weakness on the offensive line was really made evident by Utah’s strong defensive front who recorded 52 tackles, 5 sacks and 8 tackles for loss along with two interceptions and a fumble recovery, with two of those turnovers leading to points on the board for the Utes. The Sun Devil ground game was non-existant, rushing 20 times for 6 yards against 45 carries for 205 yards and 2 TD’s for Utah. Junior QB Emory Jones threw for as many yards as his Utah counterpart Cameron Rising, but he threw one less TD and one more interception than Rising. Utah had 10 more 1st Downs; were ahead in Total Yards, 465-to-267; and had the ball for 11 more minutes than the Sun Devils.
It’s going to take a while to right the ship at Arizona State. Too bad, since Herm Edwards came in and took a program that was upside down and turned it around. Now it’s back to square one. The Sun Devils hit the road to take on USC at the Coliseum. After the close call against Oregon State this one won’t be pretty for Arizona State. Utah gets to head home but they’ll have a much tougher test against the Oregon State Beavers who came as close as you can come to knocking off USC.