I imagine Utah’s Kyle Whittingham wasn’t the only head coach that was impressed with Arizona State’s Freshman QB Sam Leavitt this past Saturday. I’m thinking of Jonathan Smith the former Oregon State head coach who now leads the Michigan State Spartans. You see, Sam Leavitt was born in Portland and was the Gatorade and MaxPreps Football Player of the Year for Oregon at West Linn High School. His senior year he threw for 3,184 yards and 36 TD’s while leading West Linn to a 12-1 record and the Oregon 6A state championship. In spite of that he got no offers from Oregon State and left to play his college football for the Spartans. However, the sexual harassment claims and firing of former head coach Mel Tucker combined with conference realignment and Oregon State being left out in the cold created an opportunity for Jonathan Smith to become the new head coach at Michigan State. As soon as Smith took the job Leavitt entered the portal and was picked up by Arizona State. With the Spartans now on a three game losing skid and Smith’s Sophomore QB Aiden Chiles who followed him from Oregon State struggling and throwing almost twice as many interceptions as TD’s so far, I imagine there are most likely some regrets.
With Utah’s great QB Cam Rising finally back from injury it seemed like this would be Utah’s game to lose. After all they were picked at the beginning of the year in the Big-12 Media Poll to finish 1st while the Arizona State Sun Devils were picked to be last. What’s that famous phrase, “the last shall be first and the first last?” I guess in terms of football that means just because folks thought you might lead the pack you’re still going to have to earn it. And as far as this game went, it certainly looked as though the Media Poll had things backwards. With Cam Rising having led his Utes to two consecutive PAC-12 championships I imagine it was out of respect that head coach Kyle Whittingham let him continue to play even though he was clearly not himself, connecting on just a little more than 40+% of his throws for 209 yards and three interceptions to go along with negative 13 yards on the ground. It seemed as though the only offensive weapon in Whittingham’s tool box that seemed to be working at all was Senior RB Micah Bernard who rushed 21 times for 129 of Utah’s 140 yards on the ground and their only TD of the game.
Utah got an early 6-0 lead in the 1st Qtr on back-to-back field goals aided by a hit on Leavitt as he was throwing which led to an interception by Senior Defensive Tackle Junior Tafuna and an extra possession leading to the second field goal. But Arizona State would take a 13-6 lead on back-to-back TD’s after holding Utah to a three-and-out in between. The Utes would throw a pick of their own on their next possession, Rising’s first of three, but the Sun Devils couldn’t capitalize and had to give it back which gave Utah time enough to kick another field goal with less than a minute left in the first half to close within four points at the break, 13-9.
Arizona State had won the toss and deferred, getting the ball first to start the second half but were held to a three-and-out to start the 3rd Qtr. With a golden opportunity to take the lead, four plays later Rising throws his second interception of the game. But his defense had his back and held the Sun Devils to yet another three-and-out which led to the type of drive we have become used to watching from the Utes—a 12 play, 79 yard, clock eating 7 minute crawl up the field leading to a 6 yard Micah Bernard TD run to take the lead back 16-13 with a little over three minutes left in the 3rd Qtr. But no matter what Utah did to keep that advantage and win the game there was no-one stopping Arizona State’s Senior RB Cam Skattebo who would take the lead back for the Sun Devils with a 50 yard TD run on their next possession and then again following a Utah field goal with a 47 yard TD to make it 27-19 with less than three minutes left in the game. On a day in which the Utah faithful thought Cam Rising was going to be the star of this show, it was Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo who rushed 22 times for 158 yards and 2 TD’s that took top billing. Sadly, for Rising, the last play of the game for Utah would result in his third interception of the game. At 4-2 over-all and 1-2 in conference what looked for Utah, before the season started, like they were probably going to be the Big-12 conference champion and earn a trip to the 12-team national playoff is instead going to be more about figuring out an offense going forward and where do we go from here. For Arizona State, they’re 5-1 and it isn’t even Halloween yet—wow!