With under two minutes to go, the Sun Devils needed just 10 yards to seal the game. Cam Skattebo came in and secured ASU history.
On a run play at about the 50-yard line, Skattebo bounced to the outside with quick footwork and ran down the right sideline to secure the ASU victory, capping off a historic night for the senior running back. He ran for 262 yards, the second most in a single game in program history. Only Eno Benjamin has more, with 312 in 2018.
That wasn't the only history made for the Sun Devils. The impressive performance helped ASU defeat the Mississippi State Bulldogs 30-23, which marked the first time the Sun Devils had beaten a Southeastern Conference team. They were 0-5 before the game on Sep. 7.
"I think today was fun," Skattebo said. "That's the most fun I've had in a football game in a long time, until the end. We had our ups and downs there, but that was fun. You can ask these guys up front. Bullying dudes, grown men that are 300 pounds, that's fun to us."
There was plenty of fun for the offensive line as the ASU rushing attack dominated all night with 359 total rushing yards. The offense felt a bit disrespected by the Bulldogs' game plan early.
"They couldn't stop us in that three-down front," Skattebo said. "I felt, honestly, we all felt disrespected with them in a three-down front. You can't come in here and put five guys in the box and expect to stop six."
One of the key parts to make all this work is the trenches, something the Sun Devils won tonight. The offensive and defensive lines have each been a pivotal reason why the Sun Devils are off to a 2-0 start.
"Those guys are playing really good football right now," head coach Kenny Dillingham said.
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Between the first two games of the year, ASU has 600 yards rushing and just 70 given up. "You're going to win a lot of football games if that's your ratio," Dillingham said.
One aspect of the Sun Devils game tonight that the Bulldogs were able to limit was the passing game. Redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt completed 10 of his 20 passes for just 69 yards, but he added 68 yards on the ground with 11 carries and two touchdowns.
Even with not much success in the air, Leavitt's character shined as Skattebo said he "never complained once" about having to hand the ball off. Despite the strong run game, the offense stalled for a period in the second half; something Leavitt put on his shoulders.
"They came out and made a couple of adjustments," Leavitt said. "Brought a couple of pressures and played a couple of new coverages behind it. I got to get the ball to my playmakers and make a couple more protection checks. Just put it on me and get back to work for next week."
Dillingham seemed satisfied with the defensive performance. Impressively, the unit found the end zone again for the second straight week, as sophomore C.J. Fite recovered a fumble for a touchdown. That's now three defensive touchdowns on the year for the ASU defense.
"I want to be an aggressive defense, and I think tonight we showed that," Dillingham said. "I mean in the first half we outscored them... I would love to see how many Jeff Lebby offenses have been held to that net of yards and points in his career because that’s one of the best offensive coaches in college football."
Dillingham has been adamant about taking the season one game at a time; he doesn't want his team to get caught up in the historic numbers, the bright lights and the roaring crowds.
"Celebrate with each other. Be smart. Make good decisions," Dillingham said. "You have till tomorrow when we get back to work right at about two o'clock to celebrate this thing. And then we're going to put it to bed. Move on to Texas State."
Edited by Henry Smardo, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at danielr1102@gmail.com and follow @daniel_rios72 on X.
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Daniel is a senior studying sports journalism. This is his first semester with The State Press. He has also worked at WCSN, OC Riptide, 1550 Sports and AZPreps365.
