Arizona State at Mississippi State
After completing over 60% of his passes in Week-1 for 257 yards and 2 TD’s in the air while rushing for two more against Northern Arizona, Mississippi State out of the SEC proved a tougher nut to crack for Sun Devil Sophomore QB Sam Leavitt. Against the Bulldogs Leavitt was just 10-for-22 for less than 100 yards—1 TD to his favorite target Junior WR Jordyn Tyson—and 2 picks. They were more successful on the ground, yardage wise—251 yards on 51 attempts—but it didn’t translate into any more points than the passing game with just 1 rushing TD by Junior RB Kanye Udoh. And neither of those TD’s happened until the third quarter. By then they were down 17-3 with the only points on the board for Arizona State coming with time running out before the half on a 51 yard field goal by Senior Place Kicker Jesus Gomez.
The Sun Devils were better after the break, holding the Bulldogs scoreless in the 3rd Qtr. while closing the gap to 17-10 on that one rushing TD by Udoh. After a Mississippi State penalty and two incompletions which forced a turnover on downs on their next possession, Arizona State started off the fourth quarter with a Sam Leavitt-to-Jordyn Tyson TD at the end of a 9 play 49 yard drive and tying the game up at 17 each. After forcing the Bulldogs to punt on their next possession the Sun Devils actually took a 20-17 lead at the end of a long nine minute, 17 play, 95 yard drive with over half the fourth quarter left to play. The Bulldogs would come right back in just a little over a minute to retake the lead, 24-to-20, on a 58 yard TD pass by Senior QB Blake Sharpen to WR Brenen Thompson with just over a minute left to play. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, on their first play from scrimmage after the kickoff Leavitt would get picked off—game over.
For Arizona State, Leavitt completed less than 50% of his passes for 82 yards, 1 TD, and 2 interceptions. On the ground Junior RB’s Raleek Brown and Kanye Udoh combined for 215 of the team’s 251 yards on 41 attempts with Udoh picking up the sole rushing TD. For Mississippi State, Senior QB Blake Sharpen connected on 19-of-33 for 279 yards, 3 TD’s—two to Senior WR Brenen Thomson and one to Junior WR Anthony Evans III while collectively the recipients of 15 passes for 241 of the team’s 279 yard total. On the ground—not much—30 attempts for just 66 yards without ever hitting paydirt. Arizona State heads back home this week to host Texas State from the Sun Belt Conference in their last non-conference game before starting Big-12 competition on the road against Baylor.
Cal Poly at Utah
I don’t know why but I get the impression that Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham was personally embarrassed about their season last year and is intent on that never happening again—at least not on his watch. So far they’re putting up 53 points and only allowing 9.5 after blowing out the Cal Poly Mustangs of the Big Sky Conference this past Saturday 63-9. They have another warmup this coming Saturday on the road at Wyoming where I expect more of the same before we find out what they’re really about in their Big-12 Conference home opener against currently No. 21 Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are a team that according to Nathan Giese of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal; “ . . . has loaded up on talent from the transfer portal thanks to the Matador Club wheeling and dealing in the name, image and likeness (NIL) department.” Many have picked them to win the Big-12 and make it into the college football playoff. I’m sure Whittingham can hardly wait.
In the mean time there was this blowout against Cal Poly. Utah took the ball to start the game and was up 7-0 less than 2 minutes later on a 52 yard TD pass by Junior QB Devon Dampier to Sophomore RB Wayshawn Parker. After both teams were held to a punt on their next possession, Cal Poly Sophomore QB Ty Dieffenbach would throw up a pass that was picked off by Utah’s Sophomore Safety Jackson Bennee and run 46 yards back to the house to put the Utes up 14-0. The Mustangs would finally get on the board with a field goal to make it 14-3 at the end of one.
The second quarter started like the first with a Utah TD to go up 21-3 at the end of a 12 play 65 yard drive and 4 yard TD pass from Dampier to Senior WR Ryan Davis. After back-to-back three-and-outs Cal Poly put three more points on the board with another field goal. This one from 47 yards out by their Junior Place Kicker Gianluca Dimauro to make it 21-6. Cal Poly’s next possession resulted in another interception—not a pick six–but led to a Utah TD just one play later to make it 28-6. After holding the Mustangs to a three-and-out the Utes would strike again with a TD run after a 6 play 30 yard drive to go up 35-6 at the half. While holding Cal Poly to consecutive three-and-outs to start the second half, Utah would put 21 more points up on the board with back-to-back-to-back TD’s to go up 56-6 at the end of the 3rd Qtr. Each team would score just one more time before the end of the game—a TD for Utah and another field goal for the Mustangs, this one from 51 yards out to finish up the 63-9 blowout.
