Happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend.
I’ll get to the Sun Devils football team below, but first, sending thoughts to New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo, who was carted from the field and taken to the hospital yesterday after suffering what looked like a devastating ankle injury. The ASU legend has already won over the hearts of his teammates and Giants fans, and multiple players were visibly shaken as he was exiting.
Early reports indicate the injury was a dislocated ankle that required immediate surgery, though any sort of recovery timeline has not yet been outlined.
Also, news broke last night that Arizona State assistant head coach Charlie Ragle is taking an immediate health-related leave of absence.
On to the show!
Sun Devils’ Title Hopes on Thin Ice After Damaging Loss to Cougars
That one stung.
The ASU football team suffered an extremely damaging loss to Houston on Saturday, falling 24-16 in a game that had Big 12 title — and potentially College Football Playoff — ramifications. The Sun Devils fell to 5-3 and 3-2 in the conference while Houston improved to 7-1 and 4-1, putting it on much stronger footing heading into the season’s stretch run.
That was enough for Houston to emerge as No. 22 in this week’s AP Poll, while Arizona State dropped out for the second time this season.
The Sun Devils are going bowling, no doubt. The quality of that bowl game, though, is entirely dependent on how Arizona State closes out the season.
Sun Devils Still Have Much to Play For Over Next Month
Fans knew a win over Houston would be a tall task without star wideout Jordyn Tyson, and it got even more difficult after quarterback Sam Leavitt left with an injury on two different occasions — leaving backup Jeff Sims to rally the troops.
Sims found Chamon Metayer for a 27-yard strike to pull the Sun Devils to within eight points, but was unable to get anything going on the team’s final drive of the day. ASU ultimately turned it over on downs, allowing the Cougars to run out the clock.
Saturday’s loss made the path to the Big 12 title game extremely difficult, but there’s still plenty to watch for, and play for, over the next five weeks.
- Offense’s Health is Critical
We’re still waiting on more about Leavitt’s injury, though Dillingham said the quarterback unsuccessfully lobbied to get back in the game. More tests are set to be administered, but the Sun Devils’ success for the remainder of the season will hinge heavily on the health of Leavitt, Tyson and the offense as a whole. Arizona State struggled mightily in its only full game without Leavitt this season, a 42-10 loss at Utah, in which Sims was 18-for-38 and no touchdowns.
ASU has a bye following Saturday’s game in Ames, so that will certainly help.
- Upcoming Schedule Isn’t Easy, But it is Winnable
Here’s the Sun Devils’ final four games:
- at Iowa State
- vs. West Virginia
- at Colorado
- vs. Arizona
If we’re really being honest here, the West Virginia and Colorado games should be automatic wins no matter who’s under center, as the Mountaineers and the Buffaloes have just one combined Big 12 win. Iowa State and Arizona are more challenging, but the Cyclones have now dropped three straight while the Wildcats have lost three of four.
Eternal optimist time: Let’s pretend the Sun Devils win their remaining games. 7-2 in the conference is unlikely to earn a spot in the Big 12 Championship given the four teams ahead of them in the standings presently. That said, a 9-3 overall record would assuredly earn a trip to a top-tier bowl game.
- Can the Defense Continue to Keep Them in It?
Lost in the shuffle of this is how well the Sun Devils defense has performed this season, especially against some of the top offenses in both the conference and the league. Remember, this is a team that just upset then-No. 7 Texas Tech by holding a juggernaut offense 21 points below its season average, though the Red Raiders were without their starting quarterback.
Yeah, no one in Tempe feels bad about that.
Short of the route in Salt Lake City, the ASU defense has been solid. For the Sun Devils to have any chance at running the table, that needs to continue.
Not So Sunny: The Suns dropped both games this past weekend by a combined 49 points, falling 129-102 to the Clippers on Friday before losing 133-111 to the Nuggets on Saturday. Phoenix closes out its three-game road trip tonight in Utah (6 pm) before opening up a three-game home stand on Wednesday.
Also, remember, we’re still waiting for Jalen Green’s debut, so don’t hit the panic button!
Riddle Me This: The Arizona men’s basketball team concludes its preseason slate tonight, hosting Embry-Riddle at McKale Center tonight at 7 pm. Who is Embry-Riddle, you asked? Good question. The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Eagles (or ERAU, for short) play in Prescott, and compete in the NAIA. Their basketball team plays its home games at the ERAU Activity Center, and they finished 13-15 last season.
In other news, No. 3 Florida awaits next Monday in Vegas for the regular season opener, so yeah, enjoy this cupcake exhibition!
Final Tune-Up: The Sun Devils had a solid exhibition opponent yesterday, falling 95-88 to Texas A&M in the Preview College Basketball Exhibition. Top junior college recruit Vijay Wallace sustained a lower leg injury and was taken to the hospital, but no further information was available on Wallace’s status at the time of publication.
The Sun Devils now turn their focus to the regular season, which kicks off next Tuesday at Desert Financial Arena against Southern Utah.
Draw Up a Berth: Rising FC drew 0-0 against Pittsburgh on Saturday, securing a spot in the USL postseason as the Western Conference’s fifth seed. Phoenix travels to El Paso to face Locomotive FC, which finished one point ahead of Rising in the Western Conference Table.
Phoenix and El Paso kick off at 6:30 pm on Saturday in the conference quarterfinals, and make sure to keep up with our incredible PHNX Rising team and their coverage!
Good luck in the playoffs, Rising FC!
