With the score tied 7-7 at the end of the 1st Qtr, 14-to-14 at the break and Kansas up by just three points, 17-14, at the end of three, the two teams would combine for more points in the final period than all those points together with Sun Devil QB Sam Leavitt connecting with Jordyn Tyson in the end zone with just 16 seconds left to cap an exciting 21 point 4th Qtr and 35-31 come-from-behind win at home to put Arizona State up 4-1 on the season—a big deal for a team who has only won three games in each of their last two seasons.
For the Sun Devils, Freshman QB Sam Leavitt would connect on 14-of-24 for 157 yards which puts him over the 1,000 yard mark for the season, 4 TD’s to three different receivers, and 1 interception while also rushing 10 times for 77 yards. Sophomore WR Jordyn Tyson would be the recipient of six of those passes for 76 yards and two of the TD’s with Senior WR Xavier Guillory and Junior TE Chamon Metayer catching the other two. On the ground, Senior RB Cam Skattebo tore it up rushing 25 times for 1 TD and 186 of their 313 yard total.
Kansas Junior QB Jalon Daniels would connect on almost 60% of his passes for 260 yards, 2 TD’s, no picks as well as another score on the ground. Senior RB Devin Neal and Junior Daniel Hishaw Jr. would combine for 119 of the team’s 151 yards on the ground with Neal picking up the other TD.
In spite of playing in record heat, the back-and-forth game where the lead changed six times in the second half alone kept the sell-out crowd in place until the end. As the AP wrote in their Recap for ESPN; “The teams battled each other along with some record-setting heat in front of a sellout crowd of 54,639 on Saturday. The temperature at kickoff was 107 degrees, which set the mark for the hottest October game in Tempe dating back to 2000.” After being down 14-0 half-way through the first quarter in their last game in an eventual loss, they kept it together this time and out-battled the Jayhawks in the end to win it. As head coach Kenny Dillingham said afterwards; “Good job by our guys just executing. That was it. We just played the next play. We didn’t get rattled. We just responded.” Leavitt said; “It was just back to what we do. The last game we played wasn’t our brand of football, so we got back to that.” The Sun Devils get to stay home but have to host No. 18 Utah on a short week this coming Friday. If Cam Rising is still out and the Sun Devils can protect their QB I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Arizona State 5-1 this time next week.