For Utah, Junior QB Devon Dampier is off to a good start while completing 84% of his passes last week for two TD’s and no interceptions and completing 74% of his passes in this one for 192 yards and 3 TD’s without a pick. Backup Freshman Wildcat QB Byrd Ficklin was 4-for-4 for 53 yards while also rushing five times for 55 yards and 2 TD’s. Collectively they completed 21-of-27 for 245 yards, those 3 TD’s, and no interceptions. On the ground, in addition to the QB’s, Utah rushed six more players for a combined 273 yards on 46 carries and 5 TD’s—two by Ficklin, two more by Senior RB Naquari Rogers and one by Sophomore RB Wayshawn Parker. As the score would suggest Utah dominated the team stats. They had twice as many first downs, 24-12; more than twice total yards of offense, 518-223; had no turnovers, led in time-of-possession and were successful on third down conversions 69% of the time compared to just 23% for Cal Poly. It was Dampier’s first game at Rice-Eccles Stadium after coming through the transfer portal from New Mexico and afterwards he was pretty excited about it saying; “It was awesome. Just being in the stadium. it was as electric as everyone had talked about it.” Should be more of the same next week as they hit the road to take on Wyoming.
Delaware at Colorado
I imagine after Week 1’s disappointing loss Coach Prime had to be feeling a lot better at the end of this one, a 31-7 victory at home against Conference USA’s Delaware Blue Hens. The Buffaloes led from start to finish and held Delaware scoreless in three of the four quarters. After deferring and forcing them to punt on their initial possession Colorado drew first blood on a 9 yard TD run by Senior QB Kaiden Salter at the end of a 12 play 87 yard drive to go up 7-0 with six minutes left to play in the first. Delaware had to turn it back over again on their next possession which led to a 28 yard Utah field goal by their Senior Place Kicker Alejandro Mata early in the second quarter to go up 10-0. Two possessions each, all leading to punts, had Delaware with the ball with 3:27 left before the half. Seven plays and 80 yards later they’d close the gap on a 4 yard TD pass from Junior QB Nick Minicucci to Senior RB Jo Silver to make it 10-7 with three minutes to play in the half. But that was plenty of time for the Buffaloes to take it 75 yards in six plays after the kickoff and get it into the end zone—this time on a 21 yard TD pass by Sophomore QB Ryan Staub to Senior RB Dekalon Taylor to go up 17-7 at break.
Colorado would hold the Blue Hens scoreless in the second half while scoring two more TD’s. One in the 3rd Qtr on a 71 yard TD pass from Staub to Senior WR Sincere Brown and the other in the 4th on a 10 yard TD run by Sophomore RB Micah Welch. Delaware would have ample opportunity to get back in the game but their three fourth quarter possessions amounted to a fumble, an interception, and a missed field goal. For Colorado, who had three different QB’s behind center, they would collectively connect on 22-of-31 for 268 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions. On the ground, Colorado rushed 39 times for 130 yards and two scores as well. The team stats were pretty close with just two more first downs and two more yards of total offense for Colorado over Delaware. But the two turn-overs by Delaware, Colorado’s much better third down conversion percentage to go along with extra time-of-possession made a difference. Coach Prime heads right into Big-12 play this coming weekend as they hit the road to take on Houston.
Weber State at Arizona
Arizona Junior QB Noah Fafita—who I really expected to follow Jedd Fisch to Washington when he took the job after Kalin DeBoer’s departure—had a big day this past Saturday against Weber State of the Big Sky Conference, connecting on 77% of his throws for 373 yards, 5 TD’s and no interceptions. Senior WR Javin Whatley was a big recipient of a lot of that yardage, collecting 5 for 168 yards—a 33.6 yard average—and 2 TD’s. Senior RB Ismail Mahdi, Freshman WR Brandon Phelps, and Sophomore WR Tre Spivey hauled in the other three. Even though both teams are called Wildcats it wasn’t hard to tell them apart. Weber State was the one that was held scoreless through three and put up their only points on a 33 yard field goal late in the 4th Qtr with Arizona already ahead 48-0. Besides the five TD’s, the rest of the points were courtesy of the Wildcat Sophomore Place Kicker, Michael Salgado-Medina, who knocked in two field goals and six extra points. On the ground, the Arizona Wildcats rushed 39 times for 150 yards with Mahdi and Freshman RB Wesley Yarbrough combing for 16 carries for over half of the yards while averaging 5.5 yards per attempt.
Up 24-10 after the 1st Qtr and 34-10 at the half, Weber State’s first two quarters consisted up two punts, an interception, and three more punts. The third quarter was much of the same only worse—a missed field goal, a pick six, a punt, and another interception—all in between Arizona putting another 14 points up on the board to make it 48-0 after three. Except for Weber State’s three points on a field goal at the beginning of the 4th Qtr that would be all the scoring in the game. Arizona had 20 more 1st downs in this one, 31-11; led in passing yards, 406-68; total yards of offense, 556-184; converted half of their third down attempts compared to just 15% for Weber State; had about a five minute edge in time-of-possession and didn’t turn the ball over. Arizona launches into Big-12 conference play this coming weekend as they’ll host yet another team of Wildcats—Kansas State who has defeated North Dakota but lost close games, by just three points each, to both Army and No. 22 Iowa State.