The Big 12 is full of surprises. The league has played out like no one expected it to before the season began. ASU was a part of those surprises, with its upset win over No. 16 Utah last Friday. Now, entering week eight of college football, two of those surprise teams will face off.
The Sun Devils will travel to Cincinnati this weekend to take on the Bearcats with the hope of achieving six wins to become bowl-eligible. The Bearcats and the Sun Devils were picked to finish in the bottom three of the conference, but three weeks into Big 12 play, both teams currently sit in the top half of the conference.
A big reason for the success of the Bearcats has been second-year head coach Scott Satterfield who has led the team to a 4-2 record this season.
Satterfield and head coach Kenny Dillingham had similar beginnings to each of their current coaching tenures, both took over before the 2023 season and went 3-9. Now in their second year, both have found early-season success.
"(Coach Satterfield has) always done a really good job offensively," Dillingham said. "Wide zone team, play action shots, move the pocket, move the quarterback, throw to their tight ends, solo their best wideout up and try to win one-on-one and create angels in the running games."
Offense
The Bearcat offense is averaging just about 460 yards a game which ranks them as a top 25 offense in the country, and is led by second-year offensive coordinator Brad Glenn.
Sophomore quarterback Brendan Sorsby has over 1,700 yards on the season with 13 touchdowns and only three interceptions. It could be a challenge for the Sun Devils' defense to contain him, as he's also led the Bearcats to the 22nd-best passing offense in the country.
"The quarterback is playing arguably as good as any quarterback in our league right now," Dillingham said. "His efficiency is through the roof. He’s locating the ball. He’s big so they can run them in the red zone, they can run him on third down."
Senior Bearcat receiver Xzavier Henderson has 34 receptions, 474 yards and four touchdowns. He ranks seventh in the Big 12 in receptions and ninth in receiving.
Junior tight end Joe Royer is another offensive target. Royer is second on his team in receptions with 28 and has 347 yards on the year. There are a lot of threats for the Sun Devil secondary to look out for.
While the run game may not be as dominant, it’s an influential part of their passing attack. Senior running back Corey Kiner will be the main back for the Bearcats and has just about 500 yards on the year. While not achieving crazy yardage, it sets up the play-action run game that Sorsby has been using all season.
"Running back (Kiner) is pretty good," said redshirt junior defensive back Xavion Alford. "They like to do a lot of things off the run game, play action and stuff like that. So it'll be a good challenge for us. A good way to test what we've been doing going forward and just keep building."
Defense
The Bearcats' first-year defensive coordinator Tyson Veidt will have his hands full on Saturday morning. Veidt's unit hasn't found success early on in the year and ranks 107th in the country.
The Cincinnati defense may run into some problems when they take on the Sun Devils' offense. The Bearcat rushing defense ranks 92nd in the nation, while the ASU rushing attack is top-25. The Cincinnati front seven is led by junior defensive tackle Dontay Corleone, who ranks second best in the Big 12 for interior defensive linemen with a 79.7 grade.
Junior cornerback Jordan Young has produced just 15 tackles so far this season and has four passes defended along with a coverage grade of 81.3 of PFF. The passing defense as a whole, like the run defense, hasn’t found much success so far this year ranking at 98th in the nation.
Even without redshirt freshman starting quarterback Sam Leavitt, ASU still has momentum from their impressive win a week ago, and with a conference that offers so many surprises, anything could happen on Saturday.
"We're still coming out, giving elite effort at practice, and we're playing hard in the games," redshirt junior defensive lineman Clayton Smith said. "We're playing for each other. I honestly feel like if we do that, and do it to the best of our ability, and play the ball that we've been playing all year, we can win this conference."
Edited by Henry Smardo, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
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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.
