Head Coach: Kenny Dillingham is entering his 2nd year with the Sun Devils program with a 3-9 record. It was a rough first year but a huge mess was left behind for him to rebuild. It’s going to take baby steps to get this program where it should be.
Program Outlook: Arizona State has always been labeled as the “sleeping giant” program and there’s good reason for it. They have anything you would need, they’re in a massive growing area just outside of Phoenix in very fertile recruiting territory. It’s a popular college with the largest enrollment in the country, wealthy donors and fans will get invested if they have reason to be. They just need to finally get out of their own way. Todd Graham started to bring this program to relevance but was never someone you could trust and Herm Edwards was a hilarious hire for outsiders to see, but made absolutely zero sense.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: This roster is still a work in progress. They’re bringing in some portal players to help immediately while trying to convince younger players to come in and build something. It’s been tough keeping their stars out of the portal since it’s a rebuild. It looks like they’ll move forward with Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt at QB, in the spring he showed as the best QB and former star recruit Jaden Rashada decided he’d rather be a backup at Georgia than here. They’re hoping Leavitt will at least steady the position it was a mess last season, he was a promising recruit for the Spartans but the new staff brought in their own guy so he came here, if there’s ever an issue they also have the turnover prone Jeff Sims as a backup. RB Cam Skattebo is who this offense operates around he’s a great runner, at one point the QB situation was so bad last year that they gave up on passing and just had Skattebo run wildcat all game. They took some tough hits to the receiver room this offseason as their 2 leading receivers from last season are now playing for other programs, I liked what ability Jordyn Tyson flashed at Colorado in 2022 before he got hurt, maybe he could be a breakout candidate. The only good news about the offensive line is that it really can’t get any worse, it was a struggle from the start and then injuries hit, at one point they were asking 300+ lb students to walk on to help with the field goal unit. They brought in a host of transfers to help. The defense helped a lot more with keeping the Sun Devils in games most notably somehow holding shutting down Michael Penix and that incredible Washington offense on the road, giving up 0 TDs (naturally it was their offense that gave up a touchdown.) Still there were some rough points late in the year. Just about every position on the defense has been bolstered by the portal, there’s some home-grown talent but the Sun Devils have added more of a rotation or better starters at spots. Early on it will probably be the defense leading the way again.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: This isn’t the time to challenge yourselves Arizona State…ugh. They open with Wyoming who is always a tough opponent. The Pokes play good defense and will try to control the clock. Then they play Mississippi State, at least the Bulldogs are trying to figure things out themselves? Texas State is supposed to be really good this year so playing them on the road 5 days later won’t help. The conference schedule is brutal as well they play 7 of the top 9 teams in the preseason Big 12 poll and all of the Top 5 contenders. There’s no clear wins on this schedule and a lot of games where they will be underdogs.
Vegas Projection: Arizona State’s win total is set at 4.5 with the odds geared heavily toward the under. It feels like Vegas is saying they are confident the Sun Devils won’t win 5 games.
2024 Best Case: Arizona State makes progress showing that this could build up to something special. The Sun Devils open the season by handling Wyoming but really capture headlines when they take down a Mississippi State team that is figuring things out. Then the Sun Devils take it a step further battling back and forth with Texas State but upsetting the Bobcats with a late TD. Arizona State takes their lumps the next 2 games before facing Utah, playing in this state has often been a house of horrors for the Utes and that continues here as Arizona State spoils their season with a massive upset win. The Sun Devils reach bowl eligibility by winning 2 of the next 5 and they close out the season strong by pulling a huge win over Arizona in the Territorial Cup. They cap it off with a bowl win and find themselves with a surprise 8 win season with much more ahead.
2024 Worst Case: It might get worse before it gets better, the schedule isn’t forgiving and it’s apparent early on. Arizona State is dominated at the line of scrimmage by Wyoming and they lose by double digits, they don’t recover against Mississippi State or Texas State. It truly doesn’t get any better in conference play either, Arizona State fails to pick up a single win as the season goes on. Yet somehow rock bottom doesn’t hit until the Territorial Cup when the 70-7 score from a few years ago is reversed and Arizona puts that beat down on them. The Wildcats move on to the College Football Playoff while the Sun Devils must figure out how to get things going after a winless season.
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