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👋 GOOD MORNING
Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 — Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice celebration, however you chose to spend it. What a game Cam Skattebo and the Sun Devils played yesterday at the Peach Bowl. Heartbreaking ending to be clear, but it’s impossible to see what the team did all season and not be appreciative of the journey they have taken The Valley on.
They won the Big 12 in their very first year in the conference, and took a loaded Texas team to double overtime in the College Football Playoff. Despite a litany of adversity (what even is targeting, anyways? Can anyone explain it?), coach Kenny Dillingham’s team remained composed, rallying for 16 points in the fourth quarter to force overtime.
The season was special, and as it tends to be, time will be even kinder to the 2024 Sun Devils. It’s hard to fully appreciate the season we witnessed together with a wound so fresh, but the coming weeks, months, and even years will look back kindly on everything this team accomplished.
Before we go on, I want to give a little love to the Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team, which received a commit from Bryce James, the youngest son of LeBron James. Considered a 3-star recruit, Bryce also received offers from Notre Dame and Ohio State, and will certainly bring added excitement and star power to McKale Center.
On to the show!
Skattebo Solidifies Legacy With Incredible Peach Bowl Performance
Cam Skattebo talked the talk leading up to Wednesday’s Peach Bowl showdown against Texas.
He then walked the walk (and ran, and threw) his way into the history books.
The senior running back generated a firestorm of attention after he declared earlier this week that he was, to paraphrase, unstoppable. National pundits fell all over themselves trying to explain how Skattebo had effectively woken a sleeping Longhorns giant, though at this point the vitriol that followed shouldn’t come as a surprise — the talking heads will take every possible action to protect the cash cow SEC.
None of it mattered. Skattebo proved on Wednesday that he’s one of the greatest running backs in all of college football, and he etched his lore in cement after setting ASU records for single-season rushing yards, single-season rushing touchdowns and single-season total touchdowns.
Oh yeah, he was also named the Peach Bowl’s offensive MVP, despite losing the game. That hasn’t happened in 26 years.
He was a special player on a special team, and Skattebo will go down in Sun Devils lore as one of the best to ever do it.
“No matter what, these guys will be in my life forever,” Skattebo said of Dillingham and Leavitt. “It’s awesome that I was able to play football for, and with, them. I’m happy to be in the position I am, and for [Dillingham] to put me in a role to be successful, and Sam executing to help me be successful.
“Hats off to those guys. I love those guys forever.”
Contagious Energy, Endless Swagger & Boundless Talent
If Skattebo had been on the Titanic, there may never have been a disaster.
He just doesn’t go down.
It doesn’t seem to matter how many defenders the opposition stacks near the line of scrimmage. Iowa State tried to put eight in the box after star receiver Jordyn Tyson was sidelined for the remainder of the season. It didn’t even come close to working — Skattebo ran for 170 yards and two touchdowns on just 16 carries in the Big 12 championship.
But the Peach Bowl? Oh, that was supposed to be different. Not only was Texas’ vaunted defense supposed to have little trouble containing the star, the Longhorns supposedly had added motivation given Skattebo’s comments earlier in the week about being unstoppable.
Texas seemed to contain him early in the game, and when he was stopped on two separate fourth down attempts — one from the two-yard line — Super-Skatt suddenly appeared to be human after all.
It didn’t take long for that to change, and Skattebo essentially threw the team on his back while running for two touchdowns, passing for another, and converting a two-point conversion when the Sun Devils needed it most. The 12.5 point underdogs took the SEC’s mighty Longhorns to double overtime on the back of Skattebo’s 143 rushing yards, 99 receiving yards, and 42 passing yards.
If there were such a thing as a hat trick in football, it would have to look something like that.
“He’s a special player,” Dillingham said. “He’s somebody, I mean, it’s just Cam. It’s exactly what I expected.”
Motivating and Lifting Up His Teammates
It’s easy to talk. After all, trash talk is an art form, and it must be carefully leveraged.
Skattebo has done it to perfection.
The running back’s attitude is contagious, too. As the Sun Devils started to rally, there was a little extra jump in everyone’s step. Quarterback Sam Leavitt confidently stepped up on third-and-forever to scramble for a first down in the first overtime, setting up the then-go-ahead score from — who else? — Skattebo.
Indeed, that swagger is contagious, and Arizona State’s culture is better off for it.
“It’s going to hurt me not to be with him next year,” Leavitt said. “I’m just going to go into this next season and not take anything for granted.”
Credit Dillingham, as well, who is authentic as he is talented. The 34-year-old coach wouldn’t be faulted if he silenced his student athletes heading into the biggest bowl game in school history. But that’s not who Dillingham is, nor is it who Skattebo is. The star running back is unapologetic, but when you can back it up like he does, there’s really nothing to apologize for.
“The kid’s competitive. The kid’s passionate,” Dillingham said. “If that’s a negative, then I don’t know what a positive is, because kids that care, and kids that have passion, and kids that believe, are the exact reason why we had a chance to win this football game.”
Lasting Legacy and What the Future Holds
Skattebo has carved quite a name for himself ahead of the NFL Draft, but top NFL brass still have their reservations in selecting him. He’s been called undersized at 5-foot-11, 215 pounds, and there are questions about his ability to separate himself given a lack of breakaway speed.
When looking at it, the underdog role suits him perfectly. Skattebo is projected anywhere from rounds 2-4, meaning every team will almost assuredly have a chance to draft him. In the end, one team will add a quality player to their roster, and 31 other teams will regret not taking him when they had the chance.
“Now, if the Arizona Cardinals can just draft Cam, so we can keep him home, that would be awesome,” Dillingham said with a smile.
If Skattebo goes to an NFL team outside of Arizona, we’ll consider ourselves lucky that Dillingham recruited him out of Sacramento State. That set a special season in motion, and the rest, as they say, is history.
We’re all grateful we got to witness it.
🧢 TIP OF THE HAT BY BRANDED BILLS
Congrats on an incredible season, ASU. We were lucky to witness it.
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