Houston at No. 24 Arizona State
After losing to Texas Tech 26-24 in Week-8 and to Houston 24-19 this past Saturday, the Sun Devils are more than ready to leave Texas and move on to Iowa State this next Saturday with both teams now at 5-3 and playing for bowl eligibility. The Sun Devils’ first half consisted of three punts, a missed field goal, and a fumble. Houston didn’t do any better in the second quarter after picking up a field goal and a touchdown in the first to go up 10-0 at the break. The Cougars would score a TD on both possessions of the third quarter while holding Arizona State scoreless to go up 24-0 at the end of three. Holding the Cougars scoreless in the final quarter, the Sun Devils tried to catchup but couldn’t on a field goal, a TD and missed 2-point conversion, and a TD with five minutes left in the game to make it 24-10 where it stayed.
Arizona State Sophomore QB Sam Leavitt, who had to fight through four sacks and 10 pass disruptions by Houston, was 18-of-35 for 270 yards, 1 TD to Senior TE Cameron Harpole, and no interceptions while also rushing 6 times for 22 yards. Senior QB Jeff Simms, who came in for Leavitt a while after he hit the ground hard in the first quarter, connected on 6-of-11 for 58 yards and 1 TD to Senior TE Chemon Metayer while also rushing 3 times for 11 yards. On the ground, the Sun Devils led by Junior RB Raleek Brown who picked up 64 yards on 11 attempts rushed collectively for 98 yards on 21 carries.
For Houston, Junior QB Connor Weigman was 17-of-22 for 91 yards, 1 TD to Senior TE Tanner Kozoil and no picks while also leading the team on the ground rushing 21 times for 111 of the team’s 183 yards and both TD’s. The Cougars led in first downs, 22-19; trailed Arizona State in total yards of offense, 426-384; had the ball 14 more minutes, had no turnovers, and were better at converting their third downs than Arizona State who was only successful a third of the time.
Colorado at Utah
This was an easy-to-predict game at Rice-Eccles with Utah favored by 24 points at home and performed even better than that in a 53-7 blowout of Colorado with the Buffaloes only able to score after head coach Kyle Whittingham sat down most of his starters. Colorado’s first quarter consisted of two three-and-outs, a punt after six plays, and an interception leading to a second quarter that was actually worse with four punts and a safety. Meanwhile Utah, other than one punt in each of the first two quarters, scored every time they had the ball. Two TD’s and a field goal in the first quarter and back-to-back-to-back TD’s in the second to go in up 43-0 at the half.
The scoring definitely slowed down in the 3rd quarter, for Utah at least, who only put up three more points on a 45 yard field goal to make it 46-0 after three. The Utes would miss a field goal on their first possession of the 4th Qtr and then be held to a three-and-out on their second followed by Colorado’s only score of the game at the end of a 9 play 59 yard drive and 1 yard TD run into the end zone by Sophomore QB Ryan Staub to make it 46-7. With less than four minutes left the Utes weren’t through with the humiliation and scored using a no huddle offense on back-to-back running plays, the first for 12 yards and the second a 56 yard TD run out of the shotgun by Junior WR Nate Johnson giving us that 53-7 final. As Coach Prime said afterwards; “This is probably the worst beating I’ve ever had except when my momma whooped me as a kid.”
Greatly impeded by Utah’s 7 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, and 4 pass disruptions Utah QB’s Kaidon Salter and Ryan Staub combined for a dismal 13-of-30 for 102 yards, no TD’s, and 1 interception to go with a negative 8 yards on the ground although Staub did find the end zone for the Buffaloes only rushing TD. Colorado rushed a total of 38 times for 38 yards, an average I’m sure we can all handle without a calculator. With Utah’s injured starting QB Devon Dampier out, Freshman QB Byrd Ficklin started in his first college game and was 10-of-22 for 140 yards, 2 TD’s—1 to Junior WR Larry Simmons and the other to Freshman Tight End JJ Buchanan—and no interceptions. Ficklin and Sophomore RB Washawn Parker led the Utes on the ground combining for almost half of the team’s 422 total yards and a TD each with Junior WR Nate Johnson and Senior Naquari Rogers also finding their way into the end zone.
Utah led in first downs, 25-12; rushing yards, 422-38; total yards of offense, 587-140; had no penalties and led in time-of-possession. After losing a close one to No. 15 BYU in Week-8 and falling out of the Top-25 I wouldn’t be surprised to see Utah knock off No. 17 Cincinnati—currently undefeated in conference play—at home this coming Saturday to work their way back in. As far as Colorado goes, with a record of 3-5 the Buffaloes have just four games remaining to become bowl eligible. The next two against Arizona and West Virginia are doable, but they’ll have to gen up a lot more offense in order to beat either Arizona State or Kansas State. I think they really need to make it to a bowl game to keep the momentum at Colorado going